In a recent interview, singer Taylor
Swift explained why she decided to become vocal about LGBT rights.
Speaking with Vogue, Swift said
that a conversation with out choreographer and RuPaul's Drag Race
judge Todrick Hall changed her thinking on keeping out of politics.
“Maybe a year or two ago, Todrick and
I are in the car, and he asked me, What would you do if your son was
gay? The fact that he had to ask me shocked me and made me realize
that I had not made my position clear enough or loud enough. If my
son was gay, he’d be gay. I don’t understand the question,”
Swift
said.
“Rights are being stripped from
basically everyone who isn’t a straight white cisgender male.”
“I didn’t realize until recently
that I could advocate for a community that I’m not a part of. It’s
hard to know how to do that without being so fearful of making a
mistake that you just freeze. Because my mistakes are very loud. When
I make a mistake, it echoes through the canyons of the world. It’s
clickbait, and it’s a part of my life story, and it’s a part of
my career arc,” she said.
Earlier this year, Swift
donated $113,000 to the Tennessee Equality Project, an LGBT
rights group. She also created a
Change.org petition calling for passage of the Equality Act, a
federal LGBT protections bill. The video for her single You Need
To Calm Down ends with a call for fans to sign her petition.
(Related: Billy
Eichner praises Taylor Swift's LGBT activism: We need all the allies
we can get.)