“The Stonewall Inn has been such a symbol of rebellion in the face of oppression, and such a safe place for people,” Taylor Swift said on Friday (June 26), addressing a virtual audience during Stonewall Day. The celeb-stacked Pride Live event honored the legacy of the six-day riots that took place at the New York gay bar in 1969, which launched the gay liberation movement — and today, Pride Month.
In recent weeks, Swift has been especially vocal about her support of the LGBTQ+ community, as well as those taking to the streets to demand justice for Black lives in the wake of the police killings of unarmed Black citizens George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and many more. In her candid, nearly two-minute-long speech, she reiterated her excitement about the Supreme Court’s June 15 ruling that protects LGBTQ+ employees from workplace discrimination, while recognizing there is still a long way to go until true equality can be achieved.
“We had a really good step forward recently with the Supreme Court based on discrimination,” she said, before voicing her support for the Equality Act, an amendment to civil rights law that would provide blanket protections for LGBTQ+ people against discrimination in employment, housing, and more. “The Equality Act has still not been passed, and that needs to happen.”
“I got my census the other day, and there were two choices for gender,” the singer continued. “There was male and female. And that erasure was so upsetting to me, the erasure of transgender and nonbinary people. And when you don’t collect information on a group of people, that means that you have every excuse in the world not to support them.”
Swift finished with a call to action, urging her audience to “continue fighting the good fight” by getting to the polls. “Obviously we all need to exercise our right to vote this year, we need to check out our absentee ballot policy in our states, and we need to make sure we elect people who care about all communities.” The broadcast also included speakers such as Katy Perry, who used her platform to bring attention to the killings of Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade, and former United States president Barack Obama.
Check out Swift’s full speech above, and find out more about Stonewall Day — a fundraiser for LGBTQ+ advocacy groups — and how to contribute right here. Stream the entire show via Logo’s YouTube and Facebook pages.
