MTV
Earlier this week at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, Taylor Swift won the award for Video of the Year for her Lover single “You Need To Calm Down.” The “You Need To Calm Down” video is notable for the fact that it includes a large number of prominent LGBTQIA+ celebrities, including Ellen DeGeneres, Hayley Kiyoko, various queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race, Billy Porter and more, and features an appeal for viewers to sign a petition supporting the Equality Act, a proposed bill supporting the rights of LGBTQIA+ people, at the end.
During her acceptance speech for the Video of the Year award, Swift openly called-out the White House, noting that the some 500,000 person-strong petition had garnered five times the amount of signatures needed to warrant an official response from the White House. As Pitchfork points out, the White House has now responded to Swift’s call for an acknowledgement of the petition with a statement first given to the Washington Blade in May.
"The Trump administration absolutely opposes discrimination of any kind and supports the equal treatment of all,” White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere told CNN, “However, the House-passed bill in its current form is filled with poison pills that threaten to undermine parental and conscience rights.” Watch Swift’s acceptance of the Video of the Year award below.
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