Taylor Swift releases anti-homophobia song ‘You Need To Calm Down’
Taylor Swift performed at New York’s Stonewall Inn
Taylor Swift has released the second single from her forthcoming album Lover, a song called “You Need To Calm Down,” which combats homophobia and celebrates Pride month.
The brand new single, coincidentally released on Donald Trump’s 73rd birthday, name-checks GLAAD.
In the first verse, Swift apparently references her own Twitter mentions, singing, “You are somebody that I don’t know / But you’re takin’ shots at me like it’s Patron / And I’m must like, damn, it’s 7 a.m. / Say it in the street, that’s a knockout / But you say it in a tweet, that’s a cop-out.”
“Why are you mad when you could be GLAAD?” Swift sings in the second verse.
Then, she sings about the anti-LGBT protesters who sometimes show up at Pride parades.
“Sunshine on the street at the parade / But you would rather be in the dark ages / Makin’ that sign must’ve taken all night,” Swift wings.
Later in the song, Swift sings, “You just need to take several seats and then try to restore the peace / And control your urges to scream about all the people you hate / ‘Cause shade never made anybody less gay.”
Taylor Swift criticised Trump this Pride month
On June 1, Swift wrote an open letter to the Republican senator in her home state of Tennessee. In the letter, she urged him to support the Equality Act as it moves to the Senate.
“As you know, the House just passed the Equality Act, which would protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in the workplace, in their homes and in schools,” Swift said.
“For American citizens to be denied jobs or housing based on who they love or how they identify, in my opinion is un-American and cruel.”
Swift also publicly criticised Trump for the first time in the letter.
“I personally reject the President’s stance that his administration ‘supports equal treatment of all,’ but that the Equality Act, ‘in its current form is filled with poison pills that threaten to determine parental and conscience rights’,” Swift said.
“That statement implies that there is something morally wrong with you being anything other than heterosexual or cisgender, which is an incredibly harmful letter to send to a nation full of healthy and loving families with same-sex, non-binary or transgender parents, sons or daughters,” she said.
Swift has also created a petition on change.org asking the Senate to support the Equality Act when it reaches them for consideration.
Her album Lover will be released on August 23.
