White House Hits Back at Taylor Swift's 'Equality Act' Plea: It's 'Filled with Poison Pills'

By Joe Saunders August 27, 2019 at 2:56pm

Maybe someone can tell Taylor Swift to calm down.

News about the singer’s over-the-top performance at Monday’s MTV Video Music Awards — including her endorsement of the so-called Equality Act for sexual minorities — got some attention at the White House on Tuesday afternoon.

But it wasn’t exactly welcoming.

After winning the best video award for her hit “You Need to Calm Down” — which features, among other things, Swift and her friends standing up to a cartoonish, anti-gay crowd — the entertainer made a public push for the bill’s passage.

In response to a question about Swift’s performance, according to CNN, White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere simply reiterated the Trump administration’s already-public opposition to the bill.

No one supports discrimination against Americans, Deere said, but the bill is not the answer.

“The Trump administration absolutely opposes discrimination of any kind and supports the equal treatment of all; however, the House-passed bill in its current form is filled with poison pills that threaten to undermine parental and conscience rights,” Deere said.

Check out the CNN report here:

? | The White House responds to Taylor Swift’s #EqualityAct petition after she called them out at the #VMAs [@CNN]

“…the House-passed bill in its current form is filled with poison pills that threaten to undermine parental and conscience rights.”pic.twitter.com/drAsLCbM95

— Taylor Swift News (@TSwiftNZ) August 27, 2019

The Equality Act passed in the House in May.

For liberal news outlets like CNN, the endorsement of a big name in entertainment like Swift added a buzz to the bill, but there are reasons to oppose it that go beyond feel-good speeches at MTV awards ceremonies.

As an essay published by the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal in May detailed, the act would intrude on American lives in ways not even many of its supporters likely understand — from school classrooms to child custody cases; charities to businesses.

Should pop singers stay out of politics?

A bill called the “Equality Act” is sort of the perfect vehicle for a starlet like Swift — it sounds as pleasing to the ear as one of her saccharine songs.

But unlike a Taylor Swift song, a law has real-world consequences that go beyond sweet-sounding buzzwords.

The White House statement reiterated sober opposition to the bill rooted in the kind of reasons listed in the Heritage essay — freedom of religion, freedom of thought, freedom of association. These are basic ideas Americans take for granted and shouldn’t be gulled into giving up.

And this is true no matter what kind of tantrum Taylor Swift might throw.

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Tags:

Culture, Gay rights, Just In, LGBT, Politics, Taylor Swift, Trump administration, White House

Joe Saunders

Story Editor

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Joe has spent more than 30 years as a reporter, copy editor and metro desk editor in newsrooms in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida. He's been with Liftable Media since 2015.

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Joe has spent more than 30 years as a reporter, copy editor and metro editor in newsrooms in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida. He's been with Liftable Media since 2015. Largely a product of Catholic schools, who discovered Ayn Rand in college, Joe is a lifelong newspaperman who learned enough about the trade to be skeptical of every word ever written. He was also lucky enough to have a job that didn't need a printing press to do it.

Birthplace

Philadelphia

Nationality

American