In real life, there’s Westboro Baptist Church, and there are Christian bakers. There are “gays go to hell” sign-wavers, and there are Catholic adoption agencies.
There are homophobic bigots, and there are people whose privately held religious beliefs about marriage and sexuality neither imply bigotry nor infringe on anyone else’s rights.
In Taylor Swift’s latest music video, she paints all these groups as one and the same.
The pop star released “You Need To Calm Down” to much fanfare to celebrate Pride Month. And her generic anti-bullying message is positive — be nice to people on the internet. Don’t shout at gay people as if your anger will change their orientation.
But Swift’s new single isn’t just an “anti-hate anthem.” It’s a politically loaded message.
At the end of its music video, which ridiculously paints homophobes as all flannel-wearing, buck-toothed hicks, Swift reveals what her song is really all about.
“Let’s show our pride by demanding that, on a national level, our laws truly treat all of our citizens equally,” a screen reads. “Please sign my petition for Senate support of the Equality Act on Change.org.”
The rejection of bullying and bigotry is by no means the same as support for the Equality Act. As my colleague Brad Polumbo wrote for USA Today, the Equality Act is not what it seems.
The legislation, which has passed the House but not the Senate, would undermine the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a law passed in 1993 that lets religious employers appeal accusations of discrimination.
“This helped ensure that reasonable invocations of religious freedom are permitted, such as a private, Catholic school only wanting to hire teachers who live in accordance with biblical values, but blatant discrimination, such as a grocery store randomly firing someone for being gay, is not,” he wrote.
“Yet in any of these situations, the so-called Equality Act would mandate that an LGBT person’s claim wins by default — therefore not ensuring equality but elevating their rights over those of religious Americans.”
The Equality Act will not, as advertised, simply ensure that the LGBT community isn’t discriminated against. It will force people to act against their religious beliefs and, in the case of its gender identity clause, to misunderstand actual biology.
Many gay conservatives oppose the bill, which they see not as a protection but as an infringement of religious freedom. Gregory T. Angelo, the former leader of the Log Cabin Republicans, said the act would have negative consequences.
“I’m not against equality,” he told the Washington Examiner. “I’m against the Equality Act.”
With “You Need To Calm Down,” Swift does her gay fans no favors. The song strips the issue of all nuance and ignores the important difference between expressing bigotry and acting on religious beliefs. It will get the backs up of many people who support an end of bullying and intolerance, but who will by no means accept threats against their own constitutional rights. When it comes to the Equality Act, Swift is the one who needs to calm down.
