April 10, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Music superstar Taylor Swift made another overture to the LGBT lobby this week in the form of a six-figure donation to a left-wing organization lobbying to defeat a series of Tennessee bills meant to restore natural marriage and protect the religious and privacy rights of adoption agencies, businesses, and schools from pro-LGBT encroachment.
As LifeSiteNews has previously reported, bills are currently before the legislature that would let religious adoption and foster agencies deny children to same-sex homes; forbid local governments from penalizing businesses for their health insurance, family leave, minimum wage, or anti-discrimination policies; increase punishment for indecent exposure in bathrooms and dressing rooms; require the state to defend schools from lawsuits over their refusal to admit gender-confused boys into girls’ restrooms (and vice versa); and declare any court decision forcing recognition of same-sex “marriage” to be “unauthoritative, void, and of no effect.”
The left-wing Tennessee Equality Project (TEP) has dubbed the set of measures a “Slate of Hate,” organizing more than 100 purported “religious leaders” in condemning them. Swift endorsed their attack in an April 8 letter and $113,000 donation to the organization, the Nashville Tennessean reported.
Addressing TEP executive director Chris Sanders by name, Swift wrote that she was “so inspired by the work you do, specifically in organizing the recent petition of Tennessee faith leaders standing up against the 'Slate of Hate' in our state legislature (…) I'm so grateful that they're giving all people a place to worship.”
“Taylor Swift has been a longtime ally to the LGBTQ community,” Sanders responded. “She sees our struggle in Tennessee and continues to add her voice with so many good people, including religious leaders, who are speaking out for love in the face of fear.”
In fact, none of the disputed laws suggest “hatred” of homosexual or gender-confused Tenneseans.
Supporters of the bill barring discrimination against businesses’ beliefs say it’s meant to ensure political changes at the city and county level don’t lead to retribution against businesses at odds with either party. Pro-family advocates warn that forcing girls to share bathrooms with biological males intrudes on their privacy, needlessly inflicts emotional stress, and puts them at risk of assault. And a variety of social science literature supports religious adoption agencies’ insistence that children are better served by homes with both a mother and a father.
For years, liberals criticized Swift for her relative silence on partisan politics (though she did appear at GLAAD’s 2016 Media Awards). She gave into their demands last year by endorsing Tennessee’s former Democrat Gov. Phil Bredesen in his failed Senate race against GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn, declaring that Blackburn’s socially-conservative views were “not MY Tennessee values.”
Swift votes and claims residency in Tennessee, but it’s unclear how much time she spends there among her eight properties across Tennessee, New York, California, and Rhode Island.