The White House has responded to Taylor Swift after the singer called out the Trump administration during Monday’s MTV Video Music Awards.
While accepting the award for Video of the Year at the VMAs Monday night, Taylor used her speech to promote the Equality Act. The 29-year-old singer launched a petition earlier this summer to urge Senate to vote on the act.
“We deserve equal rights under the law. I want to thank everyone who signed that petition because it has half a million signatures, which is five times the amount it would need to warrant a response from the White House,” Taylor said while pretending to check her watch.
While the Obama administration would respond to all petitions that reached 100,000 signatures, the Trump administration has not continued the practice.
Now, White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere is responding to Taylor using the same statement they released about the Equality Act back in May.
“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 in a statement.
Swift took home a Moon Person for the show’s top award, video of the year, for her pro-LBGTQ anthem, “You Need to Calm Down.” During her acceptance speech, she reminded viewers “this is a fan-voted award.” “So you voting for this video means that you want a world where we’re all treated equally under the law, regardless of who we love, regardless of how we identify,” she said.