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Taylor Swift Gets Political By Writing a Letter to Sen. Lamar Alexander About LGBTQ+ Rights


A new era of Taylor Swift is upon us—and we’re not just talking about her highly anticipated seventh album, which fans think will be titled Lover. The singer is also showing off a new publicly political side. Criticized by some for not speaking out enough during the 2016 election, Swift has more recently begun using her massive platform to let fans know where she stands on issues that are important to her.

The first signs of this new Swift emerged ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, when she endorsed the Democratic nominees from Tennessee for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. In her Instagram post containing the endorsement, she mentioned her strong belief in LGBTQ+ rights—and now she’s taking that message a step further by posting a letter to Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Republican representing her home state of Tennessee. The letter urges Alexander to support the Equality Act, which would “protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in their workplace, in their homes and in schools.”

“?HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!!!? While we have so much to celebrate, we also have a great distance to go before everyone in this country is truly treated equally. In excellent recent news, the House has passed the Equality Act, which would protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in their places of work, homes, schools, and other public accommodations,” Swift wrote in an Instagram caption for the image of the letter. “The next step is that the bill will go before the Senate. I’ve decided to kick off Pride Month by writing a letter to one of my senators to explain how strongly I feel that the Equality Act should be passed.”

In the letter, Swift first thanked Alexander for co-sponsoring a bill that celebrates the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote before going on to criticize the “Slate of Hate” in Tennessee and warning that discriminatory practices could continue to scare off large companies like Amazon, who won’t want to do business in the state. She also called discrimination against people based on “who they love” or “how they identify” as “un-American and cruel.”

Swift also called out the Trump administration directly. “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 undermine parental and conscience rights.’ No,” she wrote. “One cannot take the position that one supports a community while condemning it in the next breath as going against ‘conscience’ or ‘parental rights.’ That statement implies that there is something wrong with being anything other than heterosexual and cisgender, which is an incredibly harmful message to send to a nation full of healthy and loving families with same-sex, non binary or transgender parents, sons or daughters.”

Along with urging her followers to write letters to their own senators, Swift also created a petition with Change.org for people to express their support of the Equality Act. “While there’s no information yet as to when the Equality Act will go before the Senate for a vote, we do know this: Politicians need votes to stay in office,” she wrote. “Votes come from the people. Pressure from massive amounts of people is a major way to push politicians towards positive change.”

The petition (which you can sign here) is already nearing 50,000 signatures, and fans are expressing their gratitude to Swift for speaking out. “Thank you, Taylor, for speaking up for families like mine, and all other members of the LGBTQ family. Love from Mississippi,” one commenter wrote. Another said, “So proud that someone I’ve admired for so long is taking such a strong stance to protect the rights of LGBTQ individuals. Thank you Taylor and everyone else for fighting for the LGBTQ community!”



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Sen. Lindsey Graham's Racist and Islamophobic Comment About Iran Re-Traumatized Me


If the past month is any indication, it’s that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) just doesn’t get it. He’s supported men who are accused of sexual assault (fighting furiously to move forward the confirmation of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh), waved his subscription to the Old Boys Club in our faces with his contempt for women, and on top of all that, I believe he just proved he is a racist bigot in the most casual of ways.

On Tuesday, Graham made an appearance on Fox & Friends to discuss Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) recent DNA tests proving she has Native American ancestry—an already racially sensitive topic due to the tokenization of indigenous people for political gain. In banter back and forth with the hosts about his plan to also take a DNA test, Graham said it would be “like, terrible” if the results showed he had Iranian heritage.

The senator said these words on live television, encouraging the already conservative audience to go forth with their biases and micro-aggressions against “eye-rain-ians.” While many instances of bias usually need to be decoded, this one was pretty straightforward.

When Graham says being Iranian is, “like, terrible,” it sounds to me like he’s saying he is better because he is white. It’s a loud and clear reminder that no matter how successful and accomplished I—an Iranian-American woman—become, how American I may feel, I am still considered a minority in this country. And now, because my parents are also Iranian, I’m “terrible.”

Not that there is much to be expected from a white South Carolinian man whose comments in the past have highlighted white male anxiety and privilege. (In a speech, he once said that white men in male-only spaces would do great under a Graham presidency.) But it must be said that this insult stands to re-traumatize Iranian-Americans and even those who follow Islam. Graham’s comment was a play on the same Islamophobia the president dabbles in, and in the larger scheme, the kind that demonized anyone from the Middle East after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

For me, that phobia hit home. I remember it very clearly. I went to the same predominantly white, Southern school from kindergarten until I graduated high school—the one Iranian-American Muslim student. With my dark curls and impossible to pronounce name, I never felt I belonged. I got picked on for my thick brows and the homemade lunches my mom lovingly packed. And after 9/11, I was constantly asked if I was a terrorist. I was only 11 years old.

Like most middle schoolers, I just wanted to fit in. I made it a mission to whitewash myself by straightening my hair until it was damaged and dressing in the same preppy clothes my classmates owned. It still wasn’t enough. I remember begging my parents to give me an American name, one that my teachers wouldn’t butcher after awkwardly pausing on the roster. They would answer, “You have the most beautiful name; it means liberty, freedom. You are free.” I didn’t feel free. There was this deeply rooted anxiety I felt every single morning I walked into school. By the end of high school, I was tired of minimizing myself. Realizing I wouldn’t have to see these people who traumatized me for years, I stopped trying to hide who I was, and slowly reconnected with my roots. I eventually made it to New York and pursued my master’s degree in journalism at Columbia. The first line to my admissions essay was from the late travel writer, producer and chef Anthony Bourdain: I am so confused. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Of all the places, of all the countries, all the years of traveling, it’s here in Iran, that I am greeted most warmly by total strangers.

I have been able to stay focused and compartmentalize how I react to news that personally affects me—the Muslim travel ban, controversial Supreme Court nominations, the disregard of climate change, and of course, threats to silence the free press. But it wasn’t until I saw Graham’s comments on my Twitter timeline that something triggered inside me. That same anxious feeling that haunted me in the school halls crept back. I cried as I listened to those words, and I cry as I write this now. In an instant, I felt so belittled and powerless. These are the same comments I heard for years, in the same accent no less, from my classmates. I felt even sadder thinking about all the other Azadehs out there who are hiding from their roots because they’re ostracized for something they can’t control. For being an American that looks different from Graham.

I actually agree with Graham: It would be terrible for someone on his level of ignorant bigotry and racism to be Iranian. But on the bright side, his time is running out. He makes these comments out of ignorance and fear that an intolerant America will not endure. And he’s right. There is a new generation of young voters coming in and an outstanding number of fearless women whose votes next month are going to help right the currently failing course of history this great nation is straying on.

Sen. Graham, I hope someday soon you decide to take a step forward and get to know one of the undoubtedly incredible Iranian-Americans you cross paths with. I hope you realize it’s an honor to come from a rich heritage and become enlightened by our hospitality. Most of all, I hope you realize that any bad leadership you may be referencing in Iran does not speak for us or our values—just as our current administration here doesn’t speak for the majority of great Americans in this country.

You shouldn’t throw stones if you live in a glass house.

Azadeh Valanejad is a writer and video producer at Glamour. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter @azaxdeh.

MORE: Kelly Marie Tran Wrote a Powerful Essay About the Racism She Experienced After Star Wars





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Sen. Heidi Heitkamp Mistakenly Identified Sexual Abuse Survivors in a Campaign Ad


North Dakota Democrat Heidi Heitkamp was already in a tough battle to retain her senate seat in a state that President Donald Trump won by 36 points. And now a mistake by her campaign could be costing her more votes.

Earlier this week, Heitkamp’s campaign published a newspaper ad that was meant to serve as a rebuttal to her Republican opponent Kevin Cramer, but ended up naming sexual assault survivors without their permission or misidentifying them altogether. Cramer has come under fire for his comments about the #MeToo movement in the New York Times. He questioned whether “you’re just supposed to believe somebody because they said it happened.”

“They cannot understand this movement toward victimization,” Cramer said, referencing the women in his life, including his mom, wife and daughters. “They are pioneers of the prairie. These are tough people whose grandparents were tough and great-grandparents were tough.”

The letter was supposed to show Cramer “what prairie tough looks like.” It included signatures from more than 120 women who were supposed to be survivors of “domestic violence, sexual assault, or rape.” But once it went public, some women came forward saying they either weren’t survivors or had never given permission for their information to be used.

The campaign quickly apologized. “We recently discovered that several of the women’s names who were provided to us did not authorize their names to be shared or were not survivors of abuse,” Heitkamp said in a statement. “I deeply regret this mistake and we are in the process of issuing a retraction, personally apologizing to each of the people impacted by this and taking the necessary steps to ensure this never happens again.”

But, that may not be enough. “I don’t know what she [Heitkamp] could do that would make it better,” Lexi Zhorela, a self-identified liberal and one of the women named in the ad, told CNN. “I know that’s why a lot of the people in this situation are reaching out to seek legal counsel because of, you know, what she did is wrong.” She went on to call the mistake “reckless” and said, “You know, the names that didn’t want to be out there are already out there for the world to see. You can’t really retract that, the damage is done.”

And, as of now, Heitkamp has lost her vote, according to CNN.

Heitkamp has been vocal in her support of survivors, including voting “no” on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. She has also spoken out about her own mother’s experience. “I think it’s wonderful that his [Cramer’s] wife has never had an experience, and good for her, and it’s wonderful his mom hasn’t,” she said previously to the Times. “My mom did. And I think it affected my mom her whole life. And it didn’t make her less strong.”

It remains to be seen how this misstep will ultimately affect Heitkamp’s poll numbers, but the issue is almost certain to come up in her first debate with Cramer Thursday night.

MORE: North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp Arm-Wrestles in New Campaign Ad



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North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp Arm Wrestles in New Campaign Ad


A new T.V. spot in one of the country’s hottest Senate races aims to show voters that the guy tough enough to do the job is…the woman already doing it.

In her latest ad, North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp—who’s in a serious fight to hang on to her job in November’s election—makes her pitch while casually arm-wrestling a mountain of a man in a muscle shirt.

“Maybe this is how we should decide elections, because it couldn’t get much more ridiculous,” says the Democratic incumbent in the spot, which her campaign shared with Glamour ahead of its official launch.

[embedded content]

Heidi Heitkamp for Senate ad

Heitkamp puts the verbal smackdown on her real-life opponent during the phony arm-wrestling match, telling viewers Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer wants them “to believe that I’m anti-veteran, pro-taxes, and against prosecuting illegal immigrants who commit crimes. Are you kidding me? That’s about as silly and fake as this T.V. ad,” she says.

“I approve this message because I’ve fought every day for North Dakota—and Kevin, I’m just getting warmed up,” Heitkamp closes before slamming the big guy’s arm down on the table.

“Here in North Dakota, we look each other in the eyes and tell the truth—that’s what I learned growing up in Mantador and that’s what I’ve always done as North Dakota’s senator,” Heitkamp told Glamour in an email via her campaign. “But Congressman Cramer apparently doesn’t share those values. I didn’t think it’d come to arm wrestling, but I’ll always fight tooth and nail for North Dakota.”

Republicans would love to replace Heitkamp with one of their own, giving them a stronger hold on the Senate. But recent polls show Heitkamp losing ground to Cramer in North Dakota, a state where Republican President Donald Trump got a whopping 63 percent of the vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 27 percent in 2016.

The latest Cook Political Report analysis calls the race a toss-up in an election that’s seen as a referendum on not just the GOP, but the president himself. Trump endorsed Cramer—whose campaign includes promises to keep cutting taxes and regulations—months ago.

Just Thursday, Heitkamp, North Dakota’s former attorney general, came out against confirming Trump’s controversial Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, potentially riling voters a month out from the November 6 midterms.

“If this were a political decision for me I certainly would be deciding the other way,” Heitkamp told local T.V. station WDAY of her choice to oppose Kavanaugh in a Senate vote that could come in just days.

“History will judge you, but most importantly you will judge yourself, and that is what I am saying: I can’t get up in the morning and look at the life experience I have had and say ‘yes’ to Judge Kavanaugh,” said Heitkamp, who did vote in favor of confirming Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch.

Cramer, by contrast, has called college professor Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the 1980’s “even more absurd” than the harassment charges Anita Hill made against then-SCOTUS nominee Clarence Thomas.

“These are teenagers who evidently were drunk, according to her own statement,” Cramer was quoted as saying in a radio interview regarding Ford’s claim that Kavanaugh attacked her at a party when they were in high school. “They were drunk. Nothing evidently happened in it all, even by her own accusation. Again, it was supposedly an attempt or something that never went anywhere.”

Kavanaugh has emphatically denied Ford’s allegations.

In a separate T.V. appearance, Cramer also reportedly said even if Ford’s claim’s were true, the judge shouldn’t be out of consideration for a Supreme Court seat just because “he did something really bad 36 years ago.” The congressman did say, however, that he felt Kavanaugh should be disqualified if he lied about the incident under oath, “because that’s what he’s doing today, not 36 years ago.”

Team Heitkamp tells Glamour it’s spending six figures to put the deliberately campy arm-wrestling ad on statewide television and on the web. According to NBC News, the senator is also going to air with another spot that plays up her political independence in the wake of her announcement about opposing Kavanaugh.

Heitkamp’s latest spots joins the reel of ads and viral videos, some light-hearted, some personal and serious, put out by female candidates on both sides of the aisle in a cycle that’s seen a historic number of women nominated for Senate, the House, and governor.

However, she’s not the first woman contender to do battle on air with a male adversary: Sharice Davids, a Democratic lawyer running for Congress in Kansas, put out a clip this spring that showed her in the ring in a nod to her time as a pro MMA fighter.

Celeste Katz is senior political reporter for Glamour. Send news tips, questions, and comments to celeste_katz@condenast.com.

In a pivotal election year, Glamour is keeping track of the historic number of women running (and voting) in the midterm elections. For more on our latest midterm coverage, visit www.glamour.com/midterms.





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Watch Sexual Assault Survivors Confront Sen. Jeff Flake After He Confirms Kavanaugh Vote


Sexual assault survivors confronted Senator Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and shared their experiences of abuse on Capitol Hill Friday morning, just moments after he announced his plans to back Judge Brett Kavanaugh in Friday’s Senate Judiciary Committee vote.

The Committee’s vote to move Kavanaugh’s nomination forward was scheduled less than 24 hours after the country heard tense and emotional testimony from both Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused him of sexual assaulting her in 1982. While Flake, a key Republican swing vote, had indicated that he was undecided about Kavanaugh, he released a statement sharing his intentions to bring the embattled nominee closer to the Supreme Court. A short time later, a group of protesters followed Flake to an elevator and let him know what message he was sending to women and to survivors of assault.

“I was sexually assaulted and nobody believed me,” one woman told him through tears. “I didn’t tell anyone, and you’re telling all women that they don’t matter, that they should just stay quiet because if they tell you what happened to them, you’re going to ignore them. That’s what happened to me, and that’s what you’re telling all women in America, that they don’t matter, that they just keep it to themselves.”

Flake remained silent during the exchange, looking down at the ground. The woman continued, urging him, “Don’t look away from me. You’re telling me that my assault doesn’t matter… That’s what you’re telling me when you vote for him.”

“Senator Flake, do you think that Brett Kavanaugh is telling the truth?,” another woman asked.

Eventually, a reporter asks Flake if he wants to respond to the protesters’ concerns. Flake says simple, “No, I need to go to the hearing. I just issued a statement, I’ll be saying more as well.”

In his statement, Flake said that he hadn’t seen enough evidence that corroborated Ford’s story.

“Yesterday, we heard compelling testimony from Dr. Ford, as well as a persuasive response from Judge Kavanaugh. I wish that I could express the confidence that some of my colleagues have conveyed about what either did or did not happen in the early 1980s, but I left the hearing yesterday with as much doubt as certainty,” he said.

His vote is expected to round out support in the Judiciary Committee. After Friday’s vote, Kavanaugh’s nomination will continue to move through a full Senate vote. Republican leaders have said they will push to confirm Kavanaugh by early next week.

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