Swift’s New Song That Celebrates LGBTQ Pride

For much of her career, Taylor Swift was mostly apolitical. But the few times she has spoken out resulted in a spike in voter registration among young people. This seemed to encourage Swift to become more outspoken, and her new single, “You Need To Calm Down,” is an explicitly political song aimed at the anti-gay-rights lobby.

In “You Need To Calm Down,” Swift sings, “You are somebody that we don’t know / But you’re comin’ at my friends like a missile/ Why are you mad when you could be GLAAD? / Sunshine on the street at the parade / But you would rather be in the dark ages / Makin’ that sign must’ve taken all night. You just need to take several seats and then try to restore the peace / And control your urges to scream about all the people you hate / ‘Cause shade never made anybody less gay.”

GLAAD is an LGBT advocacy organization. The reference leaves little doubt about who the lyrics are aimed at–homophobes and others who “need to calm down” and stop being so negative, as Swift herself told Beats 1.

“I’ve observed a lot of different people in our society who put so much energy and effort into negativity and it made me feel like, ‘you need to just calm down,” Swift is quoted as saying by Beats 1, which tweeted the quote along with a video of Swift.

GLAAD itself issued a jubilant retweet of Swift’s new song, writing, “omg she really did that.”