Taylor Swift says US census erases transgender and non-binary people

Taylor Swift at the premiere of "Taylor Swift: Miss Americana" in Park City, Utah. Picture: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File

Taylor Swift at the premiere of "Taylor Swift: Miss Americana" in Park City, Utah. Picture: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File

Published Jun 29, 2020

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Award-winning pop star Taylor Swift has accused the US census of erasing transgender and non-binary people.

The 30-year-old star has hit out at the census - which collects data on the US population - for only offering two gender options and disregarding the transgender and non-binary communities.

During a speech for Pride Live, Taylor shared: "I got my census the other day and there were two choices for gender, there was male and female. And that erasure was so upsetting to me, the erasure of transgender and non-binary people.

"And when you don't collect information on a group of people, that means that you have every excuse in the world not to support them. When you don't collect data on a community, that's a really, really brutal way of dismissing them.

"So obviously we all need to exercise our right to vote this year, we need to check out our absentee ballot policy in our states, and we need to make sure that we elect people who care about all communities."

Earlier in her speech, the award-winning musician insisted more needs to be done to support the LGBTQI+ community.

Taylor also voiced her support for the Equality Act, which is designed to stop discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

She said: "We had a really good step forward recently with the Supreme Court ruling based on discrimination based on sex.

"But we still have so far to go in terms of equality and protections for LGBTQ people and people in the trans community. The Equality Act has still not been passed and that needs to happen."

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