Taylor Swift calls out White House during VMAs acceptance speech

Taylor Swift is certainly not taking a literal interpretation of her single, "You Need to Calm Down."

Posted 2:49 a.m. Aug 27, 2019 — Updated 1:22 p.m. Aug 27, 2019

Whitney Friedlander

, CNN

CNN — Taylor Swift is certainly not taking a literal interpretation of her single, "You Need to Calm Down."

The singer got political during her 2019 MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech for video of the year, which she won for the pride-themed anthem, to call out the Trump administration's current lack of acknowledgment of the Equality Act petition for LGBTQ rights. A call to sign the petition was featured at the end of her video.

"It now has half a million signatures, which is five times the amount that it would need to warrant a response from the White House," Swift said.

She also suggested that elected officials against this and similar measures should be wary of a sea change because fans voted "You Need to Calm Down" as the category's winner.

"In this video several points were made, so you voting for this video means that you want a world, where we're all treated equally under the law," she said.

Swift wasn't the only performer to get political at this year's VMAs. Rapper French Montana and "GLOW" star Alison Brie took a pro-immigration stance when they presented the award for best Latin music video.

CNN has reached out to the White House for a response to Swift's comments.

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