Taylor Swift Calls Out Homophobes in New Music Video

Taylor Swift has released the first song off her new album, Lover. In "You Need to Calm Down," the former country starlet spends a verse specifically dissing anti-LGBTQ bigots.

The clearest slam comes in the line "And control your urges to scream about all the people you hate / 'Cause shade never made anybody less gay."

In a lyric video for the single, she also makes another allusion to LGBTQ rights in a separate line.

"Why are you mad? / When you could be GLAAD."

While that sounds like the word "glad" on the radio, the spelling and all caps clearly shows support for the pro-representation organization GLAAD. Originally named the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the group has gone simply by the acronym GLAAD since March 2013.

Much of the song goes after online chauvinism and the tendency for media to pit successful women against one another. Certainly, Swift has found herself at the center of such controversies before. And the single notably drops at the same time as a public conciliation with Katy Perry.

But she directs her lyrical attention beyond personal beefs.

The verse targeting homophobia, which dropped during Pride Month, seems to single out protesters at LGBTQ events.

"Sunshine on the street at the parade / But you would rather be in the dark ages / Making that sign / Must've taken all night."

She also alters the song's frequent refrain of "Can you just not step on my gown" to the trans-inclusive "Can you just not step on his gown."