Arts & Entertainment
Watch: Taylor Swift’s new music video celebrates LGBTQ pride
Local drag queens Tatianna and Riley Knoxx land cameos
Katy Perry and Taylor Swift in ‘You Need to Calm Down’ music video. (Screenshot via YouTube)
Taylor Swift released the music video for her new single “You Need to Calm Down” which features plenty of LGBTQ pride and a slew of celebrities.
Ellen DeGeneres, Adam Rippon, Todrick Hall, Billy Porter, Hannah Hart, Dexter Mayfield , Chester Lockhart, Laverne Cox, Adam Lambert, Ciara, Ryan Reynolds, Hayley Kiyoko, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and his husband Justin Mikita and the cast of Netflix’s “Queer Eye” — Antoni Porowski, Bobby Berk, Jonathan Van Ness, Karamo Brown and Tan France, all make cameo appearances in the video.
In one scene, RuPaul walks by a line of drag queens holding up a crown.
“And we see you over there on the internet. Comparing all the girls who are killing it
But we figured you out. We all know now we all got crowns. You need to calm down,” Swift sings.
The queens are all impersonating popular female singers and rappers. They include local queens Tatianna as Ariana Grande and Riley Knoxx as Beyoncé. Trinity The Tuck appears as Lady Gaga, Delta Work as Adele, Trinity K Bonet as Cardi B, Jade Jolie as Taylor Swift, Adore Delano as Katy Perry and A’keria C Davenport as Nicki Minaj.
All of the drag queens start fighting and Swift, dressed as french fries, finds Katy Perry, dressed as a hamburger, in the crowd. The two pop stars embrace with a hug symbolically calling an end to their famous feud.
At the end of the video, Swift urges fans to sign a petition for Senate support of the Equality Act.
Swift has been showing her support for the LGBTQ community all month. At the start of June, Swift wrote an open later to Sen. Lamar Alexander from her home state of Tennessee to support the Equality Act. She also gave a surprise performance at Stonewall Inn along with Ferguson.
Since the release of “You Need to Calm Down, which name drops LGBT media watchdog organization GLAAD, donations to GLAAD have increased. Fans have been showing their support by donating $13 to the organization, a nod to Swift’s favorite number.
Watch below.
Baltimore
This John Waters interview has been edited for readability — but perhaps not human decency
Pope of Trash dishes on Trump, plane etiquette, last meal, and more
By WESLEY CASE | At 80 years old, John Waters is still the ideal dinner guest — incisively sharp, quick-witted and funny as hell.
The chic Baltimore native proved it again and again in a recent Zoom interview, calling from his summer home in Provincetown, Mass.
The occasion was the Blu-ray releases of two of his movies — the 1977 dark comedy “Desperate Living” and his enduring 1988 musical “Hairspray” — on June 23 by the Criterion Collection, which publishes restorations of films it deems culturally important. The Criterion stamp of approval has become the gold standard among cinephiles.
“It’s like getting an award,” said Waters, who wrote and directed both films.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
The Washington Blade held the seventh annual Pride on the Pier at The Wharf DC on Saturday, June 13.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)
The 2026 Lost River Pride Festival was held on the scenic grounds of the Lost River Farmers Market in Lost City, W.Va. on Saturday, June 13. Headliner Tom Goss performed at the festival and gave a second performance at the nearby Guesthouse Lost River.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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