- Tan France told INSIDER that he doesn't agree with the backlash to Taylor Swift's recent support of the LGBTQ community.
- The "Queer Eye" star, who appeared alongside many queer celebrities in Swift's "You Need To Calm Down" music video, said he appreciates that Swift is a "powerful ally."
- "Can we just not accept the fact that — maybe she hasn't spoken up in her career up until this point, but she is now? Let's take our allies where we can take them," he said on Monday.
- "I love our community, and I'm very grateful to be a part of my community," he continued. "However, sometimes I think that we have to accept that if she wasn't saying something about this, we'd moan. Now she is saying something about this, we're moaning."
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Tan France is standing by Taylor Swift, who he calls a "powerful ally," despite the criticism she's received from the LGBTQ community in recent weeks.
"Can we just not accept the fact that — maybe she hasn't spoken up in her career up until this point, but she is now? Let's take our allies where we can take them," the "Queer Eye" star told INSIDER on Monday.
"If we were angry that she denigrated us, and now she's changed her tune, maybe I'd understand. But she never has," he continued. "I love our community, and I'm very grateful to be a part of my community. However, sometimes I think that we have to accept that if she wasn't saying something about this, we'd moan. Now she is saying something about this, we're moaning."
Swift recently enlisted a massive cast of queer celebrities — including France and the other four members of the Fab Five — to star in the colorful, pro-LGBTQ music video for "You Need to Calm Down."
But given that Swift never advocated for gay rights until very recently, some read her newfound activism as opportunistic.
France, however, noted that Swift has taken tangible steps to support the LGBTQ community. The final shot of her music video encourages viewers to sign a petition in support of the Equality Act.
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France also said he doesn't believe that the LGBTQ community should automatically assume that a newfound ally has self-serving motives.
"Many of us within our community took many, many years to get to the point where we come out and we say, 'We're out and proud. We're loud and proud. We are who we are,'" he told INSIDER. "Can't we allow that for our straight counterparts also? Give them time to accept that they want to be able to speak about it openly."
Read more: 30 celebrities who are openly proud about being LGBTQ
"We often say, 'Take your time. Come out when you need to come out,'" France continued. "We understand that everybody's journey is their own journey, yet we don't allow our allies the same respect and time."
France, who spoke with INSIDER to promote the Men's Warehouse Suit Drive, also gave some insight into the secretive and "very peculiar" process of filming a Taylor Swift music video.
"We were told nothing about it other than, 'It's going to be on this day. We're not going to give you a location until that morning,'" he said, referring to himself and his "Queer Eye" co-stars.
Although Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness, Bobby Berk, and Karamo Brown all appeared in a scene together, alongside Swift herself, France shot his cameo separately because he was busy filming his new Netflix show, "Next In Fashion."
"They just gave me a teapot, and they're like, 'Do whatever you want. Just walk across this. Do whatever you want.' [Pouring tea into my mouth] was the first thing I did. They were like, 'Okay, done,'" France revealed.
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