Miley Cyrus Stands Up For The LGBT Community

Just when you thought nobody could be worse than Indiana with their passing of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), Arkansas followed right on their heels with the worst case of "same here." Earlier this week, Republican Senator Ted Cotton of Arkansas attempted to defend the RFRA bill — which, if you're not familiar, would essentially allow private businesses to openly discriminate against the LGBT community. In an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN, Cotton tried to make the "it's not that bad" argument for the bill, saying that "In Iran, they hang you for the crime of being gay." Thankfully, however, response to Cotton's backing of the offensive bill has not been positive — not having any of Cotton's hateful speech, Miley Cyrus slammed the Arkansas senator on Twitter Thursday night. And to that, all I have to say is "go girl."

Cyrus first tweeted the news of the outrageous soundbite from Cotton's CNN interview, and then posted the senator's phone number and encouraged her Twitter followers — all 19.4 million of them — to call him and "Stir some sh*t up." Considering the offensive nature of the bill, that is exactly the kind of attitude we should all have.

Cyrus also pointed attention to an issue within the LGBT community that might not be widely-known; she tweeted directly at the senator and said, "Did you know that 40% of homeless youth are LGBT. Breaks my heart."

Cyrus' effort to get her fans and followers to call the senator and express their disgust and outrage at his support of the discriminating bill was real and, apparently, quite effective — as Vanity Fair reported, when they themselves tried to call the senator, his voicemail box was full. That's how you do it! It's especially great because, in her tweet, Cyrus highlighted the importance of expressing why freedom is so important.

Cyrus also spoke up earlier this week against the Indiana religious freedom bill, telling Time that those who support the bill are "dinosaurs that are dying off," and that her generation is "moving forward," especially by prompting change through the use of social media. She even clarified the vague, confusing RFRA bill by posting a picture on her Instagram that clearly identified the law as being openly discriminatory against members of the LGBT community. Additionally, she called RFRA "un-evolved and unjust," which is a succinct and accurate description of the bill in a nutshell.

Many other celebrities expressed their outrage about the bill, with everyone from Cher to Hilary Clinton to Tim Cook speaking out against it. But, as Cyrus so rightly put it herself, young people might not listen to Tim Cook in the way they would listen to her — so when it's especially important that she's trying to make a change and support the cause. Go, go girl!