Taylor Swift reveals how 'shocking' conversation with Todrick Hall made her become a more vocal LGBTQ+ ally

Taylor Swift has shared how a “devastating” conversation with her friend Todrick Hall led to her campaigning for LGBTQ+ rights.

The popstar, 29, released her second single, a pro LGBTQ+ anthem called “You Need to Calm Down”, from her upcoming album Lover in June.

The video for the song – which stars singer Hall, 34, and several other LGBTQ+ celebrities - included a link to a petition urging the US Senate to support the Equality Act.

She has since publicly endorsed American politicians who support LGBTQ+ rights and written an open letter to Tennessee Senator, Lamar Alexander, urging him to support the bill.

Swift also recently performed a set in a rainbow outfit iHeart Radio's Wango Tango concert in Los Angeles and played at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York city.

Discussing her conversation with Hall, she told Vogue: “Maybe a year or two ago, Todrick and I are in the car, and he asked me, ‘What would you do if your son was gay?’.

“The fact that he had to ask me . . . shocked me and made me realise that I had not made my position clear enough or loud enough,” she says. “‘If my son was gay, he’d be gay. I don’t understand the question.’”

“If he was thinking that, I can’t imagine what my fans in the LGBTQ community might be thinking. It was kind of devastating to realise that I hadn’t been publicly clear about that.”

In October, prior to the midterm elections, Swift urged her 112 million Instagram followers to vote.

It led to a spike in registrations – with Kamari Guthrie, director of communications for Vote.org, telling Buzzfeed: “We are up to 65,000 registrations in a single 24-hour period since T. Swift's post.”

Swift has previously been criticised for “homophobic” lyrics in her 2006 song, Picture to Burn, which included the lyrics “So go ahead and tell your friends that I’m obsessive and crazy, that’s fine! I’ll tell mine you’re gay.”

When asked why she decided to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights now, she said: “Rights are being stripped from basically everyone who isn’t a straight white cisgender male. I didn’t realise until recently that I could advocate for a community that I’m not a part of. “

Swift is the cover star of Vogue's September issue.