Taylor Swift photo sparks backlash

Taylor Swift has sparked spirited debate amongst her followers on social media, after a photograph emerged of her posing with conservative businessman Austin Wright.

The pop star was seen spending New Yr’s Eve cheering on her boyfriend, Travis Kelce and his NFL staff, Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, as they defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 25-17 on Sunday in Missouri.

Later that night, Swift and Kelce have been seen ringing in 2024 with a kiss as they attended a celebration. Except for the couple’s romantic moments collectively, they have been additionally seen partying with Kelce’s teammate, Patrick Mahomes, and his spouse, Brittany Mahomes, posing alongside them for a photograph on the soirée.

Photos shared throughout social media additionally confirmed that the couple had posed with quite a few different revelers on the celebratory gathering.

This week, one explicit picture sparked dialogue amongst Swift’s followers. The picture confirmed the singer-songwriter posing alongside Wright, who was additionally as soon as generally known as Austin Fast and ran the since-deleted Instagram account TheBasicCatholic.

Wright, who has co-founded a holding firm with Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, is thought for his devotion to the Roman Catholic religion. In keeping with his firm bio, he spent virtually six years in seminary formation finding out to be a priest.

Nonetheless, detractors have characterised Wright as holding deeply conservative stance that stand at odds with the extra progressive views Swift has publicly shared.

Newsweek has contacted representatives of Swift and Wright by way of electronic mail for remark.

An account on X, previously Twitter, initially shared a publish of Swift posing with Wright on January 1, incorrectly labeling the latter as Kelce. The next day, one other fan recognized who the person in query was, sharing the identical picture of the pair, alongside a hyperlink to Wright’s firm web site.

“Taylor Swift is hanging out with this man—Austin Wright, AKA Austin Fast in line with this data,” the caption learn, alongside a screenshot of a Reddit publish that shared allegations of Wright’s stance on quite a few issues, together with his criticism of Pope Francis’ comparatively progressive views concerning sure social points. In December, the pope drew the ire of Christian conservatives when he approved Catholic Church officers to bless same-sex marriages.

The unimpressed fan added that Swift “actually wants to wash herself w/bleach and put on garlic round her neck. Her large mind has shriveled right into a raisin.”

Whereas the publish attracted feedback from followers expressing disappoint in Swift posing with Wright, quite a few others requested why she needs to be anticipated to know the background of everyone she meets at occasions.

Responding to the unique publish, one fan requested: “I imply… did YOU know who he was earlier than you googled him?”

They continued that “it sucks to see Taylor in a photograph with an terrible dude however like she does not have everlasting LinkedIn X-ray imaginative and prescient, how the hell was she meant to know?”

The fan concluded by saying that “the factor about stanning a celeb is you normally respect them sufficient to provide them the naked minimal good thing about the doubt.”

One X consumer responded by saying that whereas they agree with the purpose being made, their difficulty with Swift is “simply the truth that she’s hanging out with the exact opposite crowd she’s used to, and it is filled with unhealthy folks. This new period is so complicated.”

“She’s not hanging out with unhealthy folks,” one other mentioned of Swift. “Most of Travis’ mates are good & it is a numerous group. Individuals are making assumptions simply because Pat Mahomes brother is a foul dude apparently and his spouse might need stood up for her bro in regulation. Does not imply Pat is unhealthy or everybody else.”

The X consumer was referring to Mahomes’ youthful brother, Jackson Mahomes, who was final yr accused of forcibly attempting to kiss a restaurant proprietor on February 25, 2023. He was arrested in Might for aggravated sexual battery prices. The case remains to be ongoing. In Might, Mahomes’ lawyer, Brandan Davies, advised Newsweek that the courtroom prohibited Jackson and his legal professionals from commenting any additional.

Noting the impracticality of anticipating Swift to know all particulars concerning anyone she posed with, one other chimed in: “Think about her being like wait let me google you earlier than I allow you to take a pic with me.”

In the meantime, one X consumer acknowledged that Swift’s followers are holding her to an not possible normal, and accused a few of bordering on harmful obsessiveness.

“What’s scary is that they actually GOOGLED him.. this must cease.. folks want to relax with regards to Taylor,” they wrote, including that “it is getting very scary and borderline Selena/John Lennon/ Christina Grimmie.”

In an interview with Our Sunday Customer in September, Wright mentioned how he grew a big Instagram following. Earlier than it was closed, TheBasicCatholic had properly in extra of 120,000 followers.

“I shared {that a} need for holiness is extraordinarily vital; folks felt a neighborhood construct up round it and that grew,” Wright mentioned. “Extra folks wished to be engaged. Twitter is simply on hearth and a hellscape, however Catholic Instagram, I felt was a great place for women and men to fulfill new folks.

“Lots of people really feel alone on the earth, who’re politically conservative and Catholic, particularly Orthodox Catholics. To see that there have been different folks like that, that was the frequent thread. Folks preferred to see my mates and the issues we have been doing; that we have been regular folks dwelling on the earth striving for holiness.”

Whereas Wright has described himself as a conservative, Swift is thought to face on the other finish of the political aisle, and has most notably been publicly important of former President and 2024 GOP candidate Donald Trump.

Swift has weighed in on politics from time to time. A number of months earlier than the 2020 election, Swift accused then-President Trump of “stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism” all through his time period in workplace.

“We’ll vote you out in November,” she added in her publish.

For years, Swift was recognized—and infrequently criticized—for being tight-lipped about political points.

“A part of the material of being a rustic artist is do not pressure your politics on folks,” Swift defined in her 2020 Netflix documentary Miss Americana. “Let folks dwell their lives. That’s grilled into us.”

In 2018, nevertheless, she used her platform to advertise the Democratic Senate candidate in Tennessee forward of the midterm elections. Upon listening to the information of Swift’s help for Democrats, Trump advised reporters on the time: “As an example that I like Taylor’s music about 25 p.c much less now, OK?”

Through the years, Swift has change into extra politically outspoken, regardless of any potential backlash she might face.

“If I get unhealthy press for saying, ‘Do not put a homophobic racist in workplace,’ then I get unhealthy press for that,” she mentioned in Miss Americana.