Miley Cyrus took a step into political activism Wednesday, when she encouraged her fans to cause trouble for Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton by bombarding the freshman Republican’s office phone lines with calls to protest Cotton’s remarks earlier this week about hanging gay Americans.
Cotton, who at age 37 became the youngest serving United States senator when he assumed office in January , quickly made a name for himself this year as the author of an “open letter” to the Iranian government, co-signed by 46 other Republicans, warning that nation’s leaders that any agreement on nuclear proliferation reached with the current U.S. administration could be nullified by Congress.
That letter was widely seen as an attempt to undermine United States foreign policy, and many Republicans soon distanced themselves from the letter’s contents.
But Cotton quickly demonstrated that he is capable of viewing almost any issue through the lens of U.S.-Iran relations.
Commenting in an interview with regard to the so-called “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” recently signed into law in Indiana — a law which appeared to legalize discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation — Cotton attempted to put the new law into “perspective.”
“It’s important that we have a sense of perspective about our priorities,” Cotton told CNN . “In Iran they hang you for the crime of being gay.”
The idea that gay Americans should be thankful that the new Indiana law — like a similar law recently passed by the legislature in Cotton’s own home state — does not call for their execution by hanging is what spurred the 22-year-old “Wrecking Ball” singer into action, via her Twitter account.
Senator Cotton thinks gay community needs to get “perspective” cuz “In Iran they hang you for the crime of being gay.”
— Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) April 2, 2015
She then followed up with what in the advertising world is known as a “call to action,” including Cotton’s publicly available Senate office phone number in her next tweet and exhorting her nearly 20 million Twitter followers to “stir some s*** up” by calling Cotton to “express why freedom is important to us & our country!”
Miley Cyrus has been an outspoken advocate of LGBT rights for several years, penning an essay for Glamour magazine in 2012, saying, “This is America, the nation of dreams. We’re so proud of that. And yet certain people are excluded. It’s just not right.”
Last week, Cyrus publicly referred to Indiana’s Republican Governor Mike Pence as an “a*****e” for his support of the new anti-gay law.
The campaign, apparently, achieved its goal. Both the Huffington Post and the Washington Post called Cotton’s office shortly after the “We Can’t Stop” singer posted her tweet. Both news organizations received messages saying, “Mailbox is full. Please call again later.”
But Miley Cyrus did extend an olive branch of sorts to Tom Cotton, in one final tweet.
@SenTomCotton Did you know 40% of homeless youth are LGBT. Breaks my heart. You may have noticed I have your # so I’d love to talk sometime
— Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) April 2, 2015
[Image: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]