Any doubts about Meghan Trainor’s support for the LGBTQ community were laid to rest this week after the pop star found herself involuntarily featured in an anti-marriage equality campaign.
On Wednesday, a Facebook group called “Vote NO Australia — Marriage Plebiscite” posted a since-deleted photo of Trainor, 23, with the tagline: “My vote is no, you need to let it go.” The line was a less-than-inspired nod to Trainor’s 2016 single, “NO,” which features the lyrics “My name is no, my sign is no, my number is no/You need to let it go.”
A fan tweeted a screenshot of the photo to Trainor later that day.
The news didn’t sit well with Trainor, who responded by doubling down in her support for marriage equality and clarifying that the photo had been used without her permission.
The following day, she spoke out in support for same-sex marriage in Australia specifically on Instagram.
The decision to use Trainor’s image to oppose same-sex marriage is particularly questionable, given that the Grammy winner has been a longtime advocate for LGBTQ rights. In 2015, she told The Sunday Express that if she could pass any law, she would “pass gay marriage everywhere. Everyone should be able to love who they want.” That same year, she performed at Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend, or “The Dinah,” a music festival and celebration that caters to the lesbian community in Palm Springs, California.
Though it’s unclear whether or not they’d seen Trainor’s response, “Vote NO Australia — Marriage Plebiscite” administrators issued a formal apology Wednesday.
“We apologize to Meghan Trainor and her support base if this has caused any angst or distress. We had no idea who the person in the meme was,” they wrote. “For the record we note Meghan Trainor supports marriage equality and we respect her right to her opinion on the matter.”
The Trainor image is merely the latest in a series of bizarre efforts to encourage Aussie residents to vote against same-sex marriage this fall. The campaign has even caught the eye of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who urged voters to “focus on the substance of the debate” instead.
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