Happy Pride from Katy Perry! As Pride Month begins, the pop star marked the occasion with a message of encouragement in the form of a heavily reworked take on the controversial — to say it lightly — grad speech given by the Kansas City Chiefs’ Harrison Butker at Benedictine College.
In a 20-minute speech on May 11, the football player condemned LGBTQ rights and attacked what he called “dangerous gender ideologies.” He spoke against abortion, birth control, IVF and surrogacy. He told female college graduates, whom he claims have been told “diabolical lies,” to embrace being a “homemaker.”
“I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world,” he said, directing his words to the women who were there for their college graduation.
“fixed this for my girls, my graduates, and my gays — you can do anything, congratulations and happy pride,” Perry captioned a post on Instagram on Saturday (June 1). She shared a Perry-approved version of Butker’s speech.
Here is a transcript of the edit of Butker’s commencement speech posted by Perry:
“For the ladies present today, congratulations on an amazing accomplishment. You should be proud of all that you have achieved to this point in your young lives. How many of you are sitting here now, about to cross this stage, and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you’re going to get in your career? I would venture to guess the women here today are going to lead successful careers in the world. I say all of this to you because I have seen it firsthand: how much happier someone can be supporting women, and not saying that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world. The road ahead is bright. Things are changing. Society is shifting and people young and old are embracing diversity, equity and inclusion. With that said, I want to say Happy Pride to all of you, and congratulations class of 2024.”
In a puzzling move, Butker’s speech had also quoted a lyric from Taylor Swift (“my teammate’s girlfriend,” he said, instead of naming names), apparently forgetting Swift’s decades-long dedication to her career; this week Swift, still on her historic international Eras Tour, holds onto No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for the sixth week in a row with her latest studio album, The Tortured Poets Department.
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, the “teammate” in reference, weighed in on the speech on his New Heights podcast after his teammate’s words went viral. Kelce said in the seven years he’s known Butker, he’s viewed him as a “great person and great teammate.” “When it comes down to his views and what he said … those are his,” said Kelce. “I can’t say I agree with the majority of it, or just about any of it outside of him loving his family and his kids. I don’t think I should judge him by his views, especially his religious views, of how to go about life. That’s just not who I am.”
Watch Perry’s version of the much-talked-about commencement speech below. The star just finished her run on American Idol and has been teasing that new music is on the horizon.
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