Taylor Swift welcomes Supreme Court decision on LGBT rights

Taylor Swift hailed a “beautiful step forward” as she welcomed a landmark Supreme Court decision protecting gay, lesbian and transgender people from workplace discrimination.

The highest court in the US voted six to three that workers cannot be discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Judges ruled a key provision of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlaws job discrimination of the basis of sex, extends to LGBT workers.

Swift, who frequently uses her platform to voice her support of the LGBT community, was among those celebrating the decision.

She tweeted: “Yes!! Thank you to the Supreme Court Justices who voted in favour and all the advocates who have fought so hard for this! We still have a long way to go to reach equality, but this is a beautiful step forward.”

Swift was not the only celebrity to welcome the decision.

Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, who is among the most high-profile LGBT figures in the US, said it was an “historic” moment.

Transgender actress Laverne Cox wrote on Instagram: “We won!!!!”

Explaining the court’s decision, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote: “An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex.

“Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids.”

Supreme Court judge Brett Kavanaugh was among those dissenting.

He said the court was rewriting the law to include gender identity and sexual orientation, a job that belongs to Congress.

LGBT rights are a contentious issue ahead of November’s presidential elections.

Donald Trump’s administration has been criticised by activists for opposing LGBT workers in their discrimination claims under Title VII.