Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. She is known for narrative songs about her personal life, which have received widespread media coverage. At age 14, Swift became the youngest artist signed by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house and, at 15, she signed her first record deal.
Her 2006 eponymous debut album was the longest-charting album of the 2000s in the US. Its third single, "Our Song", made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number-one song on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in 2008.
Buoyed by the pop crossover success of the singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", it became the US' best-selling album of 2009 and was certified diamond in the US. The album won four Grammy Awards, and Swift became the youngest Album of the Year winner.
“You are fully embraced,” Botswana President tells LGBTQ leaders
mambaonline.comPresident Mokgweetsi Masisi addressed LGBTQ activists on Monday In a landmark meeting, Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi has told LGBTQ leaders that he is committed to upholding their human rights. On Monday, Masisi held an official meeting with representatives of the country’s leading LGBTQ rights organisation, LEGABIBO, at the Office of the President.
He described the discussion as “unprecedented and historic” and said it followed the “watershed” decision by the country’s Court of Appeal in November last year to uphold an earlier ruling decriminalising consensual same-sex sexual activities.
Masisi stated his government’s commitment to respecting the judgment and ensuring that lawmakers repeal the colonial-era sections of the penal code that effectively outlawed homosexuality. “Members of LEGABIBO can now derive comfort in the expectation of being fully included to benefit in all government services that they had hitherto been unable to access…” the president told the LGBTQ activists.
He admitted, however, that “it will take all of Batswana and all of Botswana society to have a mindset change in embracing some of these socio-cultural changes.” Masisi said that, “It is my pleasure as head of state to have this opportunity of interacting with you in the enjoyment of our democratic dispensation to freely share ideas going forwards.” He then powerfully added: “And please know for the record, you are fully embraced.
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