Cassadee Pope is ready to officiate weddings for those struggling to get married in Tennessee.
“I don’t know if you know this but the state I live in, Tennessee, passed a bill that allows public officials to not marry couples at their discretion,” Pope, 34, said in an Instagram Reel on Monday, March 4. “Obviously this is an attack on same-sex couples.”
Pope was referring to HB 878, which was signed into law in February by Governor Bill Lee. The measure grants judges, county clerks and government officials the right to refuse to perform marriages if it goes against their beliefs. While Pope was upset about the news, she decided to take action and wanted to help people facing challenges while trying to walk down the aisle.
“It just so happens that in 2020 I got really bored and became ordained,” she said in the clip while flashing her certificate. “So if you run into any issues, I’d love to help you out.”
Pope captioned the video, “I now pronounce you whatever the hell you want ❤️.”
This isn’t the first time that Pope has advocated for the LGBTQIA+ community. In August 2022, she slammed Brittany Aldean for her transphobic comments. Aldean, 35, posted a makeup tutorial and shared that she was grateful to her parents for not changing her gender during her “tomboy phase.”
“You’d think celebs with beauty brands would see the positives in including LGBTQ+ people in their messaging,” Pope wrote via X at the time. “But instead, here we are, hearing someone compare their ‘tomboy phase’ to someone wanting to transition. Real nice.”
After calling out the remark, Pope faced some backlash from fans of Aldean. However, Pope confessed that she was more concerned about standing up for marginalized groups than any potentially negative reactions.
“If I see something that is being said that I feel is harmful to a community that I care about … I’ll say something,” Pope said during an August 2023 appearance on the “Hold My Hair?” podcast. She acknowledged that “sometimes it’s better to just amplify the voices of that community because they know what they’re talking about way more than I do, sometimes I can’t help [but stick up for them myself].”
Although Pope wasn’t bothered by the online trolls at the time, she later admitted that the constant threats did affect her mental health.
“I had no feeling of regret. I just kept my head down and kept going,” she said in a February interview with Rolling Stone earlier this year. “It’s only been the past few months that I’ve let my guard down in therapy and said, ‘Wait, I actually wasn’t OK.’ But I think that kind of comes with the territory of including activism in your life. You’re not going to please everyone.”
Ultimately, Pope said she decided to move on from the country music genre and has plans to return to her pop punk roots.
“I realize every genre has problematic people in it,” she reflected to the outlet. “I’m not saying there’s not a frontman in a band who hasn’t been accused of something in rock music. But I guess rock is in my bones more. You’re not completely ostracized and shamed for speaking out.”
