15 celebrities who got political in 2017

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – APRIL 19: Actress Alyssa Milano speaks at the 2017 World Of Children Hero Awards at Montage Beverly Hills on April 19, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for World of Children)

Alyssa Milano

Alyssa Milano began and ended 2017 in the midst of two powerful social and political movements. The first was the Women’s March. The second was as one of the original architects of #MeToo Twitter campaign that revealed the scope of sexual harassment and abuse people face on a daily basis, across the globe and in plenty of industries.

If that weren’t enough to fill her Wikipedia page, she launched a website that helps others contact their local representatives, supports Patriot Not Partisan,  and drove Doug Jones supporters to the polls in the Alabama special election (as well as during the Georgia special election for Jon Ossoff). The UNICEF Ambassador and long-time HIV/AIDS activist is so outspoken on political issues, she has become a target for trolling not just by strangers, but FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, and of all people, Ted Cruz.

PHOENIX – APRIL 29: Latin pop star Shakira speaks against Arizona’s new immigration law at a Latino community center on April 29, 2010 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Colombian singer visited Arizona in solidarity with the state’s Hispanic population to protest the new law. A week earlier the state government passed what has been called the nation’s toughest immigration law, raising fears that Latinos may be racially profiled by police. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Shakira

Colombian singer Shakira is quick to point out that she doesn’t have any kind of vested interest in American politics — she is not a citizen and does not live in the United States. But that’s precisely what makes her actions all the more remarkable. When protests erupted around the nation over an executive order temporarily banning immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, the UNICEF Ambassador could have just fired off a sympathetic tweet and left it at that. Instead, she penned an impassioned op-ed for TIME on the inhumanity of the ban and injustices suffered by Latinos and African-Americans in America.