From Kaylor to Folklore: How Taylor Swift beme a gay in - Vox

Contents:

• TAYLOR SWIFT IS GAY, AND I HAVE EVINCE FOR DAYS
• THE GAYLORS ARE TURNG ON TAYLOR SWIFT
• COLORADO'S GAY GOVERNOR WR TAYLOR SWIFT AN EPIC OPEN LETTER
• THANK YOU, TAYLOR SWIFT, FOR MAKG MY SAD YULETI GAY(ER)
• THE ENDURG FERVOR OF GAYLOR FAN THEORY
• TAYLOR SWIFT’S SONGS CAN BE AS GAY AS YOU WANT THEM TO BE
• LV SAYS HE’S ‘GAY’ BUT ALSO ‘NOT GAY’

TAYLOR SWIFT IS GAY, AND I HAVE EVINCE FOR DAYS

“You jt need to take several seats and then try to rtore the peace/And ntrol your urg to scream about the people you hate/’Cse sha never ma anybody ls gay, ” she clar. Swift’s huge ditn of “You Need to Calm Down” to the gay rights movement on the heels of a recent statement she ma support of Tennsee’s Equaly Act. ”Swift’s latt mic vio, You Need to Calm Down, featured some of the US’s most proment queer celebri and end wh a direct plea for fans to sign a petn support of the Equaly Act, to protect LGBTQ people om discrimatn their plac of work, hom, schools and other public followed a social media post the lead-up to the 2018 midterms nmng the Republin senator for Tennsee, Marsha Blackburn, over her rerd on gay rights, which drew a rebe om print Donald mic vio, and her recent nversn to proment LGBTQ ally, have drawn praise as well as cricism – wh some accg Swift of “queerbag” and performative the magaze, she scrib a nversatn wh iend and fellow sger Todrick Hall which she says left her feelg “vastated” she had not been vol enough her support for the LGBTQ muny.

“Maybe a year or two ago, Todrick and I are the r, and he asked me, ‘What would you do if your son was gay? The untry-turned-pop sger’s mment to revelatn and surprise announcements has earned her a fan base that is both loyal to a flt and eager to solve the evolvg mystery that is Taylor a particular subset of the Swiftie muny, the “Gaylors”, believe they have unvered her greatt mystery yet: her qutn all ‘Gaylors’ want to answer: is Taylor Swift queer? “We all regnise this as a queer person subtly sharg their experience existg gayly [sic] a homophobic world.

”LoadgGray, a “d Gaylor”, has explored this theory on her podst What I Will Say, examg moments she believ signal Swift’s bi, fluid, or pansexualy cludg her “queer-d” lyrics and her bi pri wig the mic vio for You Need to Calm Down. ”Sce Gaylor whispers first emerged on lbian foms 2008 they’ve been cricised by the opposg “Hetlor” mp (who adamantly argue Swift is heterosexual) and those that thk her sexualy, whatever may be, is nothg to terrogate Dr Hannah McCann, a scholar cril femy and queer fandom, says the onle muni are harmls. “We’ve always done , and we always will, and ’s homophobic to exclu queer people and queer stori om this natural human experience.

THE GAYLORS ARE TURNG ON TAYLOR SWIFT

The reference to this lour, which is a symbol of LGBTQ ristance, fuelled Gaylors’ belief that she intifi wh the muny and wanted to share part of herself wh her clost, queer fans who unrstood the relatively niche the Gaylor celebratns were shortlived. Swift then explaed on Instagram that the song was actually about the act of ignorg “weird mours” to rema a state of all-enpassg love; a love she attribut to her long-term male partner, Joe mentn of “weird mours” was terpreted by some Gaylors as a direct afont, squashg any prev queer-signallg held near and ar to the fandom’s heart.

COLORADO'S GAY GOVERNOR WR TAYLOR SWIFT AN EPIC OPEN LETTER

Several Gaylors ed TikTok and Redd to exprs their disappotment, triggerg backlash om Hetlors and others who argued a celebry’s sexualy shouldn’t be a topic for public The Don is a popular TikTok culture cric and Swiftie. ”In the lead-up to Swift’s new album, Midnights, the Gaylor v Hetlor bate has bee so heated that the GaylorSwift Redd page was ma private and several of the more flammatory TikToks – cludg one where Gaylors were referred to as Ukrae and Swift’s vio as bombs tend for Rsia – were leted. I n’t claim to be nearly as much of a #Gaylor diehard as the te champns who’ve dited themselv to bg every last social media post, every public appearance, every exchange — however brief or seemgly signifint — for evince of Taylor’s queerns (and/or evince of a romantic relatnship wh her sometim-BFF Karlie Kloss).

THANK YOU, TAYLOR SWIFT, FOR MAKG MY SAD YULETI GAY(ER)

I wouldn’t even ll myself a Taylor fan, but I beme a full-on #Gaylor tther, yellg at all of my lleagu that, surely, this famo lady was gog to e out — as bi, as gay, as somethg. She even got a whole bunch of gays to watch her terview wh Rob Roberts durg, of all thgs, the NFL draft, a feat of enormo power if there ever was I’m feelg like reporter Mary Ey O’Hara, who tweeted, “Taylor Swift is hardly the first straight girl I let lead me on.

’”Even though Taylor ma the straightt gay mic vio of all time whout actually g out, seems like the #Gaylor nspiracists haven’t given up hope yet.

Set asi, for the moment, the argument that public figur g out is good for the muny: Openly gay and bisexual people n serve as It Gets Better–style role mols for all the many LGBT people out there who aren’t able to be open their own liv que yet.

THE ENDURG FERVOR OF GAYLOR FAN THEORY

We’re all livg real-life versns of that famo discsn season one of the L Word, when everybody’s tryg to help Dana figure out if her new love tert is gay: Did you look at her fgernails? Jt a few short years ago, ditg that a celebry might be gay or bisexual on social media, the prs, or any other kd of public platform uld get you acced of “outg” them whout their permissn. In the leadup to Taylor’s announcement, when mors she’d be g out began to furly fly, the mastream media and the gay prs alike have published piec openly speculatg about whether or not her Big Reveal would be queer-related.

Perhaps, fally, wonrg whether or not someone might be gay or bi don’t have to be treated like we’re pokg at some shameful secret.

But there’s another part of me that has to gdggly rpect how she whipped a bunch of full-grown gays who “don’t really re about Taylor Swift” to such a enzy. Still, I’ve always enjoyed floatg my half-baked #Gaylor theori to an unspectg group of people bee, to most, Taylor has always jt seemed so… hetero.

TAYLOR SWIFT’S SONGS CAN BE AS GAY AS YOU WANT THEM TO BE

And that’s not (only) bee she’s very feme, though straight people particular seem to never learn that gays e all kds of packag.

LV SAYS HE’S ‘GAY’ BUT ALSO ‘NOT GAY’

For my entire adult life, I’ve been astonished at people’s abily to nsir that, jt maybe, a famo person — even one who’s famoly dated men and seems way too unol to be queer — uld actually be gay or bisexual.