Yes Taylor Swift Is Queer
A few things from the mountain of Gaylor evidence
*muse-free*
This deck was written with a general, non-swiftie, non-queer audience in mind.
This deck is also muse-free. If you’re interested in muses, see the Tily master evidence deck and the Swiftgron highlights timeline.
The announcement for the 2019 release of the song “Me!” (which is considered to be a gay anthem) off the Lover album was posted on April 26 and phrased like this:
ME! Out now!�
And what is April 26? �International Lesbian�Visibility Day
There were many other ways this announcement could have been phrased…but no… Me! Out now! On Lesbian Visibility Day!
August 5, 2019 - Taylor posted an image on socials that included a bracelet that said “PROUD” next to beads in the colors of the bisexual pride flag.
Bi pride flag
The “PROUD” bracelet is also right next to ones that say “FEARLESS” and “LOVER” bookended by pink beads
August 3, 2019 - a post showing heart-shaped rice krispy treats that Taylor made – seemingly referencing the colors of the bisexual pride flag.
“Wondrous time / Gave me the blues and then purple-pink skies” – invisible string
These same rice krispy treats were used in the “Lover” lyric video. You can see them in the washed out background.
Time to learn about what dropping hairpins means.
The 1969 Stonewall Riots were referred to as “The Hairpin Drop Heard Around the World”
Taylor drops hairpins all over the place in her lyrics and mvs, but in a couple songs, she refers to them quite literally.
“I swear you could hear a hairpin drop” … “I stayed there / Dust collected on my pinned-up hair” – right where you left me
The phrase is “you could hear a pin drop” not “hear a hairpin drop.” This was deliberately changed. A few lines later she references it again in “pinned-up hair” indicating she’s still closeting and not dropping hairpins.
“Your finger on my hairpin triggers” – The Great War
The common phrase is “hair trigger” not “hairpin trigger”. She deliberately changed this one too.
After “right where you left me” on the evermore album came out, the queer implications of that hairpin reference was heavily discussed on Tiktok (which Taylor has said she monitors). The fact that she then she doubled down on it and used the reference again in “The Great War” on the Midnights album confirms she was using it with queer intentions.
She also uses a chair called a “hairpin chair” on the Eras tour
People have commented on how Taylor’s hair is a little bit odd in the 2023 Speak Now (TV) album cover, which some have found strange because she’s known for being meticulous about the details in everything she puts out.
In the image her hair has a strange curl or hook near her eye, which looks exactly as if she previously had a hairpin pinning back her hair for a while and then took it out.
In the Fortnight music video, in the scene where she’s locked in the asylum, her hair is aggressively pinned up with hairpins. Being chained up in the asylum is a metaphor for being in the closet, thus her hairpins aren’t dropped - they’re still pinning up her hair. The absurd number of unnecessary hairpins hammers home their meaning.
“Deadass thought I made it obvious”
– Lil Nas X, when he came out
In addition to the standard pride flag, those outfits also appear to reference the pan pride flag, the bi pride flag, and the lesbian pride flag.
The image in the top right of the last slide was used in her official Reputation calendar for June, which is Pride month. Her outfits in the rest of the calendar were all in neutral colors, thus proving her queer-flagging intention of the rainbow outfits.
Pansexual Pride Flag
Bisexual Pride Flag
Lesbian Pride Flag
Some explicitly queer-coded lyrics
“Rosé flowing with your chosen family” – the 1 �("Chosen family" is a queer phrase that refers to the way so many queer people form their own families within the community after being ostracized or abandoned by blood relatives.)
“Takes one to know one” – cowboy like me
“Then you won’t have to cry / Or hide in the closet” – seven
“I don’t want you like a best friend” – Dress
“Haven’t you heard what becomes of curious minds?” – Wonderland
“Cause shade never made anybody less gay” – You Need to Calm Down
“You can want who you want / Boys and boys and girls and girls” �– Welcome to New York
Changing pronouns in performances - New Years Day
Sometimes Taylor changes the lyrics in performances to instead use female pronouns when the original lyric uses neutral pronouns.
In this performance of the song New Years Day, which has the line “I want your midnights, but I’ll be cleaning up bottles with you on New Years Day,” you can clearly hear her changing it - twice in the song! - to “I want HER midnights.”
Changing pronouns in performances - I Knew You Were Trouble
Another example of this is in the song “I Knew You Were Trouble,” which she changes in a few different performances.
The lyric is, “And the saddest fear comes creeping in / That you never loved me / Or her / Or anyone / Or anything”.
But in some performances like this one at iHeart Radio, Taylor instead sings “That SHE never loved me.” The shape of her mouth making the “sh” sound is also very clear.
Changing pronouns in performances - Long Live (with hilarious band reaction to pronoun change)
In this performance of Long Live at Eras instead of singing “That you’ll stand by me forever”, she sings “That’s she’ll stand by me forever,” at 0:08.
You can also see her band’s bemused and surprised reactions to her changing the pronoun (watch it fullscreen). Gaylors believe that she’s out to people she’s close to, including her band.
If you doubt the pronoun change and think it might be an elison of “that you’ll” see this video where she doesn’t do the pronoun change.
Changing pronouns in performances - You Are in Love
She also changes pronouns twice in “You Are in Love” in Shanghai on the 1989 tour.
The first lyric change is at 0:25 in the video. The original lyrics are “No proof, not much / But you saw enough” and Taylor changes it to “No proof, not much / She said enough.”
The second lyric change is at 0:48 in the video. The original lyrics are “No proof, one touch / But you felt enough” and Taylor changes it to “No proof, one touch / She felt enough.”
Changing pronouns in performances - King of My Heart
On the reputation tour, she changed the lyrics in King of My Heart from “All the boys and their expensive cars” to “All the girls and their expensive cars”.
Lyric change is at 0:06.
Changing pronouns in performances - Teardrops On My Guitar
She also seems to change pronouns in “Teardrops On My Guitar” on the Eras tour.
Instead of “He’s the reason for the teardrops on my guitar,” she appears to sing “SHE’s the reason.”
What is bearding?
Some lyrics referencing bearding:
“I used to switch out these Kens / I’d just ghost” – Hits Different
“Bad bad boy / shiny toy with a price / you know that I bought it” – Cruel Summer
“All the boys and their expensive cars…never took me quite where you do” � – King of My Heart
Bearding is a practice that is historically very prevalent in Hollywood and the music/entertainment industries where queer people publicly “date” someone of the opposite sex in order to hide their sexuality, either because they aren’t ready to come out or (more commonly) because they are forced to by management or by clauses in contracts.
A majority of gaylors believe that at least some of the men (or boys, looking at you Conor Kennedy) that she “dated” were beards. These PR relationships provided a cover - both in life and in lyrics - for women that she is thought to have dated.
Calvin Harris, who Taylor “dated” for 15 months, is one of the relationships that gaylors widely believe to be a bearding relationship.
One of the most damning pieces of evidence is this series of very strange tweets that he posted a year after their breakup (which came on the heels of media images of him exiting a happy ending massage parlor).
The tweets were deleted very soon after they were posted.
Taylor’s friends didn’t know who Joe was a year into their relationship
Two of Taylor’s friends, Martha Hunt and Taylor Hill, were interviewed about a year into her “relationship” with Joe Alwyn - and they had no idea who he was.
Interviewer asks, “Do you love Joe?” and Martha makes this face.
Taylor Hill says, “Do we love who?”
And then Martha makes a weird comment, “I love a cup of Joe in the morning….”
Taylor also references bearding in some music videos
One example is in the Look What You Made Me Do mv where she’s flanked by eight men (which gaylors believe represent eight beards or PR relationships) who serve her while wearing heels and “I ❤️ TS” shirts. The shirts are a direct reference to a shirt Tom Hiddleston wore while he and Taylor were in a “relationship.”
Even the media widely believed “Hiddleswift” to be a fake relationship.
The other very interesting piece of evidence in the Look What You Made Me Do music video is the “pussy magnet” and “pussy squad” images that flash on the screen. First it’s images of a pussy cat and then immediately after images of a giant magnet with the word “squad” over it.
In the prologue to the Reputation album, Taylor writes:
“When this album comes out, gossip blogs will scour the lyrics for the men they can attribute to each song, as if the inspiration for music is as simple and basic as a paternity test. There will be slideshows of photos backing up each incorrect theory, because it's 2017 and if you didn't see a picture of it, it couldn't have happened right?
Let me say it again, louder for those in the back...
We think we know someone, but the truth is that we only know the version of them that they have chosen to show us.”
Why is every possible attribution to a man an “incorrect theory,” Taylor?! Huh? HUH?!
“You Need to Calm Down” music video
This music video is probably the gayest mv to ever be made. It takes place in a queer trailer park filled with queer people. The cast has tons of queer icons, including all the Queer Eye folks, RuPaul, Billy Porter, Todrick Hall, Laverne Cox, and Hayley Kiyoko. There’s also drag queens and a gay wedding.
Taylor is a resident of the queer trailer park (i.e. a member of a literal queer community). Her hair is dyed the colors of the bi pride flag. She’s also wearing a sheriff’s badge, playing the role of sheriff in this queer trailer park.
If she were straight, this would all be incredibly inappropriate and offensive. No straight person should be centering themselves in such a queer space. No straight person should put on a sheriff’s badge and pretend to police and have jurisdiction over queer people.
No sane, reasonable straight person would make this video.
Pan pride flag colors
The crossed out rainbow sign held up by anti-LGBTQ protesters in the You Need to Calm Down music video shows up again in the exact same style in the Me! lyric video, with ‘ME’ written on the clouds.
You Need to Calm Down music video
Me! lyric video
The Me! music video was also pretty gay. Super campy. Lots of rainbows. Wizard of Oz references. Taylor refusing a diamond ring and marriage proposal from a man but accepting a pussy cat.
Brendon Urie, who featured on the song as well as in the mv, wrote on twitter after the mv came out:
“Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your beautiful story.”
This doesn’t make a lot of sense, except when considered through the lens that she was about to come out.
Taylor intended to come out in June 2019
There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that Taylor was planning to come out at New York Pride on June 30, 2019. In addition to the Me! and YNTCD mvs, plus how loud she was getting on socials, she also gave a surprise performance at the Stonewall Inn on June 15.
But the most compelling evidence comes from the designer Christian Siriano.
He teased a rainbow dress on socials and liked a comment that said Taylor would be the one wearing it. Much later he also later reposted fan art of Taylor wearing the dress, further confirming it.
But when NY Pride came, it was Billy Porter who wore the dress and Taylor wasn’t present. However it was clear from the pale mesh panels that the dress was originally meant for someone with much lighter skin.
What sealed the theory that the dress was meant for Taylor and that she was going to come out at Pride while wearing it is someone made a video describing this theory, and Christian Siriano made a Tiktok duet with it. In the video you can see the rainbow dress in the background and Christian walks into the frame as the theory is being described, sips tea, and then walks out.
So why did Taylor miss NY Pride and not come out? Because that day, June 30, 2019, was the very same day of the infamous “masters heist” where the masters for her first six albums were stolen from her. You can read more here on that. So it’s speculated that she cancelled her coming out at the last minute due to this.
More evidence she was going to come out
If Christian’s tiktok and Taylor’s loud flagging throughout the first half of 2019 wasn’t enough, there’s also evidence that her Netflix Miss Americana documentary was originally intended to be her coming out story. The director confirmed that the length of the video underwent quite a bit of change, and that it was supposed to have a different title - “Is it Cool That I Said All That?”, a line from Delicate, which is a coming out song and one Taylor has dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community.
The documentary is kind of all over the place, uses minimal new footage, and makes a big deal of her making her first political statement. At the very end of the film, she says something that seems like a very strange statement to reference an Instagram post declaring her support for a candidate in the Tennessee senate race, but makes perfect sense if this was intended to be a coming out film:
“After 13 years of constantly feeling like I was misunderstood, knowing that everything that happened was all gonna turn into this moment is…fucking awesome.”
“Gay pride…makes me, me”
Another piece of evidence that the Miss Americana documentary was intended to be more than it ultimately was:
When discussing the Me! music video in the film Taylor says:
“Dancers, cats, gay pride, people in country western boots, I start riding a unicorn, like, just, everything that makes me, me.”
What straight person says “gay pride makes me, me”?
Jack accidentally outs Taylor on Marc Maron’s podcast
Clip can also be heard starting at 1:08:28 at the original podcast link.
Marc: “You’re not going to have that conversation with Taylor Swift?”
Jack: “No. I like women, and particularly gay women.”
Marc: *pauses* “Is she gay??”
Jack: *stumbles hard and starts frantically backtracking* “No, ah, but- but I work a lot with Sar- Tegan and Sara and they’re gay, so th-.”
On July 17, 2014, Jack Antonoff (one of Taylor’s producers) was on the podcast WTF with Marc Maron and accidentally outed her, and then had to backtrack quickly.
The Ladder
“The Ladder” was the first nationally distributed lesbian publication in the United States.
Taylor appears to reference this in the Eras tour when she climbs a ladder into the clouds.
What is glass closeting?
AKA when you’re out to the people who can see it but not explicitly out to the general public. Taylor references glass closets all over the place in her tour visuals and music videos.
In the Willow music video, she walks into this enclosed glass structure and plays music to a crowd. Then a moment later she realizes she’s trapped.
In the “Ready for It?” music video, one version of Taylor is trapped in a huge glass cage.
Sidebar: this mv is a good example of “the two Taylors”; in lots of videos she shows two different versions of herself. Gaylors generally theorize that they represent the two sides of her: Taylor SwiftTM, Taylor the brand and the business, versus the real Taylor, the queer Taylor, the one trapped in the closet, the one she doesn’t show to the public.
On the Eras tour, during the song Look What You Made Me Do, the screen shows images of old versions of Taylor from all her albums (not just the stolen ones) each trapped in individual glass boxes. On stage, the dancers are dressed in famous outfits of hers and locked inside their own little glass closet.
The Bad Blood music video shows Taylor in several different glass closets or cages.
In the “I Can See You” music video, mannequins wearing Taylor’s outfits are trapped in glass cages.
The Lover music video repurposes a fish bowl as a glass closet that she’s trapped in. This scene is also believed to represent the 1989 era (2014-15), when she was far more closeted than during the Lover era (2019).
Another fun fact:�In the 1989 tour performances she would walk in and out of closet doors.
Similar to the concept of glass closets, there’s also lots of images of cages and her being trapped in them.
“I Know Places” tour visuals
“Look What You Made Me Do” music video
(Notice the guards in black standing around the cage, who may also represent beards.)
“The Very First Night” mismatched rhyme scheme
“Cause they don't know about the night in the hotel�They weren't riding in the car when we both fell�Didn't read the note on the Polaroid picture�They don't know how much I miss you”
…
“But don't forget about the night out in LA�Dance in the kitchen, chase me down through the hallway�No one knows about the words that we whisper�No one knows how much I miss you”
In both pre-choruses of this song, the last two lines don’t rhyme as they should. If “you” was replaced with “her” then the lines would rhyme perfectly in both instances.
The mismatched rhyme scheme draws attention to itself. A songwriter as good as she is doesn’t do this by accident or because she couldn’t think of something else. This non-rhyme was deliberately done to show that the line was supposed to be “her.”
Taylor confirms Gaylor by touching her nose
On July 9, 2024, a user in the gaylorswift subreddit posted this comment a few hours before Night 1 of Eras tour in Zurich.
On N2, July 10, Taylor put her finger on her nose for 7 seconds at the exact requested time during the show. And it was done in a strange, unnatural way, confirming its intentionality. She had never made this motion before on Eras.
This was actually the second time she had done something gaylors asked her to do, but this one was the clearest, most unambiguous signal that confirmed gaylor and showed that she monitors gaylor spaces.
Taylor confirms Gaylor by touching her nose
About 30 minutes before Taylor did that extended nose boop, Taylor Nation (her official management team channel) tweeted this picture of her peeking out the window with the caption “We’re always watching.”
“It’s like an actual fantasy”
At an interview during the 2014 Victoria Secret Fashion Show, which Taylor performed at, she described seeing all the VS models in a trailer wearing this pink robe as:
“It’s like an actual fantasy.”
OG Fearless cover
TV Fearless cover
The original Fearless album cover showed Taylor in a white dress. In the 2021 rerecorded Taylor’s Version cover, in addition to looking in the opposite direction, she’s now wearing a billowing white shirt, which bears a striking resemblance to Romeo’s shirt in the music video for this album’s first single, “Love Story,” which uses a Romeo and Juliet framing device and was described by Taylor as about “a love that maybe society wouldn’t accept.” She’s re-writing the Fearless narrative to position herself as Romeo, which is very very queer.
Romeo in the Love Story mv
At the Eras tour. Nothing more to say here.
Queer-coded lyrics that seem to explicitly reference women
“All of the girls you loved before / Made you the one I've fallen for” – All of the Girls You Loved Before
In proper grammatical English, “the one” in the second clause has to refer back to the subject of the first clause, which is “the girls.” So it can be rewritten as “made you the girl I’ve fallen for.” She could have used “man” or “boy” in place of “one” but chose not to.
�“Bet I can still melt your world, argumentative, antithetical dream girl” – Hits Different
In English the sentence still has to work without the adjectives that are modifying a noun. So it can be rewritten as “Bet I can still melt your world, girl.”
�“The lips I used to call home / So scarlet it was maroon” – Maroon
It would be very unusual to describe a straight man’s lips as scarlet. This is likely referencing lipstick.�
Lyrics with themes of secrecy and forbidden love …because what straight white person dating another straight white person is this afraid about their relationship being discovered?
“I loved you in secret” … “I loved you in spite of deep fears that the world would divide us” – Dancing With Our Hands Tied
“We broke the status quo / Then we broke each other’s hearts” – The Very First Night (yeah what straight relationship breaks the status quo??)
“I don’t want to keep secrets just to keep you” – Cruel Summer
“We keep quiet, 'cause we're dead if they knew” – Love Story
“All these people think love’s for show / but I would die for you in secret” – peace
“Our secret moments in a crowded room / They got no idea about me and you” – Dress
“Your love is a secret I'm hoping, dreaming, dying to keep” – King of my Heart
“Privacy sign on the door / And on my page and on the whole world / Romance is not dead if you keep it just yours” – Paris
“For you I would fall from grace / Just to touch your face” – Don’t Blame Me
Other queer-coded lyrics
“So I wander through these nights / I prefer hiding in plain sight / My fourth drink in my hand / These desperate prayers of a cursed man” – Dear Reader
“I hate accidents except when we went from friends to this” – Paper Rings
“She is the best thing that’s ever been mine” – Mine (writing from the male perspective is queer)
“The rest of the world was black and white / But we were in screaming color” – Out of the Woods
“Can’t walk straight / Can’t talk straight” – Thinkin’ Bout You
“We’re a crooked love in a straight line down” – I Wish You Would
“So we went on our way / Too in love to think straight” – Wonderland
“Truth is I can’t pretend it’s platonic” – Now That We Don’t Talk
“We were supposed to be just friends” – Glitch
Commercials with queer themes
DirectTV partnership where she rides a cat with a rainbow unicorn horn and is dressed in a rainbow outfit.
Commercials with queer themes
AT&T commercial where she hides in the closet, gets locked in said closet, has to climb through ductwork to escape, and lands back in the studio.
Capital One commercial where one Taylor says to another Taylor dressed in the 1989 bisexual pride flag jacket, “You’re being too loud!”
Thanks for coming to this gay TED talk