Say Taylor Swift is Gay

A post that has nothing to do with Taylor Swift, and everything to do with generations of binaries and boxes society has put on all of us.

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Take a step back for a second and distance yourself from the name, “Taylor Swift.”

Ask yourself, what’s more believable?

One of the greatest poets of the 1800s (who mainly wrote about love and heartbreak) had:

A) ~10 public, high status, heterosexual, 2–6 month long relationships

B) 1–4 unrequited loves (ie. all closeted, gay lovers). She fell in love young and was forced to keep it a secret by family and friends causing tensions within the relationships themselves. All the while, she used men (oftentimes gay men) as beards to publicly pass as straight for the sake of her family’s reputation/status.

(B. The answer is B).

Now I’ve spent far more time than I would ever like to admit reading all Taylor’s lyrics, watching every music video, interview and live performance. I’ve gone through the r/GaylorSwift Reddit feeds. I’ve done everything humanly possible to prove, definitively, to the straight swifters, that Taylor is gay…But the truth is, because of the very definition of the word, “closeted,” I can’t, nor will I ever personally be able to prove it. Only Taylor can come out of the woods… *closet. I mean closet.

But this post isn’t about Taylor Swift — this post is about questioning why we feel like it’s wrong to say someone is gay.

I know in the back of a lot of your minds, you’re thinking, “You can’t just say someone’s gay, just because you think they are.”

To that I say — why not? When and why did we decide that being gay is a bad thing? I mean that’s inherently what you’re insinuating when you say, “you can’t just say she’s gay.” Right?

Why do people think it would be so wrong to say Taylor Swift is gay, even if she’s not? We assumed she’s straight. We had no problem labeling her as boy crazed/obsessed from 5 pictures of her in public with a boy. (I’d like to mention that when I was 16, I also told people I had a boyfriend, when I in fact, did not).

Let’s be real about it — x-hundred years ago, in the name of religion, straight men decided that only men & women can publicly be together because it would benefit them financially, socially and keep them at the top of the power dynamic. Dramatic? Yes. Wrong? No.

Sexuality and nearly all aspects of human (and animal) life are on spectrums when in their purest, most natural state. We created labels. We created boxes. We created binaries.

So back to my girl, Taylor (who this post is not about).

Let me play out the two scenarios that could come from this post and hopefully it can explain why I care so much about her (because again, I really don’t).

Say I’m wrong — Taylor Swift is straight as an arrow just like her management team and tabloids told us.

The repercussions of this post? Another rumor is made up about a celebrity and perhaps a couple more people dive into the love life of Taylor Swift — a life which has already been dissected and tweeted about a million times. That’s it. That’s the repercussion.

Straight people don’t care if you ask them if they’re gay…if they do, that’s on toxic masculinity, not you.

If they are in the closet, not ready to come out, I promise you — from experience — they have a perfectly rehearsed script of how they’re straight and they’ve been asked before.

Once mainstream media talks about queer sexuality like it’s the norm, that’s when the rest of the society will also think that way. Eventually we’d get to a point where we don’t have to assume or ask people if they’re gay, because it simply won’t matter who someone loves. It’s long past time queer people are treated the same as their heterosexual counterparts. 

But now let’s look at the other side of this. Say I’m right — Taylor Swift is gay.

That could literally mean that her record label/management team (a group of grown men) closeted a teenage girl for the sake of their own financial gain. They assumed Taylor would be less marketable if she wasn’t straight, so they chose to conform. They prioritized money over humanity. In turn, Taylor — a 15 year old girl at the time she signed her deal — was likely convinced that she should also want to be straight in order to “make it” in the country music industry. All the while 30+ year old men seemed to be grooming her as well?? (I would have done the exact same thing if I was in her shoes because I also, “didn’t know who I was supposed to be. At 15” (Fifteen)).

And if that whole idea doesn’t make you incredibly frustrated, sad and mad, then I can’t help you. And just like you would for the gays — I’ll pray for you.

I’m also writing this post because “celebrity gossip” seems to perpetuate this idea that we have to tip-toe around people’s sexuality. I’m frustrated that no one (in a position of power) is shining a light on the countless blatantly gay lyrics Taylor has sung her entire career, or is inquiring about her ridiculous rainbow outfits she has been flaunting ever since she was released from her record label…

Like this one –

Just for fun, ask yourself — why would a straight person feel so inclined to sing the following lyrics in a rainbow themed music video called, “ME!”(The first lead single she released after her contract expired with her former record label, I might add)?

“One of these things is not like the others.
Like a rainbow with all of the colors
Baby doll, when it comes to a lover
I promise that you’ll never find another like
Me-e-e, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh”

ME!

So anyways, while I’m at it, here are some more of my favorite fruity lyrics of hers:

“We’re a crooked love in a straight line down”

(I Wish You Would)

“The rest of the world was black and white

But we were in screaming color”

(Out of the Woods)

“Are we out of the woods yet?”

(Out of the Woods)

“I sneak out to the garden to see you

we keep quiet, ’cause we’re dead if they knew”

(Love Story)

“Then you won’t have to cry

or hide in the closet

and just like a folk song.

our love will be passed on”

(seven)

My personal favorite thing Swift does is sing countless songs, “from a man’s perspective.”

Some examples are:

“I fell in love with a careless man’s careful daughter. She is the best thing that’s ever been mine”

(Mine)

“And my daddy said, ‘Stay away from Juliet. But you were everything to me. I was beggin’ you, ‘Please don’t go,’”

(Love Story)

… I could go on, but I’ll just remind you that Taylor based her entire career on themes of unrequited love in the form of, “dropping hands while dancing” and, “picking you up with no headlights on.”

So even though I can imagine that many straight high school couples “snuck in the garden gates” to see each other after dark once or twice, I cannot imagine anyone writing 9 albums worth of material on one or two moments. I can, however, imagine 9 albums written about hidden relationships and secret meetings occurring over the course of 20 years. (I also don’t mean to exclude other illicit affairs such as dating men 10+ years older than her when she was only 20 years old which undoubtedly added to the unrequited and heartbreaking lyric supply).

Now some of you may be thinking, “it’s 2021 — it’s cool to be gay! So if Taylor still hasn’t come out yet, then she’s definitely straight.” And to that I continue to speak from personal experience when I say that 2 of my exes are still in the closet. Exes of my exes are still in the closet. Friends of mine in the liberal northeast are still in the closet. In my current company of 70 people, I am the only non-straight employee — statistically speaking, that is impossible. Of the roughly 1,500 current NFL players, “0” are gay — statistically speaking, that is impossible.

And while I don’t know why Taylor Swift is still in the closet, I do hope we find out one day soon.

I don’t put any blame on Taylor for her past; mostly because I don’t know her… but also because she was forced to make huge career decisions at the age of 15. I do feel inclined, however, to hold her accountable for coming out in the near future. She has a platform to show the world that being gay is fun and cool and awesome and mainstream. (To be clear, if all the gay rumors are true, Taylor Swift would be the fucking man).

Taylor has the ability to shine a light on the pitfalls of a late-stage patriarchal, capitalistic society that has deemed money more important than humanity for far too long. She has the ability to continue to break down its rigid boxes and binaries that arose for the sake of profit, and in turn, hurt so many lgbtq youth. And when I say, “hurt young lgbtq youth”— I mean that. Because if one of the greatest, most popular country music turn popstar artists of our generation — known for her diary style love lyrics — was publicly queer, then millions of kids might have also been comfortable to be fully themselves — 16 year old me sure would have been.

I hope Taylor doesn’t wait much longer, because she told us herself that, “these things will change… we’ll start a revolution.”

Taylor, you better follow through — 16 year old Ellie is counting on you.(…And current Ellie quite literally might implode if I just wrote the most dramatic post about you being queer and you end up not backing me up here).

But, to remind myself for the 100th time, this post was never about Taylor Swift. This was just an excuse for me to say that I want everyone, including Taylor Swift, to proudly love who they love — for all queer people to be out and queer, just as easily as straight people are out and straight, and everyone in between and out. Because if anything, Taylor Swift proves that love songs are universal and love is for everyone.