Speculation About Taylor Swift’s Sexuality in NYT Opinion Causes Reaction

United States, New York: Online outrage has been generated by a long article that speculates on the sexual orientation of pop sensation Taylor Swift. Some social media users have called for the essay’s removal.
Despite openly identifying as straight, the massively renowned singer may be hinting to her fans that she is queer in a 5,000-word guest post that appeared in the paper’s editorial sections.

When AFP reached out to The Times and Swift’s reps for comment about the article and the outcry, they did not reply right away.

An individual close to Swift, speaking in anonymity to CNN, described the essay as “invasive, untrue, and inappropriate.”

The piece by NYT Opinion section editor Anna Marks compiles a list of instances in which Swift seems to have alluded to her sexual orientation.

“In isolation, a single dropped hairpin is perhaps meaningless or accidental, but considered together, they’re the unfurling of a ballerina bun after a long performance,” Marks said.

“Those dropped hairpins first showed up in Ms. Swift’s work long before it was clear that LGBT identity could be sold to the general public in America. They imply to LGBT individuals that she is one of us.”

In 2022, Marks wrote a guest post exploring claims of queerbaiting against pop sensation Harry Styles, with whom Swift had dated, and speculating about his gender identification.

Marks began her Swift piece by discussing the emotional struggle of activist and gay country music artist Chely Wright, who has talked about keeping closeted for years for personal and professional reasons.

Wright criticized the piece when it was published, calling it “triggering.”

Wright commented over the weekend on X, the old Twitter, saying, “I was mentioned in the piece, so I’ll weigh in.”

“I believe that the @nytimes’ publication was terrible. Not because the author brought up my experience of almost taking my own life, but simply because it upsets me to see a prominent figure’s sexual orientation being debated.”

“Believe in people.”

Swift shared a header image from 2023 as she continues her highly successful “Eras” tour and soars to an unprecedented level of fame.

As the camera frequently swings to Swift, the 34-year-old has been openly dating NFL star Travis Kelce for months, drawing throngs of new fans to football games.

Fans, tabloids, and her songwriting have all long been captivated by her romantic life. Swift has been associated with a number of well-known men, such as singers Styles, John Mayer, and vocalist of 1975 Matt Healy, as well as actors Jake Gyllenhaal, Joe Alwyn, and Tom Hiddleston.

Swift has never acknowledged in public that she identifies as LGBT, despite years of persistent rumors to the contrary.

She has fought for LGBTQ+ rights, as she addressed in a 2019 Vogue interview: “I didn’t realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I’m not a part of.”

In the preface to her most recent album “1989,” Swift also mentioned that, in her twenties, she “swore off hanging out with guys” due to rumors in the media that she was having affairs with all the men she hung out with.

“I swore off dating and decided to focus only on myself, my music, my growth, and my female friendships,” she stated. “If I only hung out with my female friends, people couldn’t sensationalize or sexualize that — right?”

“I would learn later on that people could and people would.”

Directing digital content for Equal Pride, a group of queer-focused media sites that includes The Advocate and Out, Kayla Gagnet stated that “pointing out obvious signals is not inherently problematic” when it comes to celebrity news coverage.

She told AFP that identifying queerness “should be no different” from the public figuring out that Swift and Kelce were dating before they made their relationship official.

Yet, the criticism directed at the Times column, according to Gagnet, “is really focused on not the reading of queerness into her work, which I think is totally valid, but more on ignoring or being dismissive of what she herself has said about it.”

She went on, “People who follow pop culture will always be curious about who celebrities are dating.” “It’s fair game to sort of be interested in what that might mean about their sexuality.”

However, Gagnet stated that “we believe people when they tell us who they are” at Equal Pride locations.

And it holds true for everyone, including heterosexual people and LGBT people.