cross-posted from: https://poptalk.scrubbles.tech/post/531576
For those here who don’t know, there’s a conspiracy passed around from a small group of Taylor Swift’s fans that she is secretly queer and is too afraid/ashamed/unable to say it. They believe that she talks secretly to them through her music trying to let them know that she is not hetero and needs anything from support to convincing others that she is.
I’ll leave my small rant below about my swiftie feelings about it, but it just feels like a complete 180 from what the core ideals of LGBTQ+ are. To allow someone to feel comfortable with who they are, to not pressure anyone, to not pull anyone out of the closet, and to not be gossips.
All people close to Taylor that have spoken about the NYT piece have confirmed that everyone is shocked and angry about the piece, and of course they are. Even on the slight chance that she is queer (which open goes against what she herself has told everyone), how are you being an ally at all by dragging them out of the closet?
I think it was awful of @nytimes to publish. Triggering for me to read— not because the writer mentioned my nearly ending my life— but seeing a public person’s sexuality being discussed is upsetting.
I think the Gaylors should be ashamed of themselves. They are doing exactly what LGTBQ+ have fought against for decades now - people making assumptions about their own lives and sexuality - but they’re masking it because it’s Taylor.
I’m in the camp of anything that’s not public is just that - not public. Even if it were true (and all signs point to it not being true), then it’d be disrespectful of us to talk about it unless she made it public. Think about it, you’re going out of your way to talk about something that she explicitly has hidden from the rest of the world. That doesn’t make you a better fan, it makes you a gossip and not an ally.
/rant.
See for me, questioning people’s sexuality shouldn’t be a thing, celebrity or not. I think it cuts both ways, that it’s wrong to assume someone’s gender or assume someone is hetero and also wrong to assume that someone is non-binary or that they are queer.
At this point it’s not just a suggestion, but that people are going out of their way to write articles about it, to make it headline news. I should reword - at that point it’s no longer gossip but nearing slander. That’s not a tumblr blog or tweet, it’s an official publication making suggestions.
As for proof, well there is none. You either have a lot of gossip on one side, or you have what she says and does on the other. Personally, I think it’s up to her to say anything if she wants to. But her friends are upset about it and calling on the NYT to take down the “article”.
True, the article was probably written with the intention of it blowing up and I have no idea what nyt has to do with celebrity gossip.
Misinformation? Slander implies it’s a bad thing to be queer
Yeah I debated on the word slander, I think it’s the nearest thing the law has to something like this. I’m annoyed they threw it up as an opinion so they can just say “Oh but we didn’t report on it, it was only opinion”.
And yeah, I guess that’s what shocked me the most about it - that it wasn’t coming from some celebrity gossip rag on the bottom rack of the supermarket - but from the NYT.