🎤 Gaylor Swift 🎤

QUEER WORD
GAYLOR

What It Means:

A portmanteau of ‘gay’ and ‘Taylor’ (as in Taylor Swift), referring to the theory that the singer is a closeted lesbian, bisexual or sapphic person. Believers of this theory - who have anointed themselves Gaylors - interpret her lyrics, music videos, and public relationships as coded signals of queerness.

Let’s Use It In A Sentence:

My friend sent me a 47-slide powerpoint presentation at 2am, breaking down the colour symbolism of the vases that are placed on the dressing table in the background of the interview that Taylor gave for Vanity Fair magazine, and now I'm afraid I’m a Gaylor who will never be able to listen to ‘1989’ the same way ever again.

A little bit of history:

Conspiracy theories come in all shapes and sizes.

Some are about the legitimacy of the moon landing. Some are about the damage that 5G signals do to your brain. Some are even so elaborate that they claim the world’s elite are secretly reptilian aliens in human shaped suits.

And some... are about the sexuality of a popstar.

That last one might seem a little tame as far as conspiracy theories go. But, just like all the best (or worst?) conspiracies, it involves convoluted explanations, supposedly coded messages hidden in plain sight, and the contradictory belief that someone would go to ALL that effort to keep a secret while simultaneously dropping hints at every opportunity.

So let's find out what this is all about, shall we?

Where did the term ‘Gaylor’ come from?

The 2010s really were a wonderful time to be on the internet. Technology had advanced far enough that uploading pictures and watching videos was easy, but the social media platforms hadn’t yet descended in to the clickbait rage-fests that they are nowadays.

There were the perfect conditions for harmless fringe theories and crackpot banter to flourish on micro-blogging sites like Tumblr and the site that Twitter used to be (RIP).

And in this world a group of people found themselves bonding over their interpretations (or, maybe more accurately, over-interpretations) of the lyrics of one Taylor Swift.

Now, I’m always wary to pin the origin of these types of terms to just one thing, but it seems that this all started with some rather lazy sleazy tabloid speculation.

When Swift released her 2012 album ‘Red’, she thanked Dianna Agron (best known for playing Quinn Fabray on musical TV show Glee) in the liner notes. This (and this alone) seemed to be evidence to whoever wrote the article that the two must be in some kind of a secret relationship.

And, as flimsy as this argument was, it seems to be the spark that lit the flame. Fans went looking for more evidence to support this claim. They combed through lyrics with forensic precision. They analysed music videos frame by frame. They built timelines in Google Docs (yes, really. If you’ve got a few hours you should really seek it out) tracking supposed coded references and hidden meanings.

What emerged was a whole subculture of believers who called themselves Gaylors - people convinced that Swift was gay or bisexual and leaving hints about her true sexuality through elaborate signals in her work.

And, ok, I know what you’re thinking - there have always been strange people on the internet. So what if a few people are getting together to share threadbare theories?

But the Gaylor community has become a full-fledged phenomenon. We're not talking about a handful of people on an obscure forum. We're talking about dedicated subreddits with tens of thousands of members, viral TikToks with millions of views, and ‘evidence’ collected in in-depth timelines that run to hundreds of pages.

There are Gaylor podcasts. Gaylor explainer videos. It's become its own ecosystem—self-sustaining, ever-expanding, and utterly convinced of its own legitimacy.

Academics (because of course there are academics studying this) call it a ‘closeting conspiracy theory’ (or CCT), which is a specific type of conspiracy that involves scrutinising public figures' sexualities and imagining secret queer lives hidden in plain sight.

Why this is both fascinating and horrifying

Ok, so, maybe ‘horrifying’ is too strong of a word.

But there's something deeply weird happening here.

On a human level, I get it. I understand the appeal of being a Gaylor (and of being a conspiracy theorist in general, tbh). There's that intoxicating thrill of feeling like you know something other people don't. That you're somehow a better fan than others because you've spotted things they never could. You understand Taylor more than anyone else.

And beyond that, I can see how being part of a group of Gaylors (or is it a gaggle of Gaylors?) satisfies a need for belonging. If you’re some queer kid who has never been understood by those around you of course you’re going to throw yourself head first in to a group of people whose interests and values seem to chime with your own.

But…

Poring over the every action of a person in an effort to find a shred of evidence that they may not be totally heterosexual is kind of... not great.

And, yeah, I know, Taylor Swift is not some vulnerable teenager being outed against her will. She's one of the most powerful people in the entertainment industry. But the principle still stands: having your sexuality misinterpreted and foisted upon you, no matter how famous you are, can be frustrating and exhausting.

Especially as there's no way to really engage with it. Deny it, and people will double down on their claims, convinced your denial is just more proof of you being closeted. Ignore it, and the theories multiply unchecked.

I mean, what if, to avoid future speculation, Swift starts playing down or distancing herself from her allyship (which, up until this point, has been pretty commendable)? What if the cost of these theories is that she (or other celebrities) decide it's not worth publicly supporting queer causes because it only fuels more conspiracy-mongering?

People need to be able to be allies to the queer community without it calling their own sexuality into question. Because if supporting us means opening yourself up to years of speculation and analysis, fewer and fewer people will be willing to stick their necks out. And that kind of sucks for all of us.

Ok, so that covers the horrifying side of things.

The thing that has really stuck out to me whilst digging in to the world of the Gaylors, and the thing that I find most fascinating, is the role of online spaces in building community. These Google Docs and Reddit threads and Instagram comment sections seem to be replacing what gay bars and queer community centres used to provide. Connection. Belonging. A sense of us.

And maybe that's just what community looks like these. Maybe there’s nothing that’s been lost in moving communion from physical spaces to online forums.

But I can't help feeling a bit sad that there are fewer and fewer actual queer spaces for people to gather in, so instead they're building entire worlds around whether or not a straight pop star wore a telling shade of purple in a music video.