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Why Taylor Swift can’t deny being gay Dignified silence is her only option

The NYT is testing Taylor. Mat Hayward/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management

The NYT is testing Taylor. Mat Hayward/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management


January 12, 2024   5 mins

The American fascination with the private lives of celebrities has always been inflamed by the mix of sex with scandal. In 1907, the country was enthralled by what was deemed the “Trial of the Century” after railroad heir Harry Kendall Thaw murdered architect Stanford White for the love of a nubile chorus girl; in 1921, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was front-page news as he stood trial for allegedly crushing a girl to death while raping her. But absent a splashy murder plot, the next best thing in celebrity gossip has always been a big, gay mystery: Is he or isn’t he?

Rumours that this or that star was actually, secretly same-sex attracted were par for the course in classic Hollywood, even as studios provided cover to their not-so-straight stars by casting them in scripted fauxmances with celebs of the opposite sex. Actor Tab Hunter, then closeted, reportedly managed to keep his career afloat in the Fifties by “dating” Natalie Wood, while gossip columnists asked sly, barbed questions about whether he was really the right type of guy for her, wink, wink. Rock Hudson battled rumours about his orientation for decades, even marrying his agent’s secretary to preserve the appearance of being a good old-fashioned lover of ladies. In a culture that viewed homosexuality with a mix of horror and fascination, creating a straight narrative for gay actors was part conspiracy, part con: to stay in the public’s good graces, they needed to at least pretend to conform to its mores.

But times changed, and with them, so did the nature of the is-he-or-isn’t-he discourse. Malicious rumour-mongering about gay actors gave way to something more like idle curiosity, while straight artists earned accolades for playing explicitly gay characters on-screen. The overt homophobia of the 20th century was replaced in the 21st by a fascination with minority sexual orientations, and shortly thereafter, the commodification thereof: Tumblr fanfic writers avidly projected queer desire onto canonically straight characters (not to mention the actually straight actors who played them), culture critics wrote think pieces about the problematic appropriation of allowing straight people to play gay roles, and the term “queerbaiting” was coined to describe the behaviour of celebrities who weren’t gay — or were they?

Crucially, this is bait that people of all persuasions have been all too happy to take. Today, the penchant for slyly referring to certain celebs as “confirmed bachelors” has been replaced by a smorgasbord of stars who are confirmed queer, or queer-adjacent, or queer-suspected, along with the occasional celebrity of a certain age who was grandfathered into the closet back when the mores were different and now remains there either by choice or inertia. Being ambiguously gay, or at least willing to be seen as maybe possibly such, confers status and intrigue much in the same way as those studio-orchestrated fauxmances did back in the Fifties.

But the symbiosis between the maybe-gay star and the slavering public is a precarious one, and it is possible to push it too far — as illustrated by the New York Times opinion piece titled “Look What We Made Taylor Do”. The essay, written by Anna Marks, is presented by its author as a catalogue of all the evidence that Taylor Swift is actually, secretly gay, but is probably better described as 5,000 words of pure wish-projection, a Tumblr-grade conspiracy theory that somehow wormed its way into the paper of record. Per Marks, Taylor Swift’s entire dating history (men), lyrical subject matter (men), and publicly stated preferences (men) are all just an elaborate psy-op: what’s really important, what really matters, is that her Lover album cover contains some of the same colours, sort of, as the bisexual pride flag.

As a cursory internet search for the term “Gaylor” will reveal, this is not the first time Swift’s sexual orientation has been the subject of speculation. And yet, there was an immediate sense in the wake of its publication that Marks’s essay had crossed a line. An anonymous source from within Swift’s camp slammed The New York Times in an interview with CNN, saying that a similar article about a male artist would never have passed muster at the paper: “There seems to be no boundary some journalists won’t cross when writing about Taylor, regardless of how invasive, untrue, and inappropriate it is — all under the protective veil of an ‘opinion piece’.”

Here, it is probably worth noting that, however inappropriate an article like this is, it is neither singular nor sexist: though Marks rarely writes for the paper at which she is an editor, she does have one other essay under her belt, a similar (albeit less lengthy) case for the secret gayness of Harry Styles. “Mr. Styles’s performance (and exorbitant ticket prices) makes his identity our business,” she wrote in August 2022. And if it is inappropriate, it’s arguably not more so than all the other speculation about Swift’s sex life that the press has engaged in over the years, including camping out at the apartment of current beau Travis Kelce in order to breathlessly report that Swift — who, lest we forget, is a 34-year-old woman — spent the night with her boyfriend. The difference, perhaps, is that the latter narrative is one in which Swift has always been a willing participant; what The New York Times did is more akin to casting her in a public and vaguely masturbatory lesbian fantasy without her consent.

The sympathetic take on this is that it’s about representation and identity, and specifically about the desire of marginalised groups from whom dignity, respect, and due credit have often been withheld to claim certain celebrities as One Of Us. Certainly this was the desire that fuelled last year’s controversial New York Times op-ed about Louisa May Alcott, to whom the writer assigned a trans identity and he/him pronouns — and which not coincidentally struck some of the same sour notes as the Swift one, fuelled in this case by the fact that Alcott was not alive to object.

The more cynical interpretation, though, is that Marks’s essay is a sort of queerbaiting unto itself — as in, baiting Taylor Swift into an argument about her own sexual orientation that she would really prefer not to have, forcibly conscripting her into a culture war she has thus far done her best to avoid. It’s hard not to notice that many positive cultural developments, such as the welcome rise in visibility and acceptance of the LGBT community, have been accompanied by the rise of an ideology powerful enough to supersede both national and religious identity, draping its rainbow-coloured flag over statehouses, churches, and corporate culture alike. And with this has come the unspoken but palpable sense that there can be no fame without the proper politics — a monocultural hegemony in which the press, including The New York Times, act as chief enforcers. There is an expectation that pop stars who’ve ascended to a certain level of visibility will announce their support for Democratic candidates. They will use their platforms for progressive activism. And they will produce an artist’s tithe in the form of an anthem signalling their support for the LGBT community — or be subject to increasingly pointed questions about why they haven’t yet.

In this context, Marks’s essay starts to seem like more than just a piece of poorly argued gossip, something akin to the political rumour-mongering about which Hollywood figures were Communist sympathisers at the height of the Red Scare. Calling Swift queer in the pages of The New York Times feels like a flex, and a test: what’s she going to do about it? Complain? After nearly two decades of playing peek-a-boo with her fans and the press alike over which guy she wrote that revenge song about, it’s the essay about her secret LGB status that’s somehow beyond the pale?

At this point, Swift can’t protest this invasion of privacy without being accused of protesting too much. Any objection will be read as an admission of guilt: if not that she’s the closeted queer her fans so desperately yearn for, then that she’s the secret Right-wing bigot the press has so often accused her of being, which is of course the only type of person who would object to being called gay in The New York Times. The only way for Taylor Swift to signal now that she’s on the right side of history is therefore to stay silent… at least until she releases her next album.


Kat Rosenfield is an UnHerd columnist and co-host of the Feminine Chaos podcast. Her latest novel is You Must Remember This.

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Fafa Fafa
Fafa Fafa
8 months ago

I’m trying to care. Let’s see how it goes.

Champagne Socialist
Champagne Socialist
8 months ago
Reply to  Fafa Fafa

And there it is!

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
8 months ago

And there it/they are!

Gayle Rosenthal
Gayle Rosenthal
8 months ago
Reply to  Fafa Fafa

Ditto …. I’ll save you the time. See my post above.

Champagne Socialist
Champagne Socialist
8 months ago

This is really going to trigger the ancients at Unherd!
Here’s what I predict – follow along and see how I do!
There’s bound to be a few people who claim not to know who Taylor Swift is because they haven’t read the MSM since 1961 or whatever. Closely related will be the folks who claim not to care about a subject that they have just read a reasonably lengthy piece about and then taken the trouble to comment on – love those guys!
Someone is bound to say its her fault if the Chiefs don’t win the Super Bowl because she made Travis Kelce gay or something.
What else? The usual anti-LGBT+ bigotry that we have come to expect. There will be some hate directed at Taylor Swift because she doesn’t have the political sensibilities of, say, Kid Rock.

Daniel P
Daniel P
8 months ago

Honestly, I just do not give a damn about LGB at all. Boring. So what? All over the place, always been all over the place. Good ones. Bad ones. Just like everybody else.
As for the rest of that alphabet? Most of them are just run of the mill freaks with mental illnesses. But again, if they do not bother me, then what do I care?
As fro Taylor Swift, eh, the real story is how these celebrities are allowed no private lives. Just not possible. Though, we could argue that the story is the gross behavior of some writers who just want to be aholes and speculate about something that is none of their business. It is just gross and it is intentionally cruel for the sake of clicks.

N Satori
N Satori
8 months ago

Another load of plonking provocation from damn shame socialist.
Any takers?

Katja Sipple
Katja Sipple
8 months ago
Reply to  N Satori

How kind of you to offer, but I have a “no trolls” policy, and don’t even read his/her/its dribbling nonsense. I shall have to pass.

laurence scaduto
laurence scaduto
8 months ago
Reply to  N Satori

Na. I’m too ancient.
I’m just here for the pictures.

Right-Wing Hippie
Right-Wing Hippie
8 months ago

I’m really more of an eternal than an ancient.

Jim Veenbaas
Jim Veenbaas
8 months ago

Geez, you’re really not good at this prognostication stuff.

Champagne Socialist
Champagne Socialist
8 months ago
Reply to  Jim Veenbaas

Au contraire, Jimbo – I nailed it!

David Morley
David Morley
8 months ago
Reply to  Jim Veenbaas

I think his point is that he doesn’t have to be good.

David Morley
David Morley
8 months ago

Most of those weren’t hard to predict – but I guess that’s the point. I thought that was pretty good. More quality stuff like this please. Upvote from me, though it won’t help much.

Tom More
Tom More
7 months ago

More interesting as I wrote above is that there is no such thing as persons who are identifiably distinctly and immutably LGBetc. The GANNA study has proved that most people with the same genome which has no sex specific elements to it in any case, are normally sexually attracted and active. And any behavioral change is overwhelmingly towards normal human sexual attraction and behavior. Reproductive organs after all, are about reproduction. But most important are the largely abused kids who are driven into this high risk , high disease, high suicide lifetyle. and the utter confusion that lies and dishonesty has sewn in the cult -ure that sees thousands of young women paying surgeons to mutilate them as companies convicted of felony behaviors and lies, feeds them hormones with devastating effects. Just who are the “phobes” here?

Right-Wing Hippie
Right-Wing Hippie
8 months ago

Wait a minute…Rock Hudson was gay?

Daniel P
Daniel P
8 months ago

So I hear. Broke my mothers heart. LOL

greg reaume
greg reaume
8 months ago
Reply to  Daniel P

Hilarious. My mother too thought Rock Hudson was a God. Never forgave him!

Ethniciodo Rodenydo
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
8 months ago

And David Bowie was a Thatcherite

Perry de Havilland
Perry de Havilland
8 months ago

He always was a smart one

David Morley
David Morley
8 months ago

Is that the guy who used to sing with Mick Ronson!

Right-Wing Hippie
Right-Wing Hippie
8 months ago
Reply to  David Morley

Wasn’t he in the Monkees?

Cho Jinn
Cho Jinn
8 months ago

Harvey Fierstein, too!

Atticus Basilhoff
Atticus Basilhoff
8 months ago

No, but all his boyfriends and lovers were.

Daniel P
Daniel P
8 months ago

Well, we can say one thing, maybe two.

First, the NYT has proved it can be as tasteless as the National Enquirer.

Second, that there are absolutely no journalistic standards today.

Duane M
Duane M
3 months ago
Reply to  Daniel P

And for the decay of journalism we can thank the rise of social media, beginning with Facebook. And social media could not exist without the Internet. Which used to be a great place to find documented facts and information, in the years B.G. (Before Google). And Google’s early motto was, “Don’t Be Evil”.

It reminds me of how the inventors of television believed it would be a channel to distribute educational material and high culture to those living out in the countryside. Then, along came advertising…

T Bone
T Bone
8 months ago

This is an extremely well written, nuanced article. I’ve never cared for her proclaimed politics or her music but as Taylor has been forced into the culture wars more, I do find her to be a somewhat relatable person. I think her star power is based on a sense of humility that she gives off, which is uncommon for celebrities.

I get that she does a lot of political virtue signaling and her music is mostly trashing ex-boyfriends but at the end of the day she is an entertainer. She’s playing an Anti-Hero role. She’s been highly successful and as somebody that values meritocracy, I just can’t build up too much resentment for anybody that’s talented enough to command that kind of market power. Ain’t gonna be a Hater. Her personal life is none of my business. Wish her the best. I hope she finds happiness.

Steve Murray
Steve Murray
8 months ago
Reply to  T Bone

Well said. Although i couldn’t name one of her songs (just baiting ChampSoc here), it’s possible to recognise her status as a cultural phenomenon and the way she deftly handles the fame.

KR is right about her maintaining composure in the face of media gossip, an object lesson for a whole bunch of other slebs. I can see it’d also be a good career move for any hetero male to wish to become the next in line as album fodder. The adoration of her fanbase might compensate for the possibility that her beaus have ulterior motives; but she can never be sure.

LeeKC C
LeeKC C
8 months ago

Seems to me to be the continuation of a dominant portion within the LGBTQI community once again to continue to draw anything of perceived cultural ‘value’, both now and in a time before, into their black hole of self loathing. Why else would you project this onto others if you are so happy and filled with ‘pride’ with your own sense of self? It would not be necessary or even wanted.
In reply to Champagne Socialist – care -yes – in-as-much as we are all being dragged into this maelstrom of nonsense by them at the expense of anyone and everyone else. So yes I care. Thankfully. But not in the way you think. Sorry for you.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
8 months ago
Reply to  LeeKC C

Thanks for dealing with Poo Fash’s woke garbage.

Champagne Socialist
Champagne Socialist
8 months ago
Reply to  LeeKC C

How does it feel to know that I can predict literally everything you are going to say?

Christopher Barclay
Christopher Barclay
8 months ago

Not having to work due to your sucking the blood out of those that do, you have plenty of time to consider irrelevant matters.

Bret Larson
Bret Larson
7 months ago

Is it the kgb or the gestapo you use for your investigations?

Jim Veenbaas
Jim Veenbaas
8 months ago

I’m sure Swift doesn’t care the least about idle gossip from the NYT.

Katja Sipple
Katja Sipple
8 months ago
Reply to  Jim Veenbaas

I hope she doesn’t as the NYT has lost all credibility as a serious newspaper. As befits a gossip rag, it is now best utilised to line bird cages although I would not want to inflict the contents on my parrots. They are intelligent and sensible birds.

Buena Vista
Buena Vista
8 months ago
Reply to  Jim Veenbaas

I certainly hope Ms. Swift ignores such gossip, just as Kat R. and UnHerd should have ignored it. To post this thousand-word essay only served to lend gravitas to the rumors.

54321
54321
8 months ago

This subject always reminds me of Caroline Aherne’s brilliant The Royle Family^. Malingering Mancunian paterfamilias Jim and his dim-witted son-in-law Dave are discussing a well-known rumour about a Hollywood star:
“R_____ G___ is gay, you know.”
“Is he?”
“Oh yeah! Its common knowledge down the Feathers (their local pub).”
The main lesson to be drawn out of this whole Taylor Swift thing is that the New York Times is so determined to demean its own history and reputation in pursuit of “relevance” that it might as well be dancing on the street with its trousers down begging for pennies.
^ For anyone not familiar, The Royle Family is a sitcom about a working class British family who do little else than watch TV and argue. The premise may not sound very promising but it contains some of the best and most insightful comedy writing in British TV history.

peter lucey
peter lucey
8 months ago

Or, I suppose, it’s possible that the NYT “story” was arranged. That is, at the Taylor Swift Corp monthly strategy conference, the marketing team suggested that an NYT story might deepen penetration in an otherwise neglected sales demographic.

Brad Mountz
Brad Mountz
8 months ago
Reply to  peter lucey

Deepen penetration. Where are we going with this?

Brian Thomas
Brian Thomas
8 months ago

Who?

Champagne Socialist
Champagne Socialist
8 months ago
Reply to  Brian Thomas

Brilliant – exactly as I predicted!

David Morley
David Morley
8 months ago

Amazing – exactly as I predicted!

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
8 months ago

Why is this important?!

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
8 months ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

Because it illustrates the decline of the legacy media.

Jaden Johnson
Jaden Johnson
8 months ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

Because of this:

a monocultural hegemony in which the press, including The New York Times, act as chief enforcers. 

If UnHerd stands for anything, surely it’s to expose and oppose the monocultural hegemony?

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
8 months ago
Reply to  Jaden Johnson

If it is able to do so it would disprove its existence. An admirable project for a hedge fund millionaire though.

Brad Mountz
Brad Mountz
8 months ago

NYT = Crap. Same LGBTzyz BS. If she’s gay or isn’t she is NOYFB! Get your fantasy kicks elsewhere!

Richard C
Richard C
8 months ago

Unherd has degenerated into clickbait with this and some other recent stories.
Gay women are unlikely to be attracted to the type of man that Travis Kelce is. On the other side, there is a near zero probability of Kelce being a sexual ‘beard’ for Swift.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
8 months ago
Reply to  Richard C

Easily three-fourths of the headlines have been clickbait here for years. So it’s not a process of descending as much as a completed descent. But the article itself has some substance and insight, I think–despite the trivial starting point.

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
8 months ago
Reply to  Richard C

Gay women are unlikely to be not attracted to the type of man that Travis Kelce is to men, irrespective of their type.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
8 months ago
Reply to  Richard C

What? I’d do it and I’m not even gay. Taylor Swift is the closest to a goddess our modern secular culture gets and while Kelce gets to pretend he’s dating Aphrodite he gets to free-love all the premium escorts and strippers he wants whilst maintaining a sponsor friendly American sweetheart image.

Champagne Socialist
Champagne Socialist
8 months ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

Strange world you live in…

tug ordie
tug ordie
8 months ago
Reply to  Richard C

The story was published in the times, and Taylor Swift is the biggest star on the planet

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
8 months ago

“the political rumour-mongering about which Hollywood figures were Communist sympathisers at the height of the Red Scare”
We urgently need another Red Scare, or perhaps that should be Woke Scare.

Champagne Socialist
Champagne Socialist
8 months ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

Bring it on – let the morons and bigots expose themselves for further ridicule.

Julian Farrows
Julian Farrows
8 months ago

Hello, bigoted moron.

Christine Novak
Christine Novak
8 months ago

And really, who cares? And why does she even care? It’s publicity for her and increases her fan base. I’m surprised she even responded.

Micael Gustavsson
Micael Gustavsson
8 months ago

Has she responded?

Daniel Lee
Daniel Lee
8 months ago

You heard what came out this week, right? Turns out that Barry Manilow was secretly gay all these years. Head explodes.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
8 months ago
Reply to  Daniel Lee

Haha! “O say it ain’t so Mandy”.

Right-Wing Hippie
Right-Wing Hippie
8 months ago
Reply to  Daniel Lee

You know who else is rumored to have been secretly gay? Liberace.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
8 months ago

And George Michael but I’m not buyin’ it. Total man’s man. Wait…what does that expression mean exactly?

Right-Wing Hippie
Right-Wing Hippie
8 months ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

It’s another phrase for a valet, or personal servant.

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
8 months ago

Two laughs in a row…thumbs up.

Gerry Quinn
Gerry Quinn
8 months ago

I KNEW IT!!!

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
8 months ago

Kat Rosenfield can turn the most idle subject matter into a searching and incisive essay. She writes real good too. Love her wit and willingness to have a good laugh in the midst of the lamentable.
It seems that our collective fascination with what goes on below the navels of the famous is an extension of our “collective navel gazing” run amok; a prismatic self projected onto manifold screens, mirrored by the solitary poses of inward-looking fascination. (Or something like that–I think Ms. Rosenfield or Marshall McLuhan could say it better).

Carissa Pavlica
Carissa Pavlica
8 months ago

Using other people to serve your inner satisfaction about a point you then make in public is crass. You don’t out someone for their lifestyle choice to serve your own. Nobody is under any obligation to do your talking for you no matter their personal persuasion, but people who demand all of this are doing just that under the blanket term of representation.

Gayle Rosenthal
Gayle Rosenthal
8 months ago

Who cares ? She makes good art and I already have enough friends in my life to have real relationships with. I’m not the slightest bit interested in her sex life.

Champagne Socialist
Champagne Socialist
8 months ago

So why have you commented multiple times on something that bores you so much?

Andrew Dalton
Andrew Dalton
8 months ago

Surely you could answer that since you spend you’re waking life responding to people you don’t like?

David Morley
David Morley
8 months ago
Reply to  Andrew Dalton

Good point.

Champagne Socialist
Champagne Socialist
8 months ago
Reply to  Andrew Dalton

Your, not you’re.

Andrew Dalton
Andrew Dalton
8 months ago

Very good. Now, do you have an answer to the actual question?

Gayle Rosenthal
Gayle Rosenthal
8 months ago

I don’t know which is more vapid. To care about TSs personal life or to spend time reading about it. I regret the waste of time.

philip kern
philip kern
8 months ago

I’m just here for the comments.

Jane Awdry
Jane Awdry
8 months ago

“The welcome rise in visibility of the LGBT community”.
I do wish people would stop conflating ‘T’ with ‘LGB’. It is not ‘welcome’ in the view of many people who are LGB. It’s an entirely separate ‘community’ with an entirely different agenda.

Right-Wing Hippie
Right-Wing Hippie
8 months ago
Reply to  Jane Awdry

But without the T you wouldn’t be able to make a BLGT, which is a bacon, lettuce, guacamole and tomato sandwich.

laurence scaduto
laurence scaduto
8 months ago
Reply to  Jane Awdry

Yes. Can’t be said often enough!

Champagne Socialist
Champagne Socialist
8 months ago

Don’t pretend that you are now a friend of the LGB community. Its not so long since you were foaming at the mouth about gay marriage and, if the religious wingnuts on the US Supreme Court get their way, that may be another right that Americans lose.
The anti-trans hatred is simply the next front in the battle for equality and you are mad because you know you are losing, just like you did with race, gender and sexual equality.
How does that feel?

Alan Tonkyn
Alan Tonkyn
8 months ago

You can be a friend of, and/or have friends in, the ‘LGB Community’ whilst not supporting gay marriage. There are plenty of gay people who themselves oppose it.

Rob N
Rob N
8 months ago
Reply to  Jane Awdry

You are quite correct. The rise in visibility of the T community is definitely not welcome nor (though less so), to be honest, is the LGB. As while I don’t care what people get up to in their spare (consenting adults’) time I do not feel the need/interest to be viewing other peoples’ private lifestyles let alone having it forced on me. I have gay friends/acquaintances who are good people even if I have no enthusiasm for the LGB side of their character but they keep their private actions private (as I do mine) and I respect that.
Both the actions of the LGB or LGBT community and their visibility in our society are signs of our impending collapse.

LeeKC C
LeeKC C
8 months ago
Reply to  Jane Awdry

Sorry Jane. I empathise with your position. I wish that the portion of the LGB community that feels this way was more vocalized in its stance and why. Unfortunately the public space has been dominated by the ‘pride’ rainbow. That flag is being flown everywhere to the exclusion of almost everything else. It has become the centre of public life. I have always had friends and colleagues who were gay and deeply respected their choices. However as someone else has pointed out below, I am sick and tired of overt ‘pride’ sexuality dominating my space. I don’t care for anyone’s sexuality but continually having it front and centre and shoved down my throat is too much to handle. They are shooting themselves in the foot. I don’t want anyone’s overt sexuality shoved in my face no matter who they are or their orientation. Just get on with life and be a part of society. Not dominant.
An interesting quote from Rob Henderson as a take away:
“If a male enjoys dressing up and behaving like a woman, he was born this way. If a female enjoys dressing up and behaving like a woman, she was brainwashed by society”.

Beverley Talbott
Beverley Talbott
8 months ago
Reply to  Jane Awdry

T begone. Go start your own movement. Stop piggybacking and devouring LGB. And leave the kids alone.

John Davis
John Davis
8 months ago
Reply to  Jane Awdry

LGB isn’t a “community” either. Lesbians and gays have little in common and neither look favourably on bisexuals. At best it’s a coalition of convenience for the sake of political power.

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
8 months ago

I thought the whole point of all this societal “progress” we have experienced was so questions like this would be superfluous. At the same time, it tells all that anyone needs to know about activists – they NEVER stop. Ever. There is no goal line for them to cross and no incentive to find solutions for whatever problems they see. Their ends are served by perpetuating problems, real or perceived, because that’s where the grift lies. A solution means the end of the line. Who wants that?

Philip May
Philip May
8 months ago

Yawn. Are they serving tapioca for lunch today?

Champagne Socialist
Champagne Socialist
8 months ago

It looks like my predictions were 100% correct. You guys are nothing if not predictable!

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
8 months ago

Your self-made superiority has once again been echoed in the hollows–or turbulent channels–of your skull. Cool story bro. Can’t you at least be a better or more entertaining troll?

Champagne Socialist
Champagne Socialist
8 months ago
Reply to  AJ Mac

That’s a lot of words to say “yes, you were right”!

AJ Mac
AJ Mac
8 months ago

I meant: Nice try, you’ve cooked the numbers and sound like a self-congratulatory fool. And I think you’re smart enough to know that. Cut your overreach by two-thirds and you’ll be harder to ignore than you are now.

Christopher Chantrill
Christopher Chantrill
8 months ago

All this educated-class word salad is fine. But as a grandfather, let me tell you: the meaning of Life, the Universe, Everything is grandchildren.

Steve Jolly
Steve Jolly
8 months ago

Taylor has never been very vocal about political or social issues. I suspect she’s simply taking what I call the ‘Michael Jordan’ approach to building her personal brand. Back in 1990, Jordan was asked about an election in North Carolina involving Republican Senator Jesse Helms, who was a long serving incumbent, hard right winger, and a longtime opponent of civil rights legislation going back to the 70’s. Jordan declined to make any public political endorsement and jested that “Republicans buy sneakers too,” though he later did clarify he had voted Democrat. He was more concerned with playing basketball, making money, and building his brand into a multimillion dollar enterprise than he was with moral crusading. I suspect Taylor is simply more interested in making music, living her life, and maybe there’s an element of appealing to a broader audience to sell more music. Not everybody is trying to make the world a better place. Some people are just trying to live and succeed in it, whether it’s good, bad, or neither. I suspect the world would be a better place if more people took this approach. At the end of the day, the deeds of do-gooders don’t do much good.

Robert Bethard
Robert Bethard
8 months ago

Taylor Swift being, or rumored to be, a lesbian increases her “hipness factor” to her legions of fans, especially the younger ones. 
She’s trying to “shake off” (forgive me) the safe “America’s Sweetheart” image. That’s what her 2019 song You Need to Calm Down and her 2018 endorsement of a Democratic Senate candidate was doing. 
Tangential but germane I hope – 
If sexual orientation is whatever one says it is and is fluid and changeable how does that factor in when LGBTQ+ status is a diversity bonus for a job seeker? Case in point Hollywood, Academy Award inclusion Standards.
https://ictnews.org/news/new-academy-award-inclusion-standards-draw-praise-from-native-filmmakers#:~:text=The%20new%20rules%20also%20require,people%20with%20cognitive%20or%20physical
From that site:
“The new rules also require that at least two of the key creative leadership positions or department heads — casting director, cinematographer, composer, costume designer, director — and crew composition must include be women or representatives of a racial or ethnic group; LGBTQ+; or people with cognitive or physical disabilities; or who fall into one of the following categories: Asian; Hispanic/Latinx; Black/African American; Indigenous/Native American/Alaskan Native; Middle Eastern/North African; Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, or another underrepresented race or ethnicity”
How do they verify a jobseeker for a “key creative leadership” position on a movie crew’s claim to LGBTQ+ status?
What “proof” is required? wouldn’t it make sense for a white male to say they are “queer”?
Is this all based on self report? Do they think job candidates never lie?

Stuart Rose
Stuart Rose
8 months ago

Excellent piece. The analogy of the Times piece to those articles in the 50s ascribing support of Communism to star is astute.

Phil Mac
Phil Mac
8 months ago

I’m sure Swift is privately delighted at this keeping her in the conversation and attracting some victim type sympathy. It’s so helpful it could have been planted by her PR force.

Christopher Barclay
Christopher Barclay
8 months ago

Harry Styles and Taylor Swift dated. After the break-up, Taylor’s loathing of Styles was not typical of someone who had been in a pretend-only relationship.

0 0
0 0
8 months ago

Why is this sort of speculation compulsory about so called stars ,vespecially female ones?

William Cameron
William Cameron
8 months ago

Why do the Queer people need to endlessly discuss their predilections as though we are interested ?

William Cameron
William Cameron
8 months ago

LGB is what they are . T is a separate matter and not the same at all.

Sensible Citizen
Sensible Citizen
8 months ago

You can’t help but wonder if the Swift/Kelce union is a paid marketing stunt by a certain pharma who has signed Kelce, whom no one in the world (except for American NFL fans, a shrinking breed) has ever heard of, yet is making $20m to promote dubious jabs. The relationship looks fake. No bikini pics on the beach — de rigor for celebratory flings — and no spontaneous spottings that suggest they “date.” Her willingness to sacrifice a legit relationship for money would suggest she maybe doesn’t care for men.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
8 months ago

Alphabet people desperately want everyone else to be alphabet people. While also making the (scientifically false) claim that they’re born that way and can’t change. While the rate of teenage girls turning trans explodes in the space of a few years. They’re not trying to convert anybody though. It’s totally happening naturally.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
8 months ago

All I can say is “Got myself a crying, talking, sleeping, walking living doll”..

Tom More
Tom More
7 months ago

Its so ironic that the recent Ganna study of over half a million proved that there is no such thing as “gay”. They have normal genomes. The behaviors are associated with experiencing at an early age, parental divorce, alienation from a same sex parent of death of same. And the NYC AIDS surveys taken during the megadeath AIDS romp through same sex behaving people found that about half of people surveyed with AIDS reported their first sexual experience as being sodomized or interfered with by an older male at the average age of eleven.
And now we know that the so called study mislabeling SOCE (Sexual Orientation Change Efforts) as “conversion” therapy and banned across the west, was an utterly and transparently fraudulent exercise. They included people who were suicidal BEFORE the SOCE as victims of SOCE. The actual results showed an 80% reduction of suicidality in adults.
Everything in the west, all talk, all media, all articles, are lies. Often told by well intended people who just underemphasize that “trans” people have a 19X greater suicide rate. And that over a million young men have died from practicing sodomy.
And nobody was born that way. We could be helping these kids and victims of dysfunction and abuse. But we sacrifice them and hold parades for them. We are such a bizarre and deadly cult.