Taylor Swift’s version of her Grammy-winning 2014 album 1989 drops tonight at midnight, but there’s already an apparent leak of the written prologue that accompanies the rerecorded LP. And with it, revelations about Swift’s sexuality are taking the internet by storm.
Specifically, if the prologue is indeed authentic, the pop star seems to refute years of speculation about her sexuality with just a few sentences. (A subset of her fans, who dub themselves Gaylors, believe she has long been closeted.)
Tweets purporting to show the 1989 (Taylor’s Version) prologue include paragraphs where Swift writes at length about the slut-shaming she endured earlier in her career.
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“Being a consummate optimist, I assumed I could fix this if I simply changed my behavior,” the leaked prologue reads. “I swore off dating and decided to focus only on myself, my music, my growth, and my female friendships. 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.”
Swift diehards are taking this to mean that the pop star is reinforcing the notion that, as has always been her public-facing identity, she is straight.
In another purported passage, Swift thanks listeners for following her on her musical journey: “You, who saw the seeds of allyship and advocating for equality in ‘Welcome to New York.’”
This, too, is being interpreted as Swift planting a flag in her heterosexuality: The 1989 opening track includes the lyrics, “And you can want who you want / Boys and boys and girls and girls.” By casting this as “allyship,” Swift seems to be saying that she’s a supporter of, but not a participant in, queer culture.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Swift’s representatives for comment, but until the official version of the album drops later tonight, we likely won’t get confirmation on the prologue’s authenticity.
It is, however, safe to say that the Gaylor community is already taking news of the leak, and Swift’s seemingly confirmed straightness, pretty hard.
“I must admit, this is the hardest blow since 2019 Vogue article,” one forlorn Redditor posted on the Gaylor subreddit, referencing an interview where Swift talked about her LGBTQ+ fans and “advocat[ing] for a community that I’m not a part of.”
“I am not a dramatic person but I feel like I’ve been continuously gaslit for almost a decade,” another fan posted. “I’ve stuck it out through a lot of things… this is basically the nail in my Gaylor coffin.”
“Same here,” another responded to the previous comment. “I’m just fully done and am moving on to openly queer artists.”
