Gaylor, sometimes referred to asGaylorism, is a looseconspiracy theory that claims the American musicianTaylor Swift to benon-heterosexual. The small faction ofher fans who subscribe to this belief are calledGaylors. They consider Swift as eitherlesbian orbisexual, and assert that she has signaledqueerness through her music, lyrics, and other works.
Gaylors perceive Swift as acloseted,sapphic woman forced to conform to aheteronormative society. A number of them disregard herheterosexual relationships aspublicity stunts. The theory originated inblogs of the early 2010s, and initially revolved around a rumored romantic relationship between Swift and the American actressDianna Agron. It gained considerable traction andtabloid coverage when some fans beganshipping Swift with the American modelKarlie Kloss in 2014. Both Agron and Kloss have dismissed the alleged relationships as rumors.[a]
Swift has positioned herself as anally of theLGBTQ people. Critics and authors have recognized queer interpretations of Swift's lyrics but have largely rejected Gaylor as an invasive conspiracy theory resulting from some fans'parasocial interaction with her. Those who support the theory consider ithomophobic to assume Swift is heterosexual. According toCNN, Swift's associates have called Gaylor "invasive, untrue and inappropriate",[1] in response to articles about the topic. A majority of Swifties criticize Gaylor as a far-fetched rumor disrespectful to Swift. In 2023, Swift wrote in the1989 (Taylor's Version) album prologue that the tabloid media have sexualized her friendship with women in the same way they have reported her association with male friends. In 2025, she becameengaged to the American football playerTravis Kelce, drawing disapproval from Gaylors.
Taylor Swift is an American singer-songwriter, witha career of enduring success since 2006. Lyrically, a significant portion of her discography is about love and related topics. Her private life is highly publicized by the press, reporters, and media outlets, bothprinted andonline, and her dating life a subject of constanttabloid scrutiny.[2][3] According to the journalistJody Rosen, the media enjoys guessing the celebrity inspiration behind Swift's songs.[4] Some media outlets and journalists are also noted for their frequent reporting of Swift forclickbait and readership gains, capitalizing on consumer interest in "juicy"gossip about Swift's life.[5][6]
Gaylor is aclosetingconspiracy theory about Swift.[7] Theneologism "Gaylor" is aportmanteau of "gay" and "Taylor".[15] Fans or listeners of Swift who believe Gaylor are referred to as Gaylors. They have been described as sub-fandom[16][17] and an onlinesubculture of theSwifties.[18] Gaylors believe Swift is sexually or romantically attracted to women, and therefore she is a closetedlesbian,[19] or at leastsapphic.[15] According to Gaylors, Swift's music and other works include coded signals about her queer sexuality. They consider her romantic relationships with men as lies fabricated to distract the public from her secretive relationships with women, specifically with the American modelKarlie Kloss.[19] The LGBTQ publicationThem stated that Gaylor comprisesqueer analyses of her lyricism and a queer understanding of her female relationships, especially those with Kloss and the American actressDianna Agron.[15] As per reporter Jon Niccum, Gaylors "embracesubversive readings of Swift's songs and seek to compile evidence she is secretly queer."[20] Gaylors, who are mostly queer women,[21] refer to non-Gaylor Swifties as "Hetlors"—who believe Swift's sexuality is not on theLGBTQ spectrum, and that Swift is heterosexual unless she announces otherwise.[22]
Dianna Agron (left) andKarlie Kloss (right) are two celebrities that are often associated with Swift in Gaylor theories.
Beliefs associated with Gaylor originated onblogs in the early 2010s, around the time when some tabloids reported that Swift is romantically involved with Agron, who was known for her breakout role asQuinn Fabray in thecomedy drama musicalGlee (2009–2015).[23][24] Some fans speculated about a relationship between the two after Swift named Agron in the liner notes of her albumRed (2012). Fan theories arose about themes in Swift's music, social media posts, and a tattoo that Agron got removed that allegedly pointed to a romantic relationship.[25]
There was also a rumor that Swift and Agron were involved in a love triangle withNational Football League (NFL) playerTim Tebow, which Agron denied onJimmy Kimmel Live! and Tebow denied onGood Morning America.[26] During a 2023 interview withRolling Stone, Agron was asked how she felt about being the inspiration for one of Swift's songs and about the theory that she and Swift had dated.[25][27] Agron has described the rumors "funny" and that many "wildly untrue" claims have been reported about her dating life.[28][29]
Kloss befriended Swift in 2012 or 2013,[30] and has beenshipped with Swift since.[31] Kloss had been dating the American businessmanJoshua Kushner since 2012;[32] they married in 2018 and have three children.[33][34] One of the first significant controversies in Gaylor theory occurred in December of 2014, when pictures and video clicked by a fan at aThe 1975 concert attended by Swift and Kloss were made public. The fan claimed that the picture and video showed Swift and Kloss kissing,[35][36] an event that some referred to as Kissgate.[37] Swift and her publicist both responded, shutting down the rumor.[38][39]
Some Gaylors believe Swift and Kloss had aglass closet relationship, knowing the media wouldstraightwash them as they have done with celebrities likeKristen Stewart andDemi Lovato.[40] In 2016, Swift moved to Cornelia Street inGreenwich Village, half a mile from Kloss's home,[41] which some Gaylors believe was indicative of a romantic relationship.[40] Swift's representative described these allegations as "crap".[42]
Gaylors believed Swift swapped a lyric in her song"New Year's Day" from "I want your midnights" to "I want her midnights" during a performance at theTime 100 gala on April 23, 2019,[43][24] which followed an uptick inrainbow imagery on her social media.[43] During this time Swift was also teasing a big announcement for April 26, 2019,lesbian visibility day, and there was speculation she was planning tocome out.[44] The announcement ended up being the release of her single "Me!" off herLover album.[45]
Swift released the single "You Need to Calm Down", a song in support of the LGBTQ community on June 14, 2019, duringPride Month. In the lyric video for the song she spelled the word "glad" as "GLAAD", which resulted in surge of donations for the organization.[46][47] The same night she appeared as a surprise guest at the 50th anniversary celebration of theStonewall riots at theStonewall Inn, where she performed "Shake It Off" withJesse Tyler Ferguson ofModern Family.[48] Swift released the music video for "You Need to Calm Down" on June 17, which shows her wearing what some identified as thebisexual pride colors in her hair.[49] In the video she features almost 30 queer and trans celebrities, as well as several references toqueer culture. The video ends with a link to achange.org petition in support of theEquality Act, which she also wrote an open letter to SenatorLamar Alexander in support of.[47] While some believed Swift's increased support for the LGBTQ community was indicative of a queer identity[50] or simply an example ofallyship,[51][52] others criticized her actions, particularly "You Need to Calm Down", as beingperformative activism orqueerbaiting.[53][54]
Swift, despite being one of the biggest musicians in history, closely follows her fans on social media, which has been dubbed "Taylurking", and she sometimes even interacts with them directly. She also sends her fans packages and donations, hand selects fans to do free meet and greets with at her shows, and after following and vetting individual fans for periods of months online, invites them to her home for gatherings and performances.[55] Swift has said that she is "really in touch with [her] fans". This has been cited as one reason for the persistence of Gaylor.[55][24]
A key component of Gaylor theory is the belief that Swift useseaster eggs as a form ofqueer coding, to communicate messages about her sexuality or secret relationships to herLGBTQ andally fans withoutouting herself.[37] Easter eggs have been integral part of Swift's career and her legacy.[56][57][58] Swift has said she "trained" her fans to look for hidden meaning in everything she does. Her use of easter eggs extends far beyond her body of work.[56][59][60][61] Gaylors have latched onto Swift's intentional use of easter eggs, as well as reputation for being in tune with her fanbase,[24] as evidence that the queer subtext they see is being planted for them to find.[37]
Swift began using easter eggs in the CD booklet for herdebut album (2006). She stylized the lyrics in all lowercase and used uppercase for seemingly random letters to spell out secret messages to her fans, which is a form of easter egg she continued to use with some of her other albums. During herReputation (2017) era, Swift drastically expanded and increased her use of easter eggs, starting with the lead single "Look What You Made Me Do" and itsmusic video. This increase in easter eggs was born out of her desire to continue to communicate with her fans during a time when she was not giving interviews.[61][59]Reputation was a pivotal moment in Swift's career[62][63][64] and for the Swifties, who grew more tightly knit as a result of Swift's disappearance from the public eye. Reputation was also a significant moment for Gaylor, because with the increase in easter eggs there was an increase in things to be interpreted through a queer lens. Several ongoing themes in Swift's work that are often cited as Gaylor evidence arose during theReputation rollout.[37] Some considered Swift's 2020 albumsFolklore andEvermore as "queer albums".[65] Nuanced interpretations of songs such as "You Need to Calm Down" (2019), "The Very First Night" (2021),[22] "Lavender Haze" (2022),[66] and "Betty" (2020) are considered by Gaylors as proofs of their theory.[65]
Gaylors are mostly an online community. In 2023,Rolling Stone reported that social media tracking firmGraphika estimated that Gaylors made up 9 percent of Swift's online fandom at that time, whereas an other 26 percent of fans were impartial to the theory.[23] Thesubreddit titled "Gaylor Swift", where popular discussions supporting Gaylor have taken place, had more than 50,000 members as of 2025, before it went private.[67] Gaylors have hosted events and gatherings such as "Camp Gaylore" to discuss Swift and her discography in a queer lens.[17]
It became clear to me that for me, there was no such thing as casual dating, or even having a male friend who you platonically hang out with. If I was seen with him, it was assumed I was sleeping with him, and so I swore off hanging out with guys. Dating, flirting, or anything that could be weaponized against me by a culture that claimed to believe in liberating women but consistently treated me with theharsh moral codes of the Victorian era. Being a consummate optimist, I assumed I could fix this if I simply changed my behavior. 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'tsensationalize orsexualize that, right? I would learn later on that people could and people would.
Swift has positioned herself as anally of the LGBTQ community. In a 2019Vogue interview following her "You Need to Calm Down" music video, she said "rights are being stripped from basically everyone who isn't a straight white cisgender male, I didn't realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I'm not a part of."[69][70][71][72]
Majority of Swifties describe Gaylors as being malicious and disrespectful to Swift. Journalists likewise dismiss it as an invasive and baselessconspiracy theory, a consequence of some fans'parasocial interest in her.[73][74][75] In the album prologue to1989 (Taylor's Version), Swift stated that her female friendships have been sexualized intabloid media coverage in the same way her male acquaintances have been.[76][77] A January 2024 opinion article by writer Anna Marks, published inThe New York Times, speculated that Swift is a closeted queer person based on Marks' perceptions of Swift's lyrics and aesthetics, drawing criticism from Swifties and other readers. Subsequently,CNN Business reported that Swift's personnel found the article "invasive, untrue and inappropriate".[69][78] American country singer and queer activistChely Wright commented that "seeing a public person's sexuality being discussed is upsetting."[79]
In August 2025, Swift announced engagement to the American football playerTravis Kelce, who had proposed to her after dating her since 2023. Gaylors "mourned" the news and had a "melt down" according to reporters, and the Gaylor subreddit went private to avoidtrolling from outsiders.[67][80]Rolling Stone reported that, before going private, some subreddit members claimed Kelce is abeard and that Swift's engagement dress looks like aprison uniform, while others questioned if their beliefs were always false.[42] Some members also claimed to have suffered severe mental distress over the news, including apanic attack.[80] Some fans declared that the relationship is "staged for public consumption", while others acknowledged Swift as abisexual woman.[16] The LGBTQ magazineOut stated that Gaylors "will find any way to push their agenda" even after the engagement.[80]
Taylor has this image of being veryheterosexual. Earlier in her career, she was criticized for singing and writing too much about her boyfriends and for being overly invested inpatriarchal, heteronormative romance. For fans to find queer themes in her songs — or to think she is herself queer — is quite remarkable.
Various authors and academics have described Gaylor as a conspiracy theory.[81][7] Americansociologist Brian Donovan of the University of Kansas has extensivelystudied fandoms, Swift, and the various subsets of Swifties. He published a paper dedicated to Gaylors in December 2024, affirming the queer interpretation of her music but disapproved of harmful parasocial interactions and queer reimagination of Swift's life.[20]
Frankie de la Cretaz ofXtra Magazine stated it ishomophobic to expect a queer lens not be applied to Swift's songs and writing.[82]Gay Times author Zoya Raza Sheikh argued, "while there's nothing wrong with viewing Swift's work through a queer lens, there's an issue when these readings are mainstreamed – and therefore legitimized", and suggested that listeners looking for queer visibility should explore acts likeReneé Rapp orOmar Apollo instead of Swift.[79]
Pride Magazine's Rachel Kiley opined that coming-out is not always a big announcement, and that both queer readings of art and queer-flagging have long been a part of queer culture.”[83] English columnistSarah Ditum wrote inThe Critic that, while a popular musician being closeted made sense in the 20th century—as was the case of the English singer-songwriterGeorge Michael, it does not apply to the 21st-century as queerness is no longer a "career impediment" for pop artists. Ditum cited Rapp,Chappell Roan, andBillie Eilish as examples of successful and openly queer, female popstars.[84]
^When questioned about the veracity of Gaylor, both Agron and Kloss refused to confirm the rumors and highlighted that tabloid media stories about them are not true. Agron went on to marry the British musicianWinston Marshall in 2016 anddivorced him in 2018. Kloss married the American investorJoshua Kushner in 2018, becoming a mother of three.
^Lopez, Cristina; Chandra, Avneesh (April 12, 2023)."Now We Got Bad Blood". Graphika.Archived from the original on May 29, 2023. RetrievedMay 29, 2023.
Barker, James; Elliott, Richard; Longstaff, Gareth (March 22, 2023). "'Standing in Your Cardigan': Evocative Objects, Ordinary Intensities, and Queer Sociality in the Swiftian Pop Song".Disrupted Knowledge: Scholarship in a Time of Change. Brill. pp. 259–279.ISBN978-90-04-53641-8.Archived from the original on December 20, 2024. RetrievedSeptember 12, 2025.
Donovan, Brian (December 20, 2024). "The joy of gaylor: Sexual identity in the Taylor Swift fandom".Journal of Fandom Studies.12 (2–3):115–134.doi:10.1386/jfs_00095_1.
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The dictionary definition ofGaylor at Wiktionary
