Taylor Swift has opened up about her decision to go above and beyond supporting the LGBTQ community lately.
In a cover story with Vogue that dropped earlier today, Swift shared that she realized awhile ago that her thoughts on LGBTQ rights may not have been as clear to her fandom as she presumed they were.
“Maybe a year or two ago, Todrick [Hall] and I are in the car, and he asked me, ‘What would you do if your son was gay?’” she recounted. “The fact that he had to ask me…shocked me and made me realize that I had not made my position clear enough or loud enough.”
“If he was thinking that, I can’t imagine what my fans in the LGBTQ community might be thinking. It was kind of devastating to realize that I hadn’t been publicly clear about that.”
The article itself goes on to point out a number of pro-LGBTQ moments in Swift’s previous music, including the very notable lyric in 1989’s “Welcome to New York” that says “And you can want you want — boys and boys and girls and girls.”
We’ve written at length about Swift’s recent public stanning for the queer community, including her commitment to the Equality Act, her support of LGBTQ artists, and her call for people to fight against anti-gay legislation — all apparently, at least somewhat a result of the realization her conversation with Todrick triggered.
“I didn’t realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I’m not a part of,” she confessed. “It’s hard to know how to do that without being so fearful of making a mistake that you just freeze. Because my mistakes are very loud.”
It’s impossible to argue with Swift on that count. Even her blatantly pro-LGBTQ anthem, “You Need to Calm Down,” had critics claiming she was trying to capitalize on the queer dollar, and centering herself as an ally rather than putting the focus on the actual queer community. (This despite featuring a near army of queer celebrities and drag queens in her video, and using it to call for donations to GLAAD.)
The interview is a fairly in depth look at Swift's thought process for the upcoming album, especially considering the singer has only recently returned to giving interviews at all, after avoiding the media as much as possible during the Reputation era.
And are there more Easter eggs for Swifties to try to decode before Lover finally comes out later this month? Obviously.
