Taylor Swift Didn’t Come Out But She Sure Did Make a Gay Music Video

Taylor Swift sure did whip up our frenzied speculation that she was going to come out tonight with the release of her new music video. First of all, she showed up at the NFL draft in Nashville wearing a pansexual pride flag as a dress to talk to lesbian icon Robin Roberts who was wearing pantsuit, okay? And then she announced the new single was going to be called “ME!” and there’s a butterfly on the album cover and also the song is a collab with Panic! At The Disco pansexual heartthrob Brendon Urie. Gay, gay, gay, gay!

Alas! She did not come out!

But the music video, while cruelly heterosexual at the start, is gay as all hell. Rainbows, a thousand women in suits and ties, unicorns, cats on cats on cats. What’s that about?

Anyway, that song “Dress” from Reputation is still gay and you won’t convince me otherwise.

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

55 Comments

  1. as a gaylor sift fan who spent all day freaking out about the possibility of her coming out, i thank you for the service you’ve done by writing this article.
    also, my straight friends say this video isn’t gay. THAT’S JUST CAUSE THEY’RE NOT GAY. this shit is next-level queer imagery and you can’t convince me otherwise

  2. I mean….. Brendon Urie is pan and the song is just so so so gay. PLEASE COME OUT, TAYLOR.

  3. I just don’t get the effort she put into the gay breadcrumbs. She clearly has been studying us! But why if not that she’s queer?
    Also, it’s rude to pump up rainbows on lesbian visibility day and then not come out! I’m not gonna play this game! I don’t even really think she’s queer. No Taylor! You need to think about what you’ve done.

  4. honestly in my mind taylor came out in 2014 when she released 1989. i don’t love this song but i do like her weird melting dresses. thank you for staying up late to perform this service for us heather, we do not deserve you 🌈✨💖

    • She rhymes “one of me” with “fun of me”. It’s a rhyming phrase rather than a single word.

      Personally, I think it’s cute and clever to rhyme like that, very sing-songy. But of course, you’re allowed to dislike whatever you want to dislike. :)

  5. I have been a HUGE fan since 2008. I was BEYOND hyped for this! The only things in the video I liked was the Meredith and Olivia cameos and the dripping dress at the end.

    I hated everything else. The lyrics make no sense, the video is too busy. It’s all just really awful and I’m extremely disappointed. Here’s hoping the full album is much better.

    • Update: I’ve listened to the song 5 times (without watching the video) and it’s growing on me. I think I’ll just ignore the video.

  6. Y’know I’ve always wondered what a Rainbow Paddle Pop would look like if it were an actual place. Now I know.

  7. GAY TAY is all I live for honestly. Let me remind you though, Taylor never uses imagery unintentionally so let’s just let her live her best stealth queer life.
    Also thank you for your service Heather, this is the quality content that I’m here for.

  8. Taylor was getting ready to come out. She wrote this song, recorded it, did a video for it, and then her girlfriend went and married a Kushner. Heartbroken, she’s not ready to come out anymore, but the contracts with the studio means that she has to put this all out there. It’s okay, Taylor. We’ll wait for your heart to mend.

  9. I’m surprised nobody’s commented on the fact that she literally sings ‘there’s a lot of cool chicks out there’, twice!

    Unfortunately this video is gross and annoying but I’ll probably love the song in a month

    • lol, “I’ll probably love the song in a month” pretty much describes how I feel every time she puts out a new song, I just try my best to not make first impressions anymore…

    • When she sings “There’s a lot of cool chicks” the camera pans to a picture of the Dixie Chicks.

  10. – This is the most Aries-Sag song I’ve ever heard
    – I don’t love it, but I hated Look What You Made Me Do and that grew on me.
    – It would be kind of rude for her to come out with a song full of male pronouns cuz like… what am I supposed to do with this? I can’t put it on my Sapphic Summer Jamz playlist
    – I look forward to maybe liking this in the context of a full bubblegum pop album where she perhaps collaborates with a queer female artist on something much gayer

  11. I hope this comment isn’t too late to be of any assistance, but if you are afraid of snakes, just skip the first 15 seconds.

    Sure, this video might be just another Janelle Monae/Jordan almonds/The Good Place/Mary Poppins/Hunger Games/Grand Budapest Hotel/My Pretty Pony/Wham-O Super Elastic Bubble Plastic mashups, but I like it anyway. But I confess that I will spend the rest of the day surrounding myself with earth tones.

    This reminds me of my favorite tweets from the always trenchant-yet-hilarious Kashana Cauley: “Someone should probably start a support group for those of us who originally picked the wrong side of the Kanye/Taylor Swift debate.”

  12. I am a very huge Brendon Urie fan so of course he stole the show for me. It’s that whole I-want-to-be-him-but-maybe-also-make-out-with-him thing. He seems so happily in his gay element in this vid and I appreciate it!

  13. This video deserves a frame by frame breakdown. So much going on !

    The French at the beginning was hilarious.

    Also, I prefer to imagine that Taylor and Brandon aren’t singing to each other. Just two gay BFFs teaming up to justify their insufferableness to their dates. It happens.

  14. I wish they hadn’t used ableist language in “And there’s a lot of lame guys out there” :(

    Otherwise, this is a catchy tune. Good for spring/summer dance parties. The lyrics are super uninteresting and unimpressive though lmao. Also, the rhyming me with me and you with you like another commenter noted- Painful

  15. this morning when we woke up the first thing my gf and i did was watch this video together and analyse the queer looks and if that doesn’t tell you everything i don’t know what does

  16. Watching people want Taylor Swift to be queer reminds me of trying to talk sense into a high school girl who thinks her straight best friend who likes attention has actual feelings for her. This will only end badly!

    Among all the Kinsey zeros who pander to queers for attention, Taylor Swift is the straightest. She is straighter than a ‘gender reveal’ party. She makes Katy Perry look like Kristen Stewart. Erin should probably keep an eye on her.

    Who needs this when we have actual queer artists like Janelle and Hayley, and hell, even straight artists like Carly Rae Jepsen who manage to be queer friendly without queer baiting?

    • Taylor has never pandered to the LGBT community. There’s no queer-baiting in this video either. You don’t see Taylor kiss a girl for some guy’s attention in this video.

      And what’s wrong with being queer and liking Taylor’s music?

    • I don’t particularly want or hope for Taylor to be gay. I don’t think she is gay.

      But I get the feeling she loves us !

      This video has a million in-jokes, all just to make us giggle like crazy and FEEL SEEN. She did all this for us queerdos, and it’s really wonderful that she did !

    • I’ll tell you what – there isn’t a finite number of queer spots for celebrities. There is room for Janelle AND Taylor and that it absolutely the best part!

      The reason I am invested in Gaylor is because I believe vehemently in heterosexuality as mostly a lie perpetuated by capitalism which mainly peddles its wares through pop media.

      That is to say, if Tay came out, it would cast queer doubt across a whole host of hollywood characters – all of her ex boyfriends, all of their very public exgirlfriends, and so on and so on. That’s not to say that some of these people are not bisexual and have genuine romantic relationships with one another – but that the framework of beards, handbags and closets is definitely alive and well!

      Also funny that you mention KStew cause I remember a time when everyone maintained that i was delusional/dreaming/etc for thinking SHE was gay cause she was like so in love with RPat and starred in like the most hetero movie ever and I was obvi just projecting. Believe it or not, people made the same comments when I dared suggest Ellen Page was queer (but like, she’s so obviously into Alexander Skarsgard!).

      Anyway, I’m not trying to date her so what’s the harm! More gays in the world! That’s all I want!

  17. I laughed and laughed when she said “in front of our daughters” and the camera panned to the cats!

  18. I saw a tweet that said, “This song has extreme ‘hit song from the Emoji Movie 2 soundtrack” energy.” I’m inclined to agree!

  19. Did I just light my witchy sex candle while thinking of Taylor Swift and watching this video? Maybe………

  20. So it’s been a few days and now I love both the song and video! Btw, the cat that Brendon gives to Taylor is actually the newest addition to her family, his name is Benjamin Button.

  21. Why T, why? Important things should be said outloud n proud. N yet u cloud mixed messages in a scooby doo gloopy gloop shroud of mystery. Porque???

  22. Idk Heather, referring to your cats as “our young daughters” sounds like some gay shit to me

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