Taylor Swift Fans Furious Over Essay Questioning Her Sexuality

Taylor Swift's fans have taken to social media to share their anger at a New York Times opinion piece that speculated about the singer's sexuality.

In a lengthy essay published earlier this week, opinion editor Anna Marks argued that Swift has been leaving hints about her sexuality in her work.

"In isolation, a single dropped hairpin is perhaps meaningless or accidental, but considered together, they're the unfurling of a ballerina bun after a long performance," Marks wrote.

"Those dropped hairpins began to appear in Ms. Swift's artistry long before queer identity was undeniably marketable to mainstream America. They suggest to queer people that she is one of us."

Swift, who is dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, addressed speculation about her sexuality in the prologue for her album,1989 (Taylor's Version) in October.

Constant headlines about her dating life made her decide "to focus only on myself, my music, my growth, and my female friendships," she wrote.

"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."

On her advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community, Swift told Vogue in 2019 that she "didn't realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I'm not a part of."

Marks acknowledged the backlash the piece was likely to be met with, writing that "discussing the potential of a star's queerness before a formal declaration of identity feels, to some, too salacious and gossip-fueled to be worthy of discussion."

Swift fans—known as Swifties—and others took to social media to criticize the piece and the Times for publishing it.

"Just a friendly reminder that speculating on someone else's sexuality is not an opinion, it is disrespectful and wrong," one fan wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Another wrote: "What in the world made you think that this was an appropriate piece to publish @nytimes. Not only is it invasive to Taylor Swift but harmful to the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. Her sexuality is NOBODY'S business but her's."

Another fan wrote that Swift "isn't or hasn't ever sent you, a stranger, secret signals about her sexuality through her clothes, jewelry or lyrics."

Ashton Pittman, a journalist and editor at the Mississippi Free Press, wrote: "There is something deeply wrong with The New York Times publishing this article speculating that Taylor Swift may be secretly queer—based on absolutely nothing. This is the kind of garbage that belongs in the supermarket checkout next to The National Enquirer."

The piece has also reportedly sparked the ire of Swift's team.

"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,'" an unnamed insider told CNN.

The person added that "because of her massive success, in this moment there is a Taylor-shaped hole in people's ethics," and that "this article wouldn't have been allowed to be written about Shawn Mendes or any male artist whose sexuality has been questioned by fans."

Newsweek has contacted a spokesperson for Swift for comment via email. The New York Times has also been contacted for comment via email.