Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift on Friday released "1989 (Taylor's Version)," reviving the 2014 album name for her birth year with the addition of previously vaulted tracks. Swift's life, at the time of the album's original release, also became distinguished by all-female friendships, a move that came after being consistently romantically linked to men in her life by the media and the public. Since then, a steady undercurrent of fans who believe Swift is not straight, otherwise known as "Gaylors," have proliferated, decoding the minutia of Swift's lyrics and music videos to prove a thesis of perceived queerness.
In a leaked document said to be the latest album’s written prologue, Swift supposedly shut down years of speculation about her sexuality. While addressing the slut-shaming she endured early in her career, Swift wrote, “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’t sensationalize or sexualize that — right? I would learn later on that people could and people would.”
