It looks like Taylor Swift has ‘bad blood’ with The New York Times, after the American newspaper published an essay speculating about the singer’s sexuality.

Written by the newspaper’s editing resident Anna Marks, the piece suggested Taylor Swift should come out of the closet to help alleviate “lingering anti-queerness” in the entertainment industry – and by extension, society at large.

Marks wrote Swift has been dropping hints, or “hairpins”, signalling her allegedly-hidden queer identity throughout her career, whether it be through her lyrics, her fondness for rainbow dresses, or regularly depicting herself trapped in closets.

And CNN reports those close to the singer are not happy.

“Because of her massive success, in this moment there is a Taylor-shaped hole in people’s ethics,” an anonymous source told CNN.

“This article wouldn’t have been allowed to be written about Shawn Mendes or any male artist whose sexuality has been questioned by fans.

“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.'”

Social media users were left similarly angered by the New York Times publishing speculations about the Swift’s sexuality,

Country singer Chely Wright, whose 2010 public coming-out was mentioned in the opinion piece, called the article “triggering” and “awful.”

“Absolutely psychotic to have spent 5K words talking about whether or not Taylor Swift is queer, equally psychotic for the New York Times to have deemed this worthy of consideration, much less publishing,” one social media user posted to X in reaction to the opinion piece.

“Who let this go through? Why is it ok to very publicly discuss someone’s coming out, regardless of what “hints” you see? This article made me unsubscribe, New York Times. I am completely disgusted,” posted another.

Swift previously hit back at speculation over her sexuality in a prologue for her re-recorded 1989 (Taylor’s Version) album released in 2023, in which she recalled being targeted by slut-shaming and rumours of romantic relationships with female friends ahead of the original album’s 2014 release.

“If I only hung out with my female friends, people couldn’t sensationalise or sexualise that — right? I would learn later on that people could and people would,” she wrote.

Attempt to force Swift into LGBTQI+ “hero” role

In her almost 5000-word piece, Marks wrote that whether Swift was “conscious of it or not”, she signals to queer people “in the language we use to communicate with one another” that she has some affinity for queer identity.

“It takes neither a genius nor a radical to see queerness implied by Ms. Swift’s work,” Marks wrote.

Marks pointed to several of Swift’s public acts of LGBTQI+ allyship, which largely started during promotions for her 2019 Lover album.

The music video for one of the album’s songs, You Need to Calm Down, was full of queer representation and ended with a plea to show pride by demanding national US laws to “truly treat all of our citizens equally”.

Swift previously told Vogue in 2019 that she started to be a more vocal ally for the queer community after she’d recently realised she could advocate for a community “that I’m not a part of”.

Swift’s friendships have not been safe from public scrutiny. Photo: Instagram

She told Variety in 2020 she’d spoken out against Trump despite previously staying largely-silent on politics because it felt wrong not to advocate for people.

“Because I’ve talked about equality and sung about it in songs like Welcome to New York, but we are at a point where human rights are being violated,” she said.

Despite Swift’s statements that she advocates for people other than herself when it comes to LGBTQI+ issues, Marks said the queer community had a “culture of lying” to protect themselves.

She wrote the community’s collective “vow of silence” was to protect people’s safety – but seemed to disregard this protection by insisting Swift should be a “hero” for the queer community.

Celebrities subjected to intrusive speculation

Swift is not the only celebrity of late to have their sexuality forcibly put up for public debate.

As hinted by the CNN’s source, singer Shawn Mendes has faced speculations over his sexual preferences for years.

He has continuously denied his public romances with women have been publicity stunts.

“There was a desperation for me to come out as being gay, which is such a ridiculous thing,” he told The Guardian in 2020.

“I got upset because I know people who are gay who haven’t come out and I know the suffering they experience because of that.

“It’s just completely ignorant and insensitive of people to be on that s***.”

Heartstopper star Kit Connor reluctantly came out as bisexual in 2022 after being accused of queerbaiting fans, particularly as his character on the Netflix show is bisexual.

“Congrats for forcing an 18 year old to out himself,” he tweeted at the time.

He later told British Vogue while he didn’t regret coming out, but would have preferred to do it another way.

“I just felt like it wasn’t something I was ready to talk about,” he said.

“I wasn’t angry. I was just slightly disappointed by this reaction.”