-I listened to the whole album laying on my carpet
in the living room with just, like, a candle.
♪ Vintage tee, brand-new phone ♪
♪ High heels on cobblestone ♪
-And my girlfriend is not a Taylor Swift fan,
and she sat on the couch and kind of just watched me
and was like, "What's -- What is this?"
♪ But I knew you ♪
-On July 23, 2020, Taylor Swift
gave fans less than 24 hours' notice
that she was releasing her eighth album at midnight.
Almost immediately after "Folklore's" release,
LGBT fans took to Twitter to finally rest their case that
Swift is leaving them queer Easter eggs in her songs.
-I think when she released the title,
even in just kind of the art around with it,
I think everybody was like, "Oh, my God,
she's a cottagecore lesbian right now."
-Like, sappy, sad stuff that takes place in a forest is very,
like, relatable to queer girls in a way that we're like,
"This is ours."
♪ Betty, I won't make assumptions ♪
-The song that got the most
attention from Swifties was "Betty."
-When I first listened to "Betty"
and it was all this romantic story about her and a girl,
I was like, you know, furiously texting friends being like,
"Is this a queer song? It is, right?
Like, I'm not hallucinating?"
-In a way, like, "Betty" felt like this major nod
to queerness,
and it felt like such a queer song,
and I think all of us were kind of just losing it
about that and just like,
"Oh, my God, she has verified what we thought."
♪ She said, "James, get in, let's drive" ♪
-This song is from a 17-year-old boy's perspective
about a girl he has a crush on.
But fans wondered if James is actually a girl.
The characters in the song, James and Inez,
are also the names of Blake Lively's daughters,
further proving to fans
that James is a girl's name in this case.
-Some many songs on the album, "Betty" being the most,
like, blatant example,
that are just very subtly nuanced perspectives
on the gay experience as a whole.
And, like, in "seven" where she says, like,
"We can live in the closet," I'm just like, "Girl."
♪ I think you should come live with me ♪
♪ And we can be pirates ♪
♪ Then you won't have to cry ♪
♪ Or hide in the closet ♪
-You know, Taylor has always encouraged her fans
to do this sleuthing
because she does, like, lace her songs with little
Easter eggs and hints and clues about other stuff,
whether it's, like,
about a certain person that she was dating.
You know, she encourages this.
Like, she wants fans to search through her music
and find this stuff.
♪ I promise that you'll never find another like ♪
♪ Me-hee-hee ♪
-This isn't the first time fans searched for clues in her music.
On April 26, 2019, which was National Lesbian Visibility Day,
Swift premiered the music video for "Me!"
which had rainbow themes and featured out bisexual singer
Brendon Urie.
And in June, which is Pride Month,
she dropped the music video for "You Need to Calm Down."
♪ 'Cause shade never made anybody less gay ♪
-Putting herself in this community
with all these other queer people,
it feels like she's crossing over from allyship into,
like, outing herself as part of this community
and telling us that she's one of us.
-I think that the other thing
is that everyone knows that Taylor Swift
is extremely smart and powerful and this,
like, mastermind puppeteer of, like, culture in a way.
She's not gonna release an album on Lesbian Visibility Day
without that meaning something.
♪ Third floor on the West Side, me and you ♪
-Even before the "Lover" album, there was "Reputation,"
an album that many Swifties swear
is about her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn.
But many queer fans are convinced it's about her
former best friend, Karlie Kloss.
♪ Midnight ♪
-So, the Kaylor conspiracy is that Taylor Swift
and her former best friend
were actually secretly romantically involved.
But the thing that, like, separates Kaylor
from just any old lesbian conspiracy theory
is that once you go down the rabbit hole,
it's like being indoctrinated into being a Kaylor,
which is, like, you walk through this door
and you can no longer listen to her songs without being like,
"That must be about Karlie Kloss."
♪ Our secret moments in a crowded room ♪
♪ They got no idea about me and you ♪
-"Dress" is another song similar
to the aesthetic of the "Folklore" album
that just, like, reads as so gay, you know?
Like, it's --
Like, the whole concept of it, of, like, two, you know,
friends who can't be together for some reason.
♪ I don't want you like a best friend ♪
♪ Only bought this dress so you could take it off ♪
♪ Take it ah-ha-ha-ha ♪
-Yeah, a lot of it has been this, like,
fall in love with your best friend,
which just feels so, like, come on.
-Swift has indirectly addressed the rumors,
telling "Vogue" in 2019 that she wanted to advocate
for a community that she is not part of.
And while listeners are free to interpret her music
however they choose,
Swift's place in queer fandom remains important to her fans.
-Most of our lives, we didn't have queer stuff to,
like, lionize, and so I think that, like,
queer fans are still, like, in a way, like,
so desperate to connect to something
or someone that is, like, very, like, big and important
and symbolic of where the culture is right now.
It would still be a big deal
if one of the biggest pop stars in the world came out as bi.
We still want that. We still hope for that.
♪ And you can want who you want ♪
♪ Boys and boys and girls and girls ♪
♪ Welcome to New York ♪