Welcome to Camp Gaylore, the first-ever IRL summit of pop theorists known as Gaylors. As you may already know, Gaylors hold some very strong convictions: (1) that Taylor Swift is queer, regardless of whatever problematic cis men she may date, and (2) that Taylor has been signaling her queerness for years through a series of calculated clues.
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00:00 Welcome to Camp Gaylor, the first ever IRL summit of Gaylors, a Taylor Swift-inspired
00:05 summer camp experience filled with slide presentations and academic-style lectures on queer-coded
00:10 references, but also crafts, friendship bracelets, and sing-alongs.
00:14 But wait, what are Gaylors?
00:17 I kind of started seeing these on TikTok.
00:21 TikTok.
00:22 TikTok.
00:23 On TikTok.
00:24 It was TikTok's fault.
00:25 Gaylors are Taylor Swift fans who engage in queer readings of her music.
00:29 Gaylors hold some very strong convictions.
00:31 One, that Taylor Swift is queer, regardless of who she may appear to date.
00:35 And two, that Swift has been signaling this queerness through a series of calculated clues.
00:40 The theories have made the rounds on Tumblr and Reddit for years, but TikTok really fanned
00:44 the flames.
00:45 So it just started from us wanting to hear other people's theories.
00:49 We were like, let's do this in person at some point and actually meet up with these
00:53 online friends that we've made.
00:55 And that was how that got started.
00:57 In March, I had contacted Crickville because I was like, I know I can organize it in person
01:02 at a conference.
01:03 When we started, we very much kept it volunteer-based.
01:07 I signed up for cozy communities, so basically just kind of vibe curation for the camp of
01:14 like decorations, prompts set up, things like that.
01:17 It just seemed so inviting and warm and welcoming.
01:20 Even like attending a camp can feel really inaccessible to so many people.
01:25 There's lots of marginalized folks within this community that I've been able to find
01:29 at home here because of how forward our Gaylord planning team has been about being very intentional
01:36 about making these spaces accessible.
01:38 It was like the beginning of this year that we had already talked about kind of rebranding,
01:42 adding an E to Gaylord to make it more about queer lore and history.
01:47 It felt very necessary because like I said, it started out as Taylor Swift and Gaylors
01:52 have a lot more to talk about than that.
01:55 That was really exciting for all of us.
01:56 I think that was a turning point in like planning all of this where we're like, oh shit, we
02:00 can do so much more than just hold a virtual conference about Taylor Swift.
02:04 For many Gaylors who are LGBTQ+ themselves, this community is a much needed haven, despite
02:10 the presence of some bigoted trolls in the wider Swifty fandom.
02:13 Many Gaylors don't even care if Taylor Swift is actually queer.
02:17 The beauty is in their queer readings of her work.
02:20 Her themes and her music resonate deeply with queer so much.
02:26 Yeah, I don't care who it's about in the end, but like this music is so relatable as a queer person.
02:31 Everyone here is just so nice.
02:33 It just reinforces every single time I interact with someone who identifies as a Gaylord.
02:37 Like, yep, everyone is just super open.
02:39 Like, why wouldn't you want to be a part of something like that?
02:42 Community is like so lacking in general.
02:44 So if you can find a little pocket, that literally saves lives.
02:47 I was like, holy shit, all the stars have aligned and WeaveTaps is something very special.
02:53 It's greater than Taylor Swift.
02:54 This is not just a Taylor Swift fan club.
02:56 [BLANK_AUDIO]