Todrick Hall was initially “apprehensive” about sharing his sexuality with Taylor Swift

The 'RuPaul's Drag Race' star revisited the time he asked the singer what she would do if her son was gay

RuPaul’s Drag Race star Todrick Hall has admitted that he was initially “apprehensive” about sharing his sexuality with close friend Taylor Swift.

Earlier this year Swift responded to accusations that her recent – and very public – allyship of the LGBTQ+ community was disingenuous. “Rights are being stripped from basically everyone who isn’t a straight white cisgender male,” she said in Vogue‘s September issue. “I didn’t realise until recently that I could advocate for a community that I’m not a part of.”

Sharing that it was Hall who had convinced her to adopt her current position, she revealed: “Maybe a year or two ago, Todrick and I are in the car, and he asked me, ‘What would you do if your son was gay?’”

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To which the ‘Shake it Off’ singer replied, “If my son was gay, he’d be gay. I don’t understand the question.”

Taylor Swift
Todrick Hall and Taylor Swift receive ‘Video For Good’ award for onstage during the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards. CREDIT: Dimitrios Kambouris/VMN19/Getty Images

Hall’s query forced Swift to reassess her public stance on the subject. “The fact that he had to ask me shocked me and made me realise that I had not made my position clear enough or loud enough,” she explained. And it “devastated” her to know there were members of the LGBTQ+ community who may share Hall’s uncertainty.

Speaking in the most recent issue of Attitude, Hall revisited his conversation with Swift and how he was initially “apprehensive” about sharing his sexuality with her.

“All I really wanted her to know was that, as somebody who was a bystander, I didn’t know how comfortable she was with [my sexuality], and I was apprehensive about fully opening up to her,” he said of the time he asked her what she would do if her son was gay.

Following Swift’s answer that she would love and support a gay child no matter what, Hall said he told her: “It’s important that you let people know that you feel this way.”

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Back in June, Swift released ‘You Need To Calm Down’, which addressed keyboard warriors and celebrated LGBTQ+ Pride. Hall collaborated with Swift on the cameo-heavy music video, which also marked Swift’s official reconciliation with Katy Perry.

Speaking about his contributions, Hall said that he enjoyed being able to “help her realise that using her voice is a humongous instrument that is able to change the minds of those who, without her, may have never looked at gay people as actual people.”
He continued: “I can’t help but take a little bit of ownership of the fact that I helped her realise how powerful it would be for her to make a statement like that.

“I always wanted to handle the situation delicately because it’s not my place to tell someone else when it’s the right time for them to talk about something.”

Meanwhile, Swift is rumoured to be working on brand new music after she posted a photo of herself in the studio with her producer Jack Antonoff and engineer Laura Sisk.

Swift shared the photo on Instagram to mark her 30th birthday and remarked how the trio were working in the studio on the title track of her ‘Lover’ album the previous year.

Swift recently topped Forbes‘ annual countdown of the world’s highest-paid musicians.

The singer made $185m (£148m) in pre-tax earnings from June 2018 to June 2019. The bulk of Swift’s earnings came thanks to a new record deal, an array of endorsements and the tail end of her recent ‘Reputation’ stadium tour, which is adjudged to be the highest-grossing tour in US history.

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