Taylor Swift fans raise thousands for LGBTQ+ centre to one-up The 1975’s Matty Healy
Taylor Swift dated The 1975 frontman Matty Healy in spring 2023. (Getty)
A group of queer Taylor Swift fans, affectionately dubbed “Gaylors”, have raised money for an LGBTQ+ organisation to spite The 1975 frontman the the singer’s reported ex, Matty Healy.
Earlier this month, 34-year-old “Somebody Else” singer Healy was photographed holding up a novelty-sized cheque for the amount of $500, which was donated to the The Ally Coalition to support the work of the San Diego LGBT Community Center.
Though the donation was actually paid for by San Diego’s Pechanga Arena, it was made in the name of The 1975, and some queer Taylor Swift fans felt that they could raise more than the “insulting” three-figure total.
Speaking to Teen Vogue, LGBTQ+ Swift fan Marki said that “seeing a well-known band do a photo opp with one of those giant checks for only $500 was comical, but also a bit insulting”.
Many of Swift’s fans still feel sore following the singer’s brief relationship with Healy earlier this year, due to the seemingly endless string of controversies The 1975 star has been involved in.
At the beginning of the year, Healy was criticised for appearing on The Adam Friedland Show podcast and laughing along as the hosts mocked rapper Ice Spice’s body and joked about her ethnicity using exaggerated Chinese and Hawaiian accents. Healy has since apologised publicly and privately to Ice Spice.
Healy has also been condemned by some fans for criticising Islam, while others have taken issue with a performance of his song “Love It If We Made It” in January of this year, during which some believe he raised his arm in a Nazi salute, while referencing Donald Trump’s praise for accused antisemite Kanye West.
In response to the “insulting” donation made in The 1975’s name, a group of queer Swift fans pledged to raise more than $500 for the San Diego LGBT Center. At the time of writing, it has raised $5,000 ($4,114), 10 times the amount donated by the Pechanga Arena.
“It was an opportunity to harness the Gaylor community’s frustration [with Healy] into something positive,” Marki explained.
“I think both queer culture and internet culture love a bit of nark, and if you aim spite in the right direction you can make it productive instead of destructive – and get a giggle out of it along the way.”
A fellow queer Swiftie named Bre, told Teen Vogue that she decided to launch the fundraiser because the donation made by the arena, which is small relative to Healy’s wealth, seemed “insulting and disingenuous”.
“I decided to start this fundraiser because it got under my skin that someone who has been so harmful and awful to marginalised communities happily posed with a giant check for only $500 donated in his honour,” Bre said.
While Healy has spoken out on numerous occasions in support of LGBTQ+ rights, he was criticised this summer for kissing his bandmate on stage during the Good Vibes Festival in Malaysia and calling out about the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
Queer Malaysian artist Rufus Sivaroshan told PinkNews that it was a “really, really inconsiderate thing to do” and left some queer Malaysians in the country fearing a police and government crackdown. Others accused Healy of “white saviourism” and “performative activism”.
