Harry performing Girl Crush was of course, to me, incredibly loud. But for the fans who inexplicably believe Harry to be a Straight?!Man?! I can concede some weak plausible deniability in saying it was simply a song that he liked, that he's not insecure enough to change the pronouns in order to perform, that there was no deeper meaning there. I don't agree, but whatever, I would agree to disagree with the antis about the weight of that song choice.
But Louis... WROTE a song where he sung "I want to lay where she lays". In the same song where he sung "headlines that I can't stand" and "you only get half of the story". His FIRST promotional single. With a lyric video that highlighted LGBT+ causes. Don't even get me started on the symbolic imagery in that same video. A song that he promoted by saying it was his first chance to be as honest, as vulnerable and as real with his fans with his music as he could be.
That line simply does not leave the writers room unless the implication is exactly what it sounds like - not in the context of the narrative surrounding Louis then and now. Nobody will ever convince me that a man plagued by gay rumours, who hated the speculation into his identity, would sing that in a song explicitly meant to provide a window into said identity.
Removing the Larry narrative from the picture altogether and without that added context, I would still listen to Louis' music as a queer woman myself, and go "oh?..." and pick up what he's been trying to tell us. No straight man is writing Just Like You, All This Time, Only The Brave or Copy of a Copy of a Copy and just accidently penning some of the most devastating queercoded lyrics in my library to date. That's propaganda I will NOT be falling for, not ever.