Hi there! Welcome to the second annual IT’S GREAT TO BE GAY DAY, a holiday we here at Autostraddle invented three years ago, just because… well, because we can. And also because EVERY SINGLE EFFING DAY!! is A GREAT DAY TO BE GAY!
So a few things about this very silly and made-up holiday that we delight in with the utmost seriousness! A lot of LGBT holidays are about raising awareness regarding the various struggles we face and overcome, but this one (!!!) is quite simply about making ourselves feel good. Today we celebrate all the reasons it legitimately kicks ass to be gay, lesbian, queer, bisexual, non-binary, trans, any part of out LGBTQ+ family. That’s it! Happiness! Those are the rules!
The first annual It’s Great To Be Gay Day was actually held in November, and now we are holding it in August because dates are fake and straight, but we are very real and very queer. Also we are celebrating today specifically because… drumroll please!!!… YOU HELPED US MAKE OUR $118K FUNDRAISER GOAL!! AND YOU HELPED US MAKE IT A FULL FIVE DAYS AHEAD OF SCHEDULE!!!!
We are still not over it!! We may never be over it!!! We love you all so much, and on behalf of our entire team, thank you for loving on us in return. It’s such a special gift.
Speaking of gifts, we’re gonna kick off today’s celebration by telling you why we think it’s GREAT to be whatever we are. Lesbian! Bisexual! Queer! Trans! Non-binary! The gang’s all here. And we are so glad to have you with us. ❤️
Take over the comment thread and tell us why you think it is GREAT TO BE GAY (tell us about however you identify, of course, we just liked the rhyming! Thanks again, we love you!)
Comments
i agree
I can’t imagine you any other way.
I love to get to the point where I can say I love being trans but I’m not there yet. I keep wishing I could be a queer cis woman.
Sending lots of love on this gay day Brandi. ❤️
Thank you so much Carmen. ❤️
It was really easy for me to say I love being gay. It’s taken more effort to say I love being trans and mean it. I think I’ve gotten there and I hope you get there too, but I just want you to know you’re not alone. <3
Thanks so much Drew. I hope as I get further in my transition I get there too. I can say I love being a woman, I have no interest in being a man. Though to be fair I’m saying that as someone who isn’t being seen as a woman by society and treated in that way.
My heart is SOARING
MINE TOO!!!!
congrats to everyone on being gay! I too love it here.
HAPPY GAY DAYYYYY!
Thank you, truly, to every single person who has written for AS, worked at or been to camp, for undoing all of the weird baggage that was taught to me at earlier junctures about the “right” ways to be queer!
love yous!!!!!!!
This article makes me so happy! And fills my heart with Pride! 🏳️🌈
Happy Gay Day!
One of my favorite things about being gay is doing errands with my wife and using that time to discuss which famous women we’d like to sleep with (both individually and together). Happy gay day!
“I love gay competence” SAME VANESSA
I love feeling like I’m part of a secret club, complete with cool pins and secret color combinations.
I remember reading about the “I see you” nod in AS years ago and feeling sad that, as a lazy femme bi woman married to a man, I’d never received one. But after I started wearing pride pins regularly, I started getting “I like your pride pins” comments from cute queers and it felt (and feels) great.
The first time I wore a bi pride flag t-shirt to Pride, I was overwhelmed by how great it felt to exchange looks and high-fives and hugs with other bi+ folx (and I am not normally a touch-random-strangers type of queer). It was like I was suddenly part of one of the secret underground Prides within Pride.
Happy gay day!! what a time to be alive
My favourite thing is definitely how growing up gay is an education in questioning. In realising some of the things society has told you are a lie, and in the process uncovering all the other lies about how we ‘should’ exist, work, suffer, whatever. It’s casting those expectations aside and finding the beauty in the other ways of being, on the other side
oh, and the sex, obviously
I am in awe of the ways you all put words to the those potently affective yet intangible parts of being gay. I am so grateful and delighted to be gay because of how every bit of this resonates, how I can feel your joy and self-celebration as akin to and amplifying my own. Reading this quenched me of an internal thirst I didn’t know I had. Thank you <3
cried. glorious
Every day is a glorious day to be Gay, to be a dyke (in my case), to smile in puzzlement at the str8s who just don’t get it, to see ourselves in this awesome Sargasso Sea and call out to each other like the glorious deliciously dangerous sirens that we are. With our teeth we bite through shame and illusion and with our sex-powered sweat and tears we purify life itself. We are the pinnacle of evolution, Nature’s most perfect gift to Itself.
I WANT THE LIKE BUTTON FOR THIS ❤️
❤️️ ❤️️ ❤️️
Emotion intelligence. Personally, the cis men that I dated felt as emotionally intelligent as a block of wood. Glad that’s in my rear view mirror.
Also, I like that my partner can remind me that maybe the reason why I’m a crying mess is that I’m about to get my period, without feeling like this is an attack on the divine feminine.
Grateful every day of my goddamn life to be queer, and to have this space to share it with all of you. Bisexuality is a gift that has taught me so much about false binaries, questioning the status quo, the coexistence of privilege and marginalisation in one identity, the vastness of a single label, found family, and listening to people when they tell you who and what they are.
This is beautiful! And inspiring! Much love to you all!!
I am so happy to be bi/queer for a lot of reasons. Probably the biggest ones:
I love that there is no single path in life that is presented as the ultimate “correct” one. I love that I’m part of a wildly diverse community that has questioning and challenging the status quo in its DNA. I love that I never have to take received wisdom at face value.
I love that little internal “!!!!” every time I encounter another queer person in the wild. I enjoy watching the seemingly never-ending parade of people from my past who have come out and basking in the knowledge that we all found each other before we Knew. I am eternally grateful the friends who were already out when I met them and helped light the way for me.
Also, I get deep satisfaction from the knowledge that I won’t ever feel the need to prioritize cis straight men again unless I actively choose to prioritize a specific one; whether platonically, romantically, or professionally, they have to work extra hard to earn my trust and care. I deeply enjoy finding ways to communicate that to the cis straight men I encounter. (I also get no small amount of satisfaction from the fact that more than one “straight” cis man I decided to let in later realized/started sharing that he wasn’t actually).
This was amazing and made my night