PHOTO GALLERY: Queer on a Friday Night

Lex / 18 / Part-time student, part-time nomad / UK

“This Friday evening is spent on a windy beach alone, collecting shells, crying in silence as the sun sets and my hands grow cold from writing in the North Sea breeze. She will never read the letter I wrote, but it is good to say goodbye.”

Kylie Sparks / 30 / Actor, writer / The Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles

“My partner Logan (who took this photo!) and I were celebrating one of my good friend’s birthday and I needed a good #onbrand photo to capture the evening.  What better way to spend a weekend than drinking champagne and playing billiards?”

Heather Mangione (right, tank top) / 31 / Community Relationship Manager / Airspray Queer Dance Party at Electric Haze in Worcester, MA

“This is how my friends and I have spent the third Friday night of every month for the past three years. I host a queer dance party. On average, 200+ people attend! There is glitter. SO MUCH GLITTER.”

Laura / 26 / Grant writer, volunteer “comic book specialist” / Brooklyn, NY

“Pictured, left to right: Caroline, Isabel, Laura, Caroline, Saluda (the dog flopping around in a Hawaiian shirt on Caroline’s lap), Valerie (sitting in the front), Laura, Kate, Katie, Lydia. Yes, approximately half of us have the same names.

We have a recurring “Bad Lesbian Movie Brunch,” and this time we branched out and made it a Bad Lesbian Movie Night instead. We watched Out at the Wedding, which was extremely 2007 and worse than anyone remembered. But we also ate a lot of mac & cheese, drank some beers, cuddled under multiple sherpa-lined blankets, and generally had a great time regardless!”

Maggie McGill / 23 / Communications Coordinator, Fat Positive Youtuber / Washington DC

“I spent this Friday in the studio apartment of my first DC friend, a girl that graduated from my college the year before I started there. I met her through my partner! She makes us really delicious obscure cocktails and we just sit around and talk and drink and listen to records. I thought I wouldn’t find any friends after graduating, but I’ve definitely made one! Every night spent here is meaningful and makes me feel like I have my own little queer community.”

Steph Rivas, Yvonne Marquez, Gloria Delgadillo / 24, 26, 26 / Digital Designer; Autostraddle Senior Editor; Union Organizer / Urban Outfitters

“Steph invited us to go eat at Urban Taco, this upscale-ish restaurant that serves tacos. Since we’re self-identified bougie bitches when it comes to food, we said yes, because that place is fucking delicious. It was a pretty chill Friday night out and we were laughing and talking and Steph was telling us about how she had the perfect wind down the other night when she watched the Bachelor and put on an amazing face mask she bought at Urban Outfitters. It just so happened that Urban Outfitters is around the corner from Urban Taco so we decided to go after dinner to check out those face masks. We meandered all throughout the store looking at shoes and this fucking sick Selena shirt. I was slightly appalled but also really wanted it. I found a pink hat that I thought said “Pussy” but it actually said “Stussy” and then Gloria put it on, along with some fake glasses that made it look like she had a unibrow, and we were like YES!

There was a photo booth in the corner and of course we had to commemorate this Friday night out with our comadre. We squeezed into the tiny booth, Gloria had to sit on my lap and we paid $5 to take silly photos. We didn’t really like the photos the photo booth took so we took our own selfies with Steph’s phone. We bought our face masks and then went to Sprouts afterwards because Gloria wanted to make her own face mask. She heard on the internet you can mix activated charcoal and Elmer’s glue to make one. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t work, y’all and is bad for your skin. Gloria made her rogue face mask and Steph and I put on our 3-step black head nose strip remover while we listened to Bruno Mars’ “That’s What I Like” on repeat. It was the perfect Friday night.”

Jay/ 22 / My bedroom

“I spent this Friday alone reorganizing my bookshelves and putting some recent art up on my door/walls. Also trying to figure out what to do with all these toothpick flags (had queer Indigenous studies terms/concepts) left over from a baking project for a queer Indigenous gathering two days prior. It was lovely to take some time to reorganize and appreciate the things I had created lately.”

Alex / 33 / Librarian / Chicago, IL

“Beauty and the Beast. No, really. He’s a fabulous, kinky, Bear and I’m the beauty, obviously. This is how my Bestie and I celebrated his birthday because we are hip AF.”

Erin / 28 / Parent and student / Home base

“I had made plans to go to a concert tonight, mostly because I love the band but also because I wanted to send in a really exciting picture. But, I spent the gloriously warm day out biking with my kids and I also wrote a major final exam and I am so tired. So, here’s what I am actually doing tonight. This is what six people’s laundry looks like when it’s all folded at once for the first time in at least a week! Once it’s put away, I’m probably going to fall asleep reading this book.”

Mary / 22 / Gambier Island, BC, Canada

“My two favourite friends/coworkers/roommates and I are playing Arkham Horror (night 2!) because literally the only things we do is play board games and watch Canada’s Worst Driver. We’re accompanied by a puppy and a large bag of white wine, unfortunately not pictured.”

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70 Comments

  1. “was fed cake by naked queer women in a hot tub in the forest.”

    I’m sorry what? Where do I sign up?

    • this is how i imagine everyone lives in portland. i don’t even know if this yurt is in portland, but it feels like it is, you know?

      • I’m so sick of living among the straights, please take me away to a Portland commune where this is common occurrence

    • The yurt is in the santa cruz mountains in california, though it’s an honour to be seen as portland level queer. another highlight of the weekend was having glitter sprinkled on my butt by the Glitter Goddess and watching her glitter up everyone else on their body part of choice, and then all of us lying on the ground and moving/touching ourselves sensually. Also I mean there was a lot of emotional work and we built a super powerful container of seeing one another and holding space to be our truest queerest selves. Great weekend overall, highly reccommend. https://www.elizabethjcooper.com/retreat/#retreatinvite

      • Sounds so dreamy! I looked it up and I would looove to be a part of smthng like that! Unfortunately I’m currently quite far from west coast but if I’m ever in that area or smthng similar happens closer to me, that’d be great!

      • Also didn’t mean to downplay the emotional work part, that also sounds great, it just that that last sentence had so many of my favorite words at the same time hahaha. Fed.Cake.Naked.Queer. Women. Hot tub. Forrest. Magic ahhh

      • Emily, I love you so much and our wacky fucking emotional container and the yurts and the hot tub. Also, Autostraddle, I want you to know that I am also in this photo and wore the lazy femme shirt ON PURPOSE because I love you too.

        • Dani i SEE u in that lazy femme shirt!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️sorry i didn’t put everyones names, I got overwhelmed trying to figure out everyones age and occupation (i know your deep fears and desires but not your job titles)

  2. THIS IS SO CUTE Y’ALL ARE MAJORLY CUTE MAYBE I WILL TAKE A PHOTO TONIGHT AND SEND IT IN BELATEDLY BUT SPOILER ALERT I GOT MY HAIR CUT YESTERDAY (LIKE AN INCH) AND I HATE IT AND THINK IT IS TOO SHORT (LIKE I ALWAYS DO) SO I MAY BE KIND OF POUTY IN THE PHOTO BECAUSE UGH, LONG HAIR FEMME HAIR CUT WOES YA KNOWWWWWW?

    but for real @green this is just my fave thing on autostraddle right now, just the absolute best. i wanna stare at cute queers doing cute things JUST LIVING THEIR LIVES for forever and you are making that possible so THANK YOU <3

    • ? YES PLEASE SEND A PICTURE OF YOUR LONG LUXURIOUS HAIR -that is only 1″ shorter than it usually is- PLEASE

    • As a very long haired femme I FEEL YOU! One inch feels like you’ve chopped your hair in half or something! But I-m sure you look fabulous :)

    • As a long-and-curly haired femme, the idea of having my hair an ENTIRE INCH too short is the stuff of my nightmares,so I totally feel you.

      I bet you look supes de dupes cute though! :D

    • V MY ROOMATE HAS GORGEOUS FLOWY FAIRY LOCKS AND HE ASKED ME TO TRIM IT. I TRIMMED RIGHT WHERE I WAS TOLD TO, HE WHINED ALL OVER THE HOUSE ALL DAY! I HAVE LITERALLY WITNESSED THIS FEEL!!

  3. This is so cute and good!! You are doing a major public service with these galleries, and I hope they never ever stop.

    Also, I didn’t even think about any of the things in the intro paragraph (like, having to explain what this gallery/Autostraddle is to a group of people, etc. etc.), even though they are totally super valid. This makes me really happy, because just 5 years ago the idea of having my face and name in Autostraddle would have filled me with dread, but now in 2017 I was like, “hey guys, so we’re totally gonna take a pic for the queer on a friday night gallery, yeah? good, cool.” I didn’t even fully realize how super-gay my life had become!

  4. Oh my word that concert sounds so great Kris, and that song? That sounds super awesome and gay!

  5. Just spent 20 minutes zooming at every pictures on the wall of the image from Hungary !

    Anyway, sending this picture on the gallery is a little step on my way to a public coming out (i’m not entirely out). I did not send my face (playing the trumpet = not sexy at all), but still, someone who knows me will recognize it so I was kind of scared when I sent it but now I feel strangely proud.

    • Yo P., as another queer History student from France: you can and should be proud <3 Also, I love your bookshelf (French editions!).

    • Congrats for that little step out of the closet! I shared the Queer in the Kitchen one on my Facebook as a kind of global coming out :)

    • solidarity from another queer history/lit student in France! (also: I’m from Toulouse! yay Sud-Ouest!)
      & Beauté Fatale is an *amazing* book. still wondering why it hasn’t been translated yet into English, though.

  6. Seeing my art on this page is even more exciting than seeing it in the gallery!!!
    Thanks Laneia for helping me put another check mark of making dreams come true!!!

  7. LIONZ KLUB

    Also aiofe!! Your rats! And the lighting in that photo! ? @ your whole self

    I really like it when I see Queers In The Wild who also have pets that a cat would eat

      • As a different Aoife, this cracks me up so much. I get such entertainment from befuddling the fuck out of people with Irish names. But maybe that’s just cause I rarely have to encounter it IRL (perks of being in Ireland, where Aoife’s are so common that I was once one of four in a class of only 22)

        • I have Irish spellchecker on my phone bc I spell my middle name the Irish way online to keep employers from finding me and I thought it would save me and it did not

        • I’ve also misspelled my own first name though (Michael) so like this an across the board problem

  9. OHMYGOSH I am SO EXCITED to see rural northern Wisco represented!! Hi Nico in Luck!! I wanna come check out your co-op!

  10. I always tell myself I should send a picture and then I always forget about it until I see the Gallery published!!! If I miss the late submission opportunity I have no excuse… I visited my girlfriend in Houston recently and went to the Rodeo so got excited to see someone else doing that, I also went to watch Logan (it was hard to pick between Logan and Beauty and the Beast) and had game night last friday with my coworkers. So many picture opportunities lost!!! I guess I can send one of me right now…reading Autostraddle :P

  11. Maggie in DC I think I have that same chambray shirt!!! It looks very cute on you!

    Feeling very ~seen~ in terms of how many other people were in their apartment drinking (box?) wine!

  14. What I got out of this gallery:
    1) I’m definitely not living that 20s lifestyle anymore,
    2) I’d like to leave the house occasionally,
    3) Queers can do anything.

    Such a lovely gallery! Would love to contribute in the future and have a human other than my partner in the photo with me.

  15. I don’t think I’m even capable of expressing in words how much I love this series.

  16. I adore these galleries So0o0oOOoo0o0ooO MUCH!!!!!!!!! When I realized this afternoon it’s march 31st I thought, QUEER IRL MUST BE OUT TODAY! Promptly stopped what I was doing to check and to my delight here it was. Huge smile on my face the entire time of scrolling through this, y’all are radiant and i love peeking into your lives.

  17. Dear Erin / 28 / Parent and student / Home base;

    Thank you for making me feel less alone with my constant Friday night laundering. I just want to make use of that off-peak hydro pricing in the evenings, y’know??

    Xo, Faith/27/Hamilton. :P

    All you Straddlers have such cool lives, damn it! I’m such a hermit. Thanks for letting me live vicariously through all your images! :D

    • I’m also a regular Friday night launderer, and I’m cool as fuck (one of these things is a lie). Laundry is valid as are you!

  21. I was feeling too insecure to click this gallery cos I thought everyone would be out getting drunk at a club/bar and chatting up cute women. Media version of ‘Friday night’. Tbh apart from the cute women (and it takes me a while irl to warm up to ppl) that isn’t what I want from Friday night but I feel odd about not doing as that’s basically media representation of a good Friday night.

    So glad that I can relate to the ways some of you spend your night, makes me feel less alone & odd and more like there’s more ppl who enjoy themselves the same ways I do.

    I hope all of you (inc everyone here) had great Friday nights.

  22. Finally went through all the pictures while recovering from my Friday night (which was exactly as described in y comment about all my other Fridays haha)

    So many of you having chilled Friday nights are making me consider that I should occasionally take a leaf from your books and do that, it looks cozy! :)

  23. YOU’RE ALL SO CUTE JUST THE CUTEST I HAVE CRUSHES ON EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU AND WOULD BUY YOU A MILKSHAKE IF YOU WERE INTO IT.

    Also Lauren & Faith- yes, so cool!! xoxo

  24. MEI!
    IS YOUR STOVE OKAY!? or like your house! Or are you just like, full of ambient steam and so your skin is super-hydrated?

    • the stove is ok! (besides the problems it already had before) mostly my concern was my roommate’s pot because all the water evaporated and left marks on the bottom hahahahaha…….but thankfully she doesn’t care, since she won’t need it after we graduate in a month anyway

  25. This is hands-down one of the best things on the web. Also Chandra’s posing skills are top-notch.

  26. This is probably one of my favorite things on Autostraddle, even if it made me a little sad.

  28. Super Sculptor Amy, congratulations! Your contribution made me SO happy. You’re a fucking hero – go you for the show.

  29. This continues to be my favorite thing! I would have joined in, but I knew the pic quality was gonna be soooo good, and my fri night is a selfie of me sleeping.

  30. OMG IT ME! I’m so excited to be on the Autostraddle site in such an awesome way, you guys are all wonderful beautiful people!

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