QUIZ: How Well Do You Remember (The Gay Parts) of 2009?

In the bloom of 2009, Autostraddle burst forth into the world, full of ideas (mostly about Lady Gaga) and images (mostly of Lady Gaga). When I close my eyes and think about 2009, I imagine sitting on my aunt’s couch at 1 AM attempting to “live-blog” Dinah Shore weekend through emails from Alex, feeling like we were on a content treadmill that I simply could not afford to abandon for even a few hours. That is how most of 2009 reads to me: trying to live-blog something at 1AM.

But how well do YOU remember (the gay parts) of 2009? There is simply only one way to figure out, and it is by taking this quiz.

Hot tip for this quiz: if the question seems really hard, try the process of elimination with the potential answers. The harder the question the more likely it is that I stacked the answers in a way to facilitate your ability to answer it.


How Well Do You Remember (The Gay Parts of) 2009?

  • Which bisexual musician — who we wrote about more than any other human being in 2009 — is featured in this artistic masterpiece from our writer Stef in her cartoon recap of the artist's concert?
  • This still is from the 2009 lesbian film "Drool." What is the film about?

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Riese

Riese is the 41-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3164 articles for us.

40 Comments

  1. Pretty pleased with my 76% considering I was 16-17 year old living in rural Texas at the time. I got a lot more of the pop culture questions than the political ones, which tracks.

  2. So no one was gonna tell me there’s a movie where Toni Child’s plays possible gay involved in some shenanigan where she kills an abusive man and sets out on a road trip with other possible alternative lifestyle women.

    Is this the true reason she missed out on Joan’s engagement party?

  3. Quiz Grade: B
    Score: 14
    Percentage: 82%

    Well, I seemed to get the pop culture ones right, but the American politics ones less so, and as I’m not American I’m upgrading myself to 100% and am feeling very pleased with my performance.

  4. Quiz Grade: A
    Score: 16
    Percentage: 94%

    I had no idea I remembered 2009 that well. It was fairly formative though as that was the year I finally had to come out to myself. I only missed the question about the New England state, which for a 19 year old from rural East Texas stumbling my way out of the closet while also figuring out I had actually been a liberal the entire time, I guess it isn’t too surprising I would have missed that news. I had a lot of catching up to do lol

  5. Exactly this! How is it possible that Sainthood and ArchAndroid came out more than a decade ago?? And yet also I had only been out for a year, and that time seems SO long ago.

  6. (My comment above was supposed to be a reply to the comment above it, but the reply function seems to be broken? Cause I can’t get this one to work either)

    I got a C, but like Sally above I’m not American so claiming at least a B.

  7. I got a C but I also discovered that I had completely erased NOM and The Gathering Storm from my memory, which was worth the price of admission. (They were definitely omnipresent for a while in my 2009!)

    The problem: now I remember NOM.

  8. 65%D

    Looks kinda like an emoji, don’t you think ? A smiling, addled person with Big Hair.

    But I digress.

    I couldn’t even make it 69% I mean, revoke my lesbian card or what !

  9. Quiz Grade: C
    Score: 13
    Percentage: 76%

    2009, what a time! I was surprised to score this highly, considering that I take the lack of a question referencing Skins season 3 as a personal insult and was distracted by it throughout. (I’m kidding – but Skins season 3 aired in early 2009 and Naomi/Emily made my heart sing that year!)

  10. 76% / C

    That’s pretty good for where I was in 2009. That was my junior/senior year of high school and I was not out to myself in the slightest. I was vaguely aware of gay stuff in the news, but I was mostly aware of Glee. I was the perfect age for Glee and I loved it so much! (<\3 Naya Rivera <\3)

  11. ok i got 41% and all the ones i got right were context guesses. BUT in 2009 i was 12, in buttcrack nowhere canada, had dial up internet and the only reason that I knew the word lesbian was because our neighbor had a neck tattoo and lots of “good friends”. shoutout to trina, thanks for teaching me how to play pool and also maybe being my ring of keys lol

  12. Missed one question only because I wasn’t in the zone yet. Was an avid reader back then and remember being able to determine who wrote which article based on writing style before it was clearly labeled the way it is now. One of those highly specific skills I was cultivating at the time like being able to distinguish a Tegan song from a Sara one and knowing if a television show was filmed in Canada within three minutes. Clearly college paid off.

  13. 82%/B

    Considering I was a very vocal “straight ally” high school senior/college freshman in 2009 who made a lot of self-deprecating jokes about my “extended tomboy phase” while experimenting with high femme looks (I also traveled with a group from my college to go to the March in DC with ally pins and a “straight but not narrow” sign), I’m pretty pleased with my score here

  14. 88% B Too ashamed to tell you which ones I missed [Ack, included Teagan & Sara’s album]

    No mention of just about the only (cultural) thing I was thinkin about in 2009: Otalia! Otalia! Otalia! Otalia! [Olivia & Natalia on the final season (sigh) of “Guiding Light”. For all that they were handcuffed by CBS, still one of the most beautiful f/f love stories ever on U.S. broadcast (the kind w/o cable or streaming) TV]

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