It’s a scary time to be a minority in this country, but the 2018 Midterms offer a little bit of light in the darkness. According to the Victory Fund, this is the first election in the history of the U.S. where LGBTQ people are running for office in all 50 states. They join the record number of women running for office.

As this epic year winds to a close, take some time this month to have all the feelings — and prepare for a dreamier, queerer future.

Plus updates on Claws, Mi Familia Perfecta, and Ackley Bridge!

I find myself preemptively mourning the transgenerational communities and cliques and cults and clubs and covens of girls like me that could be and may not be.

Plus updates on Coronation Street, The Young and the Restless, Killjoys, The First, You, and Atypical!

We have searched high and low (brow) and located all the lesbian and bisexual characters you can expect to find on new and returning television shows this fall.

“It seemed at the time to be exactly what life was about, and only just barely staying alive, curling up in corners of lonely, unclean rooms in shaking fits of sadness too raw to keep inside my head, screaming into my bent knees.”

Don’t go just for the gay subtext, but if you do go I guarantee you’ll see it. 

I don’t know if you’ve felt it yet, but we certainly have. This is the year where lesbian, bisexual, queer, and trans women of color are taking over your television screens.

The queer YA books you’ll want to read at the beach, the park, and everywhere else this summer!

The Sinner’s Second Season has a black lesbian lead and a very compelling mystery. Plus updates on: Coronation Street, General Hospital, Younger, The Young and the Restless, and Killjoys!

From the producers who brought you Carol and the studio that brought you Disobedience and the actor who brought you undisputed lesbian coming-of-age story Bend It Like Beckham comes a new film about the French writer/bisexual icon Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette.

“Zoey and I tried to feed our cravings for simple American cuisine, but despite our clever substitutions and meticulous adjustments and innovative ingredients from the bazaar, nothing tasted quite right. Not bad, just not what we’d been looking for.”

A reader requested a roundtable where Autostraddle’s fat staff talk about how fatness, diet culture, and body positivity, relate to our queerness, identity, and gender. We aim to please, so here we are!

Plus updates on Legacies, Coronation Street, Sally4Ever, and (for some reason) Camping.

What lives in your praise house?

A personally curated list of complicated feelings surrounding July 4th, trans feminist vampire slayers, Meshell Ndegeocello has a new music video, and other evening news ready to take you into the weekend.

“I started a Tumblr called Midwestern Monster Hunt dedicated to my adventures and to sharing stories of the weird, macabre, and strange. I began following blogs devoted to lovingly curating blurry photos dotted with red circles, grainy images of discs in the sky, or puns about Mothman. The more involved in cryptid and paranormal spaces I became, the more queer people seemed to pop up.”

Vida’s queer showrunner Tanya Saracho talks to Autostraddle one-on-one about the politics of building a Latinx LGBT writers room, Beyoncé, and why Vida is going to be your new spring obsession!

“There are so many baby queers who depend on us to give them representation,” they said. “There’s so much in this world telling you to be something different and that’s so detrimental. I’d rather have kids see something and go, ‘It’s okay to be me.'”