FRIDAY OPEN THREAD: ‘Tis the Season to Be Spooky

Hey weirdos! It’s Friday, the week is winding down and we’re headed into one of the most important times of the gay holiday calendar: the weekend closest to Halloween. I’m watching a Halloween episode of Beat Bobby Flay right now and I hope Bobby Flay loses but you know what, on Halloween, we all win.

I’m so sorry if you live someplace where Halloween isn’t a thing or if you dislike it because it’s truly my only interest right now! Someone told me recently my brand is Spooky Bisexual and I’m into it. This weekend some family is visiting from out of town and I’m taking them to local spooky historical site, Salem, where they have expressed interest in getting their tarot cards read and maybe attending a séance? I’m honestly a little nervous about the latter but whatever they want.

Are you doing anything spooky this weekend? Rewatching any favorite movies? Are you dressing up? Can you PLEASE post a picture? What pun do you think I should change my Twitter display name to for Halloween itself? What was your best costume as a kid? What’s the worst kind of candy, the one that you would never forgive someone for giving you as a kid? What’s your pet’s tolerance for costumes? What’s your favorite Halloween episode of a TV show? Are you annoyed that I’m so into Halloween?

As you think about your answers, let’s enjoy some cheerful holiday tunes together.

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Rachel

Originally from Boston, MA, Rachel now lives in the Midwest. Topics dear to her heart include bisexuality, The X-Files and tacos. Her favorite Ciara video is probably "Ride," but if you're only going to watch one, she recommends "Like A Boy." You can follow her on twitter and instagram.

Rachel has written 1141 articles for us.

58 Comments

  1. It’s 70 degrees in NYC, and I can’t really get into the Halloween spirit because of the warmth. Fall is my absolute favorite season, but it’s hard this year because it’s so warm.

    I have a really cool announcement:

    I am producing a one-night-only performance of the Pulitzer Prize winning musical Next to Normal as a fundraiser for The JED Foundation. JED does amazing work in mental health advocacy and suicide prevention in teens and young adults, and you should all support them.

    How, you ask? Two ways. First, save the date! Thursday, February 1st, 7 pm in NYC. Tickets will go on sale in December. Second, please click the below link to donate to the production. By donating, you are helping with upfront costs, which means more money will go to JED! Win/win!

    http://www.tinyurl.com/donateqod
    Press release: https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Christiane-Noll-and-Darius-de-Haas-to-Lead-One-Night-Only-Performance-of-NEXT-TO-NORMAL-to-Benefit-The-Jed-Foundation-20171019

    I posted this on Facebook today, and I want to share it:

    Why am I so obsessed with queer ladies in pop culture? I’ll tell you. Realizing you’re not straight can be really scary and weird and overwhelming. Often we’re teenagers, which is hard enough by itself. But realizing you’re different, especially in a way that many think is wrong/bad can be really hard. So many of us look up to celebrities, pop culture, and characters we see & read to help us…just to know that we’re not alone (aka visibility). So maybe you’re 16 and see Jenn Colella in High Fidelity promo videos and say, “oh, she’s in musical theatre, and she’s queer, and that’s totally cool”. Or maybe you see Ellen come out, and you identify with that. Or you see Callie and Erica (or Arizona) on Grey’s Anatomy, and you’re seeing characters like you on tv for the first time, and you’re so relieved and excited. Let’s face it, pop culture is so ingrained in our society. So let’s get something positive out of it, right?

    Have a great week, Autostraddle! xoxo

    • That is exciting news! I hope it leads to more work like this. I feel you on the weather, it’s still summer out here west(re 80+), and I keep forgetting Halloween is coming up.

  2. The weather refuses to turn to fall where I live (currently 71 F and sunny….) so I’m struggling to get in the mood, which is sad because Halloween is my favorite holiday. :/

    I was so excited about Halloween/October in general, that I carved pumpkins on the 1st of the month. Well, with weather in the EIGHTIES, my delightful carvings quickly turned into truly spooky bio-hazards. They’re now smashed under a tree in the front yard. It’s been suggested that I put up some tombstones for the dearly departed pumpkins. Maybe I’ll do that this weekend. While wearing shorts. *sigh*

  3. Asexual Awareness Week is right around the corner(http://www.asexualawarenessweek.com/) and I decided to celebrate by using Shrinky Dinks to make an Asexual Pride pin for my backpack. The first attempt ended in failure-there’s a reason the instructions say to use color pencils, not markers. Here’s to round two!

  4. HELLO my town has a Halloween parade. It’s p chill. Y know what’s not chill? Working someplace where you’re not allowed to talk about Halloween. 0/10 on the spooky scale.

    If you haven’t already, go listen to the “Lost In Time” episode of Spooked (snap judgement spin off podcast). It opens with the best campfire story I’ve heard in years: “Time Warp Saloon”. I listened to it alone in my apartment at midnight because I live for that creepy shit.

    • 1) I want to hear more about this Halloween parade, it sounds lovely.
      2) You can’t TALK about Halloween at your work? *record scratch* What on earth is their reasoning for that??[Also, is that legal? Internet lawyers, help me out!]

      • @kittenscahoots I work for a Christian Preschool. It’s legal
        ?

        The Halloween parade is not unlike your basic Fourth of July parade (High School marching bands, boy scouts, girl scouts, elderly people with hobbies, local politicians, classic cars) but with COSTUMES and they throw candy at the kids who, are watching from the sidelines while holding out their trick or treat bags. I’m p sure it’s the oldest annual Halloween parade on the east coast but I could be wrong

      • TBH I find Lore LACKLUSTER and not at ALL Spooky, while Spooked is 500% my shit. It’s like the moth, but for ghost stories, and not live, and with snap judgements signature BEAT. The original long Spooktacular eps of snap judgement are EXCELLENT and can all be found online. :) @internrachel

  5. I am so ready for Halloween season!!! It is so perfectly Fall weather here in Portland, all day rain, wind, fall leaves, and fog, everything I needed! I know I mentioned this a few weeks ago when I started it, but I’ve been doing a radio show/podcast of blues, jazz, soul music by queer and female musicians on M/Th during October, and I can not wait to do my Halloween episodes!! You can find it at https://anchor.fm/q-sharp-in-femme-major or on apple podcasts/other podcast things. I’m going to have at least two halloween episodes possible three, starting next Thursday. I’ve been doing research and finding soooo many amazing classic blues women who did some really creepy spooky songs! Favorite which will totally be on the show at some point ‘Bloody Razor Blues’ by Helen Gross, murderous and bloody and I can find basically no information about Gross except the fact that no one knows when she died or much about her life at all. During this I also found the song “Two Old Maids in a Folding Bed by Monette Moore, not halloween related, but seems pretty queer!

    • Oooh! I’ve totally been rocking an ,’Autumn Jazz’ playlist recently and this sounds like a vast improvement. Will you be making a Spotify playlist to go along with your podcast?

      • Nice! I might for do a spotify playlist specifically for all the Halloween episodes, and if I do I’ll mention it here so you can find it!

  6. Heeey! So 2 and a half weeks ago I split up with my partner of 6 years which is a long sad story for another time. BUT his birthday is close to Halloween and he didn’t really like it so I haven’t really celebrated it for years. So I am really excited to get dressed up (my friend gave me a mermaid tail for my birthday so I want to do a scary mermaid thing) The only problem right now is I don’t have anyone to go to a party with – there are a couple of things at local pubs but I am umming and ahhing about whether I should go or not. Will people think I’m really weird? Will it be fun? I literally won’t know one person.

    • i’m so sorry to hear about your breakup and hope you’re doing okay; HOWEVER i think your costume sounds amazing! if you end up wearing it out please post pictures! i think it’ll be fun — maybe not knowing even one person will make it MORE fun and easier to be out in a costume!

  7. Happy almost Halloween everyone! This weekend is forecasted to be low 60’s where I live, which is perfect for fall activities like visiting a pumpkin patch and drinking apple cider. While not particularly spooky, I’m like 90% sure I’m going to adopt 2 black kittens this weekend. I’m trying to figure out if I’m ready to go from no pets ever to two baby animals under my protection. Anyone have a good witchy name that goes well with Salem? The lack of a second name is really what’s holding me back at this point. I would post pictures of them but don’t know how to do that haha

    • THE ONLY THING BETTER THAN ONE BLACK KITTEN IS TWO BLACK KITTENS

      i have a lot of thoughts on salem themed names! you could go with teen witch salem and name the other cat Sabrina OR you could go with historical salem and do something like Putnam for Anne Putnam, Giles or Corey for Giles Corey, or Parrish for the Parrish family. honestly i could keep going this is an extreme intersection of my interests. a traditional black cat name in my family was also Pywacet, pronounced “pie whack it,” an alleged witch’s familiar name from the 1600s!

      also PLEASE POST PICTURES THANKS

      • Your family cat name was also a long-time vegetarian-ish restaurant in Chapel Hill (spelled Pyewacket though)

    • What about “Sabrina”? Then you get the double “S” names, which is kind of cute.

      As for posting pics: Here’s a handy guide from Autostraddle’s Ali.

      But basically: copy-paste the handy code at the top of every FOT post into your comment, upload your pics to Imgur or something similar, grab the image source (either by right-clicking and going to “copy image address” or taking the direct link from Imgur – just make sure it ends in .jpg and not .html), then paste the image source in between the quotation marks.

  8. This week in scary: last night I was reading an article describing what some of the Family Research Council folks were telling attendees at the Values Voter Summit about effective tactics for pushing transphobia (in their words, defeating “totalitarian transgender ideology in public schools”). I think it’s the first time I’ve ever had a panic attack just from reading something. I didn’t even make it halfway through the article before the elephant sitting on my chest made me quit.

    This week in wonderful: I was invited to be an alumni participant in a workshop on trans issues that was organized by a current student at the place where I went to grad school two decades ago. Back in my day, there weren’t even any LGB students on campus who were out on campus. Now, there are all kinds of queer students, and they’re having this workshop. I’m really thrilled to be participating, and touched to have been invited.

    And tonight my Kid and I are going to hang out with our queer and ally friends and make merry late into tomorrow morning. Also wonderful.

    • I’m so sorry you had to read that — it sounds terrifying and nauseating and I hope you’re okay. I’m really happy about the workshop, and I’m excited about the plans for tonight! What’s the plan? Is it Halloween-themed or a general hangout?

      • Tonight’s plan is to get together at the local drag joint. Several of my friends are bit RPDR fans, and Sasha Velour will be performing tonight. (TBH, I’m pretty meh about drag in general. But a bunch of people who I love love it, so I’m going for the purpose of hanging out with them.)

  9. The first time I met one of my friends was for her birthday at her old place. At some point during the night a séance happened to see who was haunting the place. It turned out to be a teenage boy who died in the late 80s and was a big fan of Bowie(before he passed away), & The Smiths. Not sure how they destroyed the paper ouji board, but still interesting.

    I have no Halloween related plans for this weekend or next, but I am sure there is something queer going on next week I will go to. I am instead planning to go to museum with a friend. Last week we went to 100 Car symphony sponsored by Red Bull. It was neat as each car had a special stereo and each were tuned to a specific frequency. It was done by a Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda. It pretty much was LA car culture(which included some beautiful Impala low riders) meets Japanese precision. It was neat and there was a few people in attendance who looked to be in the community(or just like flannel, and short pink hair).

    I tried to think of what some of costumes were as a kid, but I can’t remember. Anyone else in a same boat? I want to say I as a Ninja Turtle, but I could also be mistaken. As for re-watching a favorite movie, I may just watch the original Scream or see if I can find that Halloween movie, that includes Busta Rhymes, Tyra Banks, and AIM mobile. It’s cheesy, time capsule of early 2000’s tech(Windows Pocket PC, AIM, and 2000 era cellphones), and some channel may have it on this weekend? I am also thinking about going to Cuties Coffee for Hocus Pocus craft night on Tuesday, which should be just a grand ol’ time.

    Don’t have any nature shots this week, but been recently quoting Sleater-Kinney around town.

    Thank you for viewing and reading my post. Have a positive weekend!

    • I have SO MANY QUESTIONS about that first anecdote. how does a seance just ‘happen’? is the teenage ghost still there? destroyed the ouija board???

      also i love your SK graffiti and i can’t wait to hear about craft night!

      • I actually don’t remember how it started. I think someone just mentioned it and everyone was like yeah lets do it. Well the Ouija board was made on a large sheet of blank printer paper and there is some special way to discard it without messing with the spirits. My friend doesn’t live in that building anymore, but the ghost said he would still live there as that’s where he grew up, & was too depressed to leave. He also made a request we play Morrissey, but not a new track. It was kind of specific.

  11. I am going to a house show at the girl I like’s house tonight which is, I guess, spooky bc I am VERY NERVOUS bc I am hopin we like, idk, finally kiss or something. (I am not very good at being the instigator of these things, and in fact the only reason I’ve even had the quasi-relationships I’ve had was bc the other person was VERY FORWARD, so this is a fun role reversal for me to be the more vocal one about ~feelings~ if that makes sense. Idk, she makes me terribly nervous and kind of feel like I want to throw up but in a good, fun way. Like a wooden rollercoaster.) WISH ME LUCK bc we need to probably have a convo about where we want this to go and I am BAD at those. I also would like to carve a dang pumpkin this weekend.

    • I’m praying you get to touch her bewbs. Fingers crossed. And you get to talk about your relationship.

  12. I’m not doing anything too exciting this weekend. Maybe going to a flea market, and catching up on work I’ve been putting off. I’ll try to finish a book for my queer book club at work, but realistically I won’t finish, and just watch Netflix or something instead. A few years ago a friend and I dressed up as Mario and Luigi at work, and for months after I’d get called Mario while walking through the parking lot near my job. I’m not dressing up this weekend, but probably next.

  13. My friend is having a Britney themed party next weekend….my costume is gonna be Work Bitch Britney mainly because I’m gonna have only about 30 minutes to get ready and I already own chest harnesses etc similar to what she wears in the video lol

    I’m trying to find a pumpkin to carve….no luck yet but I’m determined to succeed on this!

    Tomorrow I’m playing drums with my group at the Trans* Pride parade which is gonna be good as part of the route is down the main street so it’s a lot of visibility!

    Hope you all have a great weekend ?

  14. Family reunion activities with Trump voters is kinda spooky. They got “tricked” and we’re making treats, specifically cuccidati (fig cookies).

    It’s cookie weekend once more. Hopefully we stick to singing Sintra and Dean Martin ect. while we work.

    Spooky Bisexual is a great brand.

    • My Mom is opting out of a Halloween Party, after going for a few years, because the majority of the party are Trump supporters. I am so proud of her! SInatra is my jam and yyes to all the cuccidati.

  15. in spooky news, i dressed up as ellen degeneres for an early-halloween party and it was a smashing success. but now i need a costume for the english department party. reply with your suggestions of gay literary costumes!! i like virginia werewolf but it sounds like a lot of effort and makeup.
    in not-spooky news, i saw the girl again! we went to see “a midsummer night’s dream” and it was so hysterical we were both in tears. i want to keep seeing her. what do i say? how do i talk to girls? help.
    also, fall is HERE. it rained a little last night and the air smells fall-ish and i just ordered a pair of those l.l. bean boots that all the lesbians wear so i am fully prepared for the best season.

  16. Went to orientation for TimeOutYouth and almost cried because I felt at home and it was scary being surrounded by other queers. I had to go to the bathroom because I almost burst into tears at the beginning of the orientation. I can’t wait to sign up, I just completed the background check so I can’t volunteer until it is complete
    .
    Also I think I need some B12 because my memory has been fuzzy and I am dizzy right now.
    So this is where I get weird. If you are not into the esoteric/occult/spiritual/witchy stop read here because you are not going to like what I am going to write about next.

    I recently had a remote Reiki session. In the post session write up the practitioner told me they saw me as a man running along a river in Egypt. I’ve had past life memories and I remember what it means to be a man and touching women. For some reason someone telling me I was a man was a relief. I am not trans and I have no problem having boobs and a vajay (I love that word vijay lol), but that was just a relief. Like now I understand why I love women. I don’t like women’s bodies, but more of their souls. I find men attractive, but there is something deep missing. But I also don’t feel like I man I feel more androgynous. I feel like I will be with a man in another life just not this one.

    Also bewbs. I like bewbs. I want to touch bewbs.

    Still not okay with being called a lesbian though.

    The practitioner also said they saw me not aligning with my life’s purpose and glass bubbles encasing my heart, which I am sure is about me being fully out. My heart just hurts right now.

    Sorry for any typos or confusingness, I am on a cloud right now.

    • Hi! You know, you don‘t have to choose between male or female or cis or trans or straight or lesbian. Those are only words for other people to place you better.
      Personally, I don‘t even believe in gender. There are situations and ways to carry oneself that can be termed as masculine or feminine, and those are more situation oriented for me, than anything.
      So, sure, people can see me as female and call me a lesbian, because technically that’s what the dictionary thing is, but for myself, I‘m gender fluid and gay, and there are so many little individual specks on the rainbow, none is like the other.
      Good luck on your travels and don‘t forget this life amongst the others!

  17. We decorated for Halloween early this year and it’s given me life. We turned our yard into a cemetery with skeletons everywhere and it’s v spoopy.

    In other news I saw Tegan and Sara yesterday and I’m seeing them tonight toooo! Plus I posted a picture from the show yesterday on IG and Tegan and Sara liked it and now I am deceased, goodbye.

  18. I love the aesthetic of Halloween, but have always been disappointed by the reality. Drunken adult parties and “sexy” just don’t do it for me and that seems like all anyone in my town wants to do. So I’ll probably throw my own halloween party by myself with my cats, and we will watch Over the Garden Wall and drink apple cider and it will be amazing.

    My favorite spooky podcast is The Black Tapes (if you like paranormal stuff go listen to it, it’s amazing), and season 3 started recently, but I’ve been waiting and saving up episodes for when the weather gets really fall-like to listen. It’s been 70 degrees out this week but I’m listening to it anyway because I need something spooky in my life to make it more interesting.

    The lindy hop community in my town holds a Halloween dance on the last Friday of October, and I’ve been thinking of what costume I can wear that I can also dance in. Ramona Flowers and Delirium from the Sandman comics are my top two options right now.

    The best costume I ever had was when my mom made me a genie costume that looked exactly like Barbara Eden’s in I Dream Of Jeannie (Looking back i realize that was a terrible show, but as a kid I loved it)
    I was lactose intolerant as a kid, and 60% of the candy I got was inevitably chocolate. The only thing my friends would ever trade me for my chocolate was skittles. To this day, I hate skittles.

  19. I had a lovely fall day. One of my visits for work cancelled this afternoon, my wife left to work an evening shift (at her new job which is going well!), and our foster kid is on a visit with her family. I decided to take advantage of the time to myself and go for a hike at my favorite nature trail. The air was just right and the leaves were lovely. Then I came home and worked on cleaning out my raspberry patch, which needed to be done (and still needs some work).

    My favorite part of Halloween is the fact that it gets people walking outside. Also for one of my jobs we’re going to give out toothbrushes at the downtown trick or treat event. We did it last year along with a tooth brushing activity and everyone was excited about the new toothbrushes, even the older kids.

    The kid asked me if I would go on her next field trip, which was sweet, so I checked at work and they said I can flex my time and take off the hours in the middle of the day, so that should be fun as it’s a trip on Halloween to a pumpkin patch.

    My passion planner just arrived in the mail. I’ve been spending some time thinking about goals. My goal is to be a parent. We tried fertility treatments and they didn’t work. We’ve been doing foster care for almost 8 months now, and I get to be a “bonus mama.” I’m happy that our first little one is back with her mama, the baby is back with grandma, and hopefully our current little one will be back with her bio family sooner rather than later.

    My wife and I are attending a training tomorrow to get licensed for adoption. I definitely support reunification and am glad that our little ones have gotten to back with family, but I also want to get to be a full time forever mama. So we will see. We were letting our new jobs settle in, and partially it depends on if we can find day care openings, but I feel ready for another placement. Now to the randomness of luck and the universe to see what happens next.

    • You sound like a kind and generous person. I bet you are a great foster mom and will be a great forever mom too. Good luck!

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