Queer people do Halloween so, so well. It’s our calling. We’re weirdos, we’re witches, we’re ex-theater kids and drag queens and high femmes who have spent way too many hours learning how to put on an incredible face to let an opportunity like Halloween go to waste. Halloween is the holiday of our people — and to celebrate in proper style, we’ll be putting together a community photo gallery again this year to show off all of your impressive costumes. But in order to do this, I need your help!

Here I am dressed as Miss Piggy in 2015, but you can pretend I took this photo mere minutes ago and am pointing to you, yes you, asking you to submit your Halloween costume photos from this year to Autostraddle dot com!

Please send me photos of yourself (or your pet) in full Halloween costume splendor! You can also send in group photos including your friends / lovers / enemies / etc, but please please please make sure everyone in the photo consents to having it published online! I’m hoping that because Halloween falls on a (highly inconvenient) Wednesday this year, y’all will be celebrating and attending parties the weekend before and thus I am making the submission deadline midnight on Tuesday, October 30 so that we can publish it on Halloween proper, October 31. However – if you will be celebrating Halloween on the 31st, or perhaps on the first weekend of November instead, you can send in your photos late and I will continue to update the gallery until midnight on Sunday, November 4. That seems fair, right? Right.

What do you need to do to be included in the gallery? Send 1-2 photos, your name, your age, and what you are dressed up as to vanessa [at] autostraddle [dot] com with the subject line “Gay Halloween 2018.” I need this info for every person or animal in the picture. If you do not include any part of this information then I will not post your photo. Thank you for following instructions and making my life a tiny bit easier! I appreciate you!

Email all submissions to vanessa [at] autostraddle [dot] com by midnight on Tuesday, October 30. Late submissions will be accepted and added through midnight on Sunday, November 4.

Do you want to submit to this photo gallery but you need some inspiration for your Halloween costume this year? Well we have got your covered, my friends. Like I keep saying: Halloween is the holigay of our people! It is our Gay Christmas! We love it! And in the near decade (!!!) that Autostraddle has been in existence (!!!), it seems like we have written almost every single article anyone could ever conceive of about queer Halloween costumes! Some of them have aged well, some feel a little dated, but they’re all creative and gay as heck and I think it would do us well to examine our queer Halloween roots when planning this year’s costumes. Start your brainstorming right here, with 30+ posts including community photo galleries, makeup tutorials, a shopping guide to buy a costume for your pet(s), and So Many Costume Ideas.

Autostraddle Halloween Community Photo Galleries

You All Looked So Good On Halloween: A Community Photo Gallery from 2017 // Photoessay: West Hollywood’s Halloween Carnival is Really Bonkers // Autostraddle Staff Family Photo Album: What We Were for Halloween Way Back When // Spooky Sexy Queers: The Autostraddle Reader And Staff Halloween Costume Gallery from 2013 // Autostraddle Staff Family Photo Album: Childhood Halloween Costumes, Thematically // So We Think These are the Best Costumes for Halloween: a community photo gallery from 2010 // Autofocus! Goes to Carlytron’s Hollywood Scares Halloween Costume Eleganza: a community photo gallery from 2009

Pop Culturally Relevant (or Dated!) Costumes

14 Halloween Costume Ideas from Your Favorite TV Shows, Movies, and More // Be The Hilarious Queer Women of Suicide Kale // 21 Things You Probably Saw At Every Queer Halloween Party last year // 7 Badass Ladies of “Buffy” and the Halloween Costumes They Inspire // Top Five Gillian Anderson-Inspired Halloween Costumes // Your Best Halloween Costume Ever: 90’s Television Nostalgia Edition // You Still Have Time for a (Gay) Halloween Costume: Pretty Little Liars Halloween Special

Cheap and/or Easy Costumes

One Black Unitard and Three Badass Costumes // Queer Outfit of the Week: Last Minute Halloween Costume // Your Best Halloween Costume Ever: Ridiculously Easy Ideas For Lazy, Broke or Busy Queers // You Still Have Time for a (Gay) Halloween Costume: Down to the Last Minute

Classic Queer Costumes

11 Witch Costumes That Skip the Pointy Black Hat // 10 Tegan and Sara Halloween Costumes To Make Everyone So Jealous // 10 Queer Feminist Icons You Can Be This Halloween // 5 Autostraddle-Inspired Halloween Costumes for the Queer Soul

Nerdy Queer Costumes

Be a Good Guy or a Bad Guy With These Nerdy Halloween Costumes // 9 DIY Superheroine Costumes For Halloween Heroics // Mey’s Top Seven Comics-Based Halloween Costumes for 2014 // 12 Geeky Halloween Costume Ideas To Perplex Friends & Onlookers

Costumes For Your Pet(s)

Trick or (Pet) Treat: A Halloween Costume Shopping Guide for Furry Friends

Couples Costumes

12 Couples Halloween Costumes For You and Your Taller or Shorter Gal Pal // 30 Couples Costumes for You and Your Redheaded Girlfriend // Halloween Dreams Come True: Robin and Carly as Morticia and Gomez Addams (!!!) // Your Best Halloween Costume Ever: Queer Couples Edition // You Still Have Time for a (Gay) Halloween Costume: Glee and Brittana, Part One // You Still Have Time for a (Gay) Halloween Costume: Glee and Brittana, Part Two

Makeup Tutorials

A Halloween Makeup Tutorial To Make Yourself Look Like An Alien // Halloween Face Painting 101: The Six Step Butterfly // Glowy Glam Makeup With Kaylah // Flung Out of Space: Create a Queer Alien Look With Holographic Makeup

Do you feel ready for Halloween 2018 now? Just to reiterate, here’s what you need to do to submit a photo to our 2018 Halloween Community Photo Gallery:

Send 1-2 photos, your name, your age, and what you are dressed up as to vanessa [at] autostraddle [dot] com with the subject line “Gay Halloween 2018.” I need this info for every person or animal in the picture. If you do not include any part of this information then I will not post your photo. Thank you for following instructions and making my life a tiny bit easier! I appreciate you! Email all submissions to vanessa [at] autostraddle [dot] com by midnight on Tuesday, October 30. Late submissions will be accepted and added through midnight on Sunday, November 4. Happy Halloween!

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