Anastasia / 27 / Salem, Oregon / Halloween, 2017
“Until I can assemble my Darth Amidala costume, I dress every year as a queer from the classics: a maenad. These were mythological members of an all-woman Dionysian cult who would roam the countryside and tear men limb from limb.”
Vanessa / 27 / My 27th Birthday Party / Portland, OR / December 21, 2015
“Anyone who knows me knows I’m OBSESSED with celebrating my birthday. I like to plan a big party so I can invite everyone I’ve ever met and bake an impressive cake and have everyone compliment me and wish me happy birthday all evening, and that’s exactly what I did for my 27th birthday. I decided to make it a sparkly fancy dress theme and I found the most perfect pink sequin party dress that used to belong to Beth Ditto (!!!!!) at Fat Fancy (a plus size consignment store in Portland)Â and wore the tiara I wear every year on my birthday and then I went all out and made a DIY photo booth in my bedroom, complete with a gold background, balloons, handmade props, and glittery champagne bottles. It was perfect.”
Meghan and Megan / 39, 32 / Frocktoberfest Birthday Party / Minneapolis, MN / 2012
“This was our second joint birthday party. With birthdays 6 days apart and many friends in common, we combined forces for Meg(h)an^2 birthday parties with different themes based on our combined ages, the year, or, in this case, our birth month and our love of dresses. Our friend & former colleague, Amy, used to work at the Germanic-American Institute and helped us get hold of Oktoberfest-appropriate outfits for ourselves and all our guests. Megan had 2 costume changes during the party! (Photo: Jenny Veile)”
Ari / 20 / My 20th Birthday Party / Boston, MA / March 31, 2017
“This is a before and after series. My friends threw a party for my 20th birthday which started around 7 PM and went into the wee hours of the morning and we played what must have been a hundred rounds of Cards Against Humanity (with several custom cards one of my friends had made, featuring weird inside jokes) and…I was actually genuinely happy.”
Leah and Katie / Our Big Gay Wedding / Toledo, OH / October 21st, 2017
“I’m from Pittsburgh and Katie’s from Chicago so we decided to get married in the middle, which turned out to be Toledo! Since we couldn’t go on a honeymoon right away, we’re celebrating our two week anniversary this Saturday at the Tegan and Sara The Con X show.”
Maggie / 24 / 24th Birthday / Crumbs and Whiskers DC / October 5, 2017
“In these photos, I’m visiting a cat cafe in DC called Crumbs and Whiskers to celebrate my 24th birthday. My partner and I took a day off from work, grabbed lunch, and got to play with adoptable kitties for about an hour. We really fell in love with Cinnamon (pictured) but since our apartment doesn’t allow pets, we couldn’t take her home. Did I say “doesn’t”? I probably should have said “didn’t” because OUR APARTMENT JUST BECAME PET FRIENDLY! Crossing our fingers that Cinnamon is still available for adoption by the time we get the paperwork. To be continued…”
Jess / 26 / Graduating ith My Master of Public Health / Boston, MA / May 20, 2017
“I am the first in my immigrant family to graduate from college and now, with my Master’s. Queer, Brown, hella Proud and ready to fight for people’s rights.”
Erin and Sarah / 28, 27 / Our Wedding / Wandsworth Town Hall, London / 12 December, 2014
“These pictures were from our wedding day, a small but powerful occasion in London. I grew up in New York in a strict Catholic home, which made coming out very difficult. In the end, my parents did not come to our wedding. BUT that did not actually diminish the pure amazingness of the day, and of any day of the nearly three years we have been married. A friend told us the first photo is the happiest photo he’s ever seen. The second is my favourite-Â it’s Sarah’s Dad showing us an earlier photo he took. I just love the pure happiness we all have there and how it defies everything I ever imagined acceptance had to be.”
Rachel and Hannah / 29, 30 / 10 Year Un-niversary Party / New Orleans, LA / February, 2016
“We started dating when we were gaybies and after 8 years we “broke up” and became extra special super committed friends (dare I say “platonic life partners”?!). On the 10th anniversary of our coming together we had a big party where folks shared stories of how friendship had given their life meaning. Photo credit: Melisa Cardona.”
Lauren and Carolyn / 23, 24 / 4th Anniversary / Jamaica Plain, MA / September 2017
“You know those flirty anonymous messages you think about sending to your “crush” on Tumblr? Well, this is what could happen when your crush actually responds. Though we’ve been long distance almost our entire relationship, we make the time to see each other at least once every two months, occasionally even leaving the house to go on adventures. Hopefully once Carolyn is done with grad school we can live together in the Boston Land of Queers (aka Jamaica Plain), where we celebrated our most recent anniversary during a visit.”
