all graphics by Shelli Nicole

I’ll get right to it: we currently feel sad, scared, lonely, and overwhelmed. News about the novel coronavirus and the global pandemic it has caused just keeps coming, different countries are enacting different measures to try to manage this public health crisis, and it seems like every day the world is moving and shifting in a way that is impossible to keep up with. Many of us are practicing social distancing or self-quarantining, and we thought it might be nice and helpful to spend time together, virtually, during this time. So we created Autostraddle’s very first social media based virtual community care week. We’re calling it Shelter In Our Place and we’re hoping you’ll join us.

Shelter In Our Place will happen entirely on Instagram over the next week. From today, Monday 3/23 to Sunday 3/29 we will have a mixture of live programming and AMAs three times a day, morning, noon, and night. We pulled together an amazing group of humans to answer your questions about sex, love, parenting, plants, sex toys, life, and literally anything else you want to talk about. We have folks who are going to offer tarot readings, live sex advice, a haircut demo, and a yoga class. We’re all gonna be there together, if you wanna be, just existing together.

The wild thing about Autostraddle is that we’ve always existed as a space for virtual community care. We’ve made a home on the internet, and that home exists because of you. We’re so grateful to all of you for being here, and we hope that we can always give back to you and be a space where you feel loved and cared for by a community. We hope you’ll join us on Instagram this week – all the content is 100% free and will be saved to our Instagram profile after the live streaming happens so it’s available for everyone to access at all time.

If we have to rely on the collective moving forward, I feel so lucky to be able to call y’all my community. If you’re feeling alone right now, please come Shelter In Our Place for a little while.

Right now, Autostraddle needs your support as much as ever. We are seeing our role expand as the world moves online in search of community, and we’re working to be here for you. We’ve put together Shelter in Our Place so that we can connect with each other and share in joy and togetherness during this trying time. We are also lucky to have a workplace that can keep paying our employees and keep our work going. And Autostraddle is only here because of A+ members and donors — readers like you. If you donate or join A+ today, you will help us keep getting queer, BIPOC, and trans writers paid. We know there are many worthy causes, but if you can, please consider donating or joining A+ because every dollar will help support our writers and staff, as well as our efforts to provide resources, entertainment, and community to our family of readers like you, always and especially during this time. Thank you for anything you can give!

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Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

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