Why do gays love halloween

Give me your fearsome ghouls and your flaming gays, your slutty zombies and your zany queens, for it is time for Halloween. Halloween isn't just a holiday for LGBTQ people -- it's an institution.

I and my friends spent Halloween in many countries. Everywhere Halloween is like queer Christmas. Nowhere is like San Francisco, of course.

But how exactly did Halloween become practically institutionalized as “gay Christmas”? There’s a long tradition linking queer communities to Halloween. Putting aside the obvious queer kinship with the monstrous, Halloween has historically provided a space when gender deviance wasn’t just allowed but celebrated.

By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Writer Antonio Pagliarulo never imagined finding himself fully home in this holiday of mischief, magic, and make-believe. Growing up, my family hated Halloween.

Give me your fearsome ghouls and your flaming gays, your slutty zombies and your zany queens, for it is time for Halloween. Halloween isn't just a holiday for LGBTQ people -- it's an institution.

Halloween is a night when we can embrace our inner creatures, trying on identities that might feel off-limits to us the rest of the year, and take to the streets as whatever we want to be. In the United States, where cities in every region of the country had laws prohibiting crossdressing by the s, the holiday provided a rare moment of freedom for queers. These are times when the social order is disrupted, allowing queer people and other marginalized groups to safely express nonconformity in public, without being perceived as a threat to the dominant social order.

But how exactly did Halloween become practically institutionalized as “gay Christmas”? There’s a long tradition linking queer communities to Halloween. Putting aside the obvious queer kinship with the monstrous, Halloween has historically provided a space when gender deviance wasn’t just allowed but celebrated.

Growing up outside of Salem, Massachusetts, famous for its witch trials, Lee Roberts is more connected to Halloween than most. Today, Roberts continues to play out his Halloween fantasies, working as drag king under the name Sweaty Eddy. Merrie cherry.