Why Fall Is the Queerest Season

As I type this, I have a Pumpkin spice latte — iced —with a generous amount of honey syrup in hand. I’m gay and we only drink these iced. It’s only September 1, but I can’t help but feel like fall is here. Or at least close enough to taste. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m a Scorpio, or the fact that I love a layering opportunity like a drag queen loves her full beat, but what I do know is that fall is perhaps the queerest season of them all. That’s a fact.Though fall doesn’t technically start until September 22, the whiffs of its ever-looming presence are starting to make themselves known. Big box stores already have their shelves stocked with mixed bags of candy for sticky-handed Trick-O-Treaters to eat by the pound, Dunkin’s yearly ultra-sweet seasonal menu dropped mid-August, my yearly Ren Faire tickets are about to be purchased, and I’ve been dusting off my extensive collection of thick-soled Doc Martens for the last couple of weeks. (Yes, I still wear them in the summer.)But what makes fall the queerest season you might ask?First of all, it’s the home of the queerest holiday of them all. I’m talking about Halloween, rightfully known to many as Gay Christmas, if you haven’t already caught on. To borrow from iconic aughties film Mean Girls, Halloween is “the one night of the year” where you can let your freak flag fly in the open. Though, if we’re being honest with ourselves, it’s more like a month-long celebration, during which we fill our weekends with hyper-specific themed parties, going all out in our best Babadook or fiercest Dr. Frank-N-Furter (R.I.P Tim Curry) get-up, and hit the streets knowing we look painstakingly hot. This is simply in our queer DNA, because as Mother Ru has always instilled in us, we’re all born naked and the rest is drag. We can’t help but embrace a good costumed outing.Fall is also when our fierce ally Christian Girl Autumn (a term coined by trans social media influencer Blizzy McGuire which feat