If you thought the pandemic was going to stop you from living your queerest life, you were wrong! Although it’s a blast to party at the beach and stop into a gay club afterwards, you can have just as much summer fun (or winter, depending on where in the world you are) from home.
The Internet allows the LGBTQIA+ community to connect in more ways than ever before. With everyone filling their time with keyboard tapping recently, the virtual community has only grown more.
Read on to explore how to safely have the queerest quarantine and summer/winter of your damn life.
Join a Virtual Queer Networking Group
Image via Queer Design Club
Out in Tech
Whether you are a digital marketer, software engineer, or tech aficionado, you have a place to be your true self online. Out in Tech is home to approximately 25,000 techies that happen to be a part of the LGBTQIA+ community. There are tech talks, but also virtual events like pet pageants.
Queer Design Club
Showcase your contribution to the design community online through this fabulous group. Queer Design Club helps highlight the visibility of queer creatives within the design industry. Find a mentor, feedback, or a just new friend.
StartOut
Start out your season right with this networking group. They focus on empowering the community’s entrepreneurs through research and kick-ass events. Tune into their mindfulness workshops for a brain massage.
SideBiSide International
Biphobia rears its ignorant face within both the heterosexual and gay communities. SideBiSide constantly works with its members to bring this issue to light and abolish it in the process.
The LGBT Network
Holy events, Batman! This group is the holy mecca of events for those across the sexual/gender spectrum. They advocate for equality in Long Island, but welcome all virtually.
The Third Monday Gay Men’s Book Club
Get book smart and social with other gay men monthly. Their events used to be held in person, but will allow gays worldwide to join in on the queerest literature discussions in the foreseeable future.
Dance at a Virtual Queer Concert/Party
Christine and the Queens
The pansexual singer of “Tilted” has made Instagram even easier to spend hours on. Christine and the Queens will be playing live every day at approximately 6PM via Instagram. Get your daily dose of electronic, French pop here.
View this post on InstagramJuste comme ça, vers 18 heures, parce que c’est assez joli de se donner un rendez-vous ensemble chaque jour pour tromper l’ennui. Concepts douteux et invités mystère sont à prévoir dans les jours qui viennent. Courage et prenez soin de vous #ensembleàlamaison Let’s meet everyday around 6pm CET on my Instagram. I’ll find a way to deal with the ENNUI. Guests and weird concepts included. Today : @bastien__d @_melissambre_ @vincent.taurelle
Club Quarantine
Hundreds of clubbers dance together at Club Quarantine. The self-proclaimed “queer dance party” updates potential partygoers via their Instagram. Live your queerest virtual life at their next queer party on August 7th.
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Subculture Party
This Zoom rave party celebrates diversity musically with acts like Pussy Riot and Kitten. Philanthropically, they’ve raised money for the marginalized. A recent party supported the world’s first transgender district.
View this post on InstagramMeet Ur InterGaLaCTic Alien HosTs🌈👽For thIs SATURDAY’S parTY💫✨TheY will be PiLoting the Subculture Space Craft intO another diMension🥴⭐️We’LL SEE u all super Soon!!
Listen to Some Queer Musicians
Dorian Electra shot for Subvrt.
Miss Blanks
Popular Australian rap generally consists of white, cisgendered men. Miss Blanks breaks the mold as a trans, POC rapper. She is provocative and unapologetic, just like her bars.
Girl in Red
Marie Ulven Ringheim is a lesbian, bedroom pop fantasy. Her song, “I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend,” has over 80 million listens on Spotify for a good reason.
King Princess
Here is another queer musician to develop a massive crush on. Both gender-queer and gay, Mikaela Mullaney Straus dominates indie rock through her lyricism.
Dorian Electra
If you looked up hyper-pop in the dictionary, a picture of this non-binary musician would be front and center. Their outfits alone are enough to engage hours of screen-gazing.
Check out a LGBTQ+ Movie
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Marianne is a French painter in 1770 who is hired to secretly paint a reluctant bride-to-be named Héloïse. As the portrait of Héloïse comes into fruition, so does the romantic bond between the two women.
Disclosure
Queer people are usually sitting on the bench when it comes to representation in cinema. This is doubly true for the transgender community. This Netflix documentary proves the insidious impact Hollywood has on transgender creatives and thinkers.
Moonlight
No queer summer would be complete without watching Moonlight. The movie focuses on Chiron, a young Black man in Miami. Follow him through dark, blue beaches and difficult situations lined with palm trees.
Watch Some Quality, Queer TV Shows
Special
Ryan O’Connell is sick of it. He’s sick of feeling ashamed for having cerebral palsy and done with being an unpaid intern at Eggwoke. This semi-autobiographical series follows Ryan as he embraces his identity as an ambitious, gay man.
Legendary
Vogue isn’t just a magazine, it’s a queer art. Legendary pits fierce vogueing teams against each other for a substantial cash prize. Learn about ball culture through HBO Max now.
She-Ra and the Princess of Power
Originally debuted in the 80s under a slightly different name, She-Ra and the Princess of Power “reads as utterly queer in just about every aspect,” according to Tor.com. This cartoon on Netflix and Amazon Prime features an evil-fighting orphan who happens to be queer. It also has non-binary and trans characters voiced by queer people.
Buy LGBTQIA+ Books Online
Lust & Wonder: A Memoir (Augusten Burroughs)
You may have heard of the hilarious autobiographer, Augusten Burroughs, through Running with Scissors. This memoir was written over a decade later and focuses on his tumultuous relationship with a former husband and saving-grace of his current husband. Simultaneously self-aware and ignorant, this book will have you in tears for multiple reasons.
The Color Purple (Alice Walker)
Celie was born a poor, Black woman in the early 1900s. She is a victim of abuse throughout a large portion of the novel, but finds herself through the vivacious Shug Avery. Shug fills multiple roles in Celie’s life, making their love arduous and page-turning. The book is written as a series of letters to God and shows the growth of Celie as she begins to love herself unconditionally.
Let’s Talk About Love (Claire Kann)
Asexuals in literature are often invisible. Not so with this novel. Alice is a bi-romantic asexual who just got out of a messy break-up. She swears off love, but finds herself tangled in it once again by meeting Takumi.
Written by Alexis Frankel
Artwork by Cal Singer Hobbs
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Read more: Subvrt’s Guide to Mental Health Care During the Coronavirus Quarantine
Excellent resource list…love the documentary trailers. Thank you for the wonderful work Subvrtmag continues to do and share with the world. Education is key to expanding humanity’s consciousness.