Graphic by Matias Pacheco-Ramirez.
In the wise words of Cady Heron, as played by Lindsay Lohan in the film “Mean Girls”: “In girl world, (gay) Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like (a niche, pop culture reference) and no other girls can say anything about it.”
Gay Halloween has become a buzzword over the last few years, after a satirical Twitter statement surfaced in 2022 stating, “I hate gay Halloween, like what do you mean you’re (insert niche, pop culture costume concept).”
It was first created by @beefyfridgers on Twitter, who said, “I hate gay Halloween parties, like what do you mean you’re Lady Gaga at the 2:53 mark of the Judas music video.”
Since then, the meme has become a major queer holiday. However, the importance of Halloween for queer communities dates back decades. In early-to-mid 20th-century urban communities, Halloween was one of the few nights when public queer expression and cross-dressing could occur without much police enforcement impacting it.
As a result of the identity concealment and police being overwhelmed by the number of those in costume, the enforcement dissolved on Halloween nights.
This deeply rooted form of self-expression, coupled with meme culture, has now created a subculture akin to that of an inside joke. Popular on X/Twitter and TikTok, each costume video has sparked discourse in comment sections, making the posts feel like one big group chat.
“This is modern Gay Culture,” said senior film and television production major Jordan Ballard.
According to Ballard’s criteria, you have to 1. be gay, 2. have the right algorithm and 3. know the culture without trying too hard.
“It’s crazy as a society we’re building a costume around an algorithm,” said Ballard.
For Halloween, Ballard embodied a very specific scene from the TV series “Yellowjackets,” dressing up as “Dead Jackie,” a frozen, hypothermic wilderness corpse. This niche reference pulls from the character Jackie Taylor’s queer-coded subtext.
Other costumes have ranged from Cynthia Arivo’s acrylic nail, Zendaya’s hat from the 2014 Kids’ Choice Awards, “Fish Girl” from the 2019 The Cut Youtube video, the “female oompa loompa” from Glasgow's 2024 “Willy Wonka Chocolate Experience,” the Apple Store monkey, the hyperpigmentation drawing, Dakota Johnson and Limes, Shailene Woodley at the 2026 Emmys and Ben Affleck struggling with his Dunkin’ order.
Even to Nathan Fielder and Elizabeth Holmes in the recent A24 documentary, “You Can See Everything,” or the “My Little Food Critic” cat sandwich from the movie “Obsession,” the originality keeps expanding.
Other topical and political-oriented costumes have been created, such as Susan Dell.
The list goes on and on, and it’s worth traveling down the rabbit hole.
While absurd and bizarre — most likely to those who are new to gay Halloween or aren’t “included in the group chat” — these costumes have allowed people to pour in their enthusiasm and creativity for the sake of creating art, or in this case, masterpieces.
One who is very internet-centered may have to spend hours explaining the lore behind the outfit to their grandparents or non-social media users. But it’s all worth it for the community.
“If you know, you know. If you get it, you get it,” said Ballard. “The right people will get it.”