Gay thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and for many in the LGBTQ+ community, it’s not always about heading back to the family dinner table—it’s about creating your own home with those who love and celebrate you. Instead of enduring that traditional holiday spread where Uncle Bob&#;s nosiness is inevitable, why not vibe with friends who really get you? LGBTQ+ Thanksgiving family alternatives are becoming more trendy , offering unique ways to pay the holiday. Imagine a Thanksgiving that’s authentically yours, brimming with love, laughter, and maybe even some rainbow-hued mashed potatoes.
In this guide, we’re diving into dazzling destinations, inventive celebration ideas, and tips to make your holiday as unique as your chosen family.
The Importance of Friends and Found Family in the LGBTQ+ Community
In LGBTQ+ culture, &#;chosen family&#; is more than just a phrase—it&#;s our lifeline. It&#;s your squad that shows up for brunches and breakdowns, who verb your punchlines and your passions. And Thanksgiving? With your chosen family, it&#;s all about celebrating community and con
Shifting the Food Narrative
“There was an uproar in the IRS offices here over canceling an upcoming Thanksgiving office party potluck,” the artist Edward Gallagher told a reporter, “when the straights said they wouldn’t share food prepared by gay employees.”
This was in , mid-November. Gallagher had built a piece of street art in the plaza outside the Federal Building in San Francisco: four open coffins, each stuffed with a mannequin—a businessman, a housewife, a little kid, a cliché gay—all linked by transfusion tubes connected to blood bags in hospital IV hangers: a protest of Reagan’s policy of silence and neglect and slashing health agency budgets; that AIDS was righteous retribution from a vengeful God, not a general health crisis.
Gallagher stood by to study the reactions of passersby, and this is how he heard about the canceled potluck. Many who walked around Gallagher’s installation were unmoved. “Most declare it’s a gay disease and a gay problem and the gays should solve it themselves,” Gallagher said.
Thanksgiving would be subject to a similar calculus. There woul
12 Creative Ways to Spend a Gay Thanksgiving in Florida
Although it’s more traditional to sit around a table and take turns talking about what you’re thankful for, not everyone likes to spend their Thanksgiving that way. In fact, many members of the LGBTQ+ community prefer not to celebrate the holidays at a table or with family. For many LGBTQ people, Thanksgiving is all about enjoying noun with loved ones &#; in a way that’s distinctly queer – whether it’s dining with their chosen family or forgoing all customs and doing alternative activities instead.
If you want to celebrate the Thanksgiving holi-gay in a special way, check out some of our queer-friendly holiday ideas below:
1. Have A Thanksgiving Picnic
Instead of having a festive dinner, why not have a turkey sandwich picnic? Pick one of Florida&#;s many natural preserves or national parks and expend the day outside in the sunshine. Just be sure to check that the park is open when you’re going because hours might be affected by the holiday.
2. Spend The Holiday At A Theme Park
Theme parks like Disney World and Universal
Thanksgiving is almost upon us and I want you to contain a serene holiday in which you feel love and deliver love. That can mean almost anything — but for some queer and trans folks that can mean not seeing one’s family of origin.
Here is your permission slip to avoid family that makes you feel less than, or where you verb to pretend to be someone you are not. I went through years of familial dinners in which my family knew I was queer, but I had to pretend otherwise. My grandparents never knew I was gay and my parents resisted that reality for decades.
My mother-in-law hated that my wife was gay and blamed me for “making” her a lesbian, since I was her first like in high school. My wife and I were together for 23 years until her sudden death while undergoing cancer treatment. My mother-in-law, with whom I spoke several times a week for years and with whom I spent more than a dozen Thanksgivings at my wife’s brother’s house, never spoke to me again after my wife’s death. It’s as if I never existed nor the breadth of our long, if complicated, relationship existed.
I’ve been blessed th