Not to put too fine a point on it, but our first installment of Queer IRL — the Queer in the Kitchen gallery — was without a doubt the best part of January 2017, and it was ALL YOUR FAULT. You showed up to be seen for exactly who you are, in the heart of your home at that precise moment in time. You made a thing! A fairly sprawling gallery of nearly 200 AS readers just being yourselves all across the world. It was beautiful and real as fuck and it’s time to do another one! Will anything be as magical as its first iteration? Let’s find out.
February’s Gallery Theme: Queer in the Bedroom
This is a gallery of bedrooms that belong to queer people!
I thought about waxing poetic re: the bedrooms of our youth, or how bedrooms tend to be our safest caves and proving grounds, but I want you to do that for me. Send me your pictures and your stories — tell us what it means to be a queer in the bedroom right now.
1. Take a high quality picture of you in your bedroom. This is doable with most smartphones, so don’t worry if you don’t have a fancy camera. You know what else works and is super fun? Disposable cameras. Just saying. I am just saying to you. That disposable cameras work. And are fun. Ok.
Photos should be between 1024-3024 pixels wide so they’ll look nice on a full screen. Please don’t send anything smaller than 1024 pixels wide.
2. Send your picture and info to me at email@example.com with the subject QUEER BEDROOM. Please include the following (technically optional but highly desired) details!
A sentence or two describing how you feel about your room, the last thing you think of before falling asleep/first thing you think of after waking up, or your favorite item or space in the room.
I reserve the right to edit your sentence/s for length or spelling errors. (I’m a pretty good editor though, so.) Your photo will appear in a full screen gallery on Autostraddle.com — the main site, not A+ — and might be used on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr) to promote the gallery. If you don’t want your photo to appear on social media, please make a note of that with your submission. You reserve full rights to your photo. Photos will not be used to promote anything other than this exact gallery, and will not be used in any other future post.
Deadline: February 20
1. What is a bedroom?
A bedroom is a space, no matter how big or small or narrow or bright or outdoors or in or covered in cat hair, where you eventually sleep.
2. What is a queer person?
Queer people are lesbians, bisexuals, queer and otherwise-identified women, trans and non-binary folks.
3. Do you want us to be in the photo?
I do, yes! I’d love that. You don’t necessarily have to be in it, but I think all your other queer person-reader friends would appreciate seeing another queer person staring back at them from their electronic screen situation. I know I do. Please be in your photo!!
4. What about my dog or cat or bunny or iguana? Should my they be in the photo?
5. My bedroom is messy and weird and I really don’t like my windows and it probably doesn’t look like yours at all. Should I still do this?
Yes you should! The perfection is in the fact that it’s yours.
6. How sexy can we get here? Also tell me about your nudity policy.
We shan’t show nipples, genitalia, or simulated or actual sex. Sex toys or nude art throughout your room are totally permitted.
Deadline: February 20
Leave your questions in the comments and if you have an idea for a future theme, let me know! firstname.lastname@example.org