Support LGBT-owned clothing brands while you do your fall shopping.
Supporting LGBT-owned businesses is a practical way to support our community, and with so many great LGBT designers, it’s easy to find awesome clothing for fall. Here are 10 fall fashion essentials you’ll want in your closet. Image via Kirrin Finch/ECR Studios.
Sweaters, PSLs, boots, and beards. What more could you ask for?!?!
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Summer may be long gone, but there is no reason to fret! It’s time to put the Speedos and sandals away and prepare for the best damn season of the year. As someone who grew up in Los Angeles, I didn’t understand why everyone seemed to obsess over fall, but since moving to the East Coast almost a decade ago, I can safely say that I get the hype. Fall is fantastic, especially for us East Coasters. So here are 14 reasons why all gay men should be stoked for autumn!
1. Sweaters
It’s sweater weather. And there’s nothing we love more than buying and wearing the sweater our grandpa donated to Goodwill just a week before.
2. Sweatpants
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Even better than sweaters is being able to watch men walk around in sweatpants. This is made even better when he's not wearing underwear and lets us all have a mini-show.
3. Changing colors
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One of the best things about fall is the leaves starting to change colors and shed off the trees. It adds an especially romantic tint to the air and makes everyone feel a little more loving.
4. Social pressures dwindle
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During summer, there's an event going on almost every day. As the weather cools off toward the end of the year, the social events aren't as prevalent, which allows for some reset time in between parties.
5. Halloween (a.k.a. Gay Christmas!)
Also known as Gay Christmas, Halloween is a favorite among the gays. It’s the one day a year we can be as slutty and ridiculous as we want sans judgment. And it’s fun as hell to dress up.
6. PSLs
Pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks (obvi) are such a guilty pleasure for so many people. You hate how much you secretly love them. Don’t worry, you basic bitch you. Your secret is safe with us!
7. You no longer have to worry about your swimsuit body
Tired of feeling self-conscious? Does it seem like every other single gay guy has a six pack while you’re just like, a healthy, normal-looking dude? Fear no longer, because the Speedos and the abs are being put away! Drink all the pumpkin spice lattes you want without worrying about sugar and calories!
8. Boots
We can start wearing boots again. The summer may be all about sandals and boat shoes, but autumn is for sexy leather boots. Time to whip those bad boys out of the closet!
9. Alcoholic fall beverages
I’m talking apple ciders, hot toddies, and any cranberry cocktail your heart desires.
10. It's beard season
Boys with beards are the best!! *cue panty drop.* Aren’t obsessed with boys with beards, you say? Check these guys out!
11. Cozying up/cuddling
You no longer need to go out all the time. The number of parties you want to attend is fading, and the beach is going to be off limits any day now. It’s time to grab a boy to prepare for cuffing season.
12. The boys are back in town
Everyone was traveling during the summer. Going to Ptown, Fire Island, Palm Beach, or wherever. Finally, everyone is back in town, and you can hang out with your whole crew again.
13. Your favorite TV shows are back on
After Labor Day, a ton of good shows come back on the air. Netflix has kinda changed the game a little by releasing entire seasons of shows whenever they damn well please, but nevertheless, there are still a ton of great series that start in the fall. Notable mentions include Big Mouth, Daredevil, Dancing Queen, Maniac, and soooooo much more.
14. You can go on the cutest damn dates
There are so many more cute dates ideas you can do in the fall, and while there’s obviously nothing inherently gay about apple picking, I swear to God, I felt like the biggest queer of my life when my last boyfriend and I went to an orchard. It was so cute and sooooo much fun.
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We're getting to that time of year when people start reaching for their fur coats. It's a dark and unfortunate time when people cave to vanity, egotism, and peer pressure as they strut about in what is, quite literally, the corpse of an animal. In reality, unless you are an indigenous person who relies on the fur of animals for survival, you really don't need to be wearing it. Somewhere along the line, people convinced themselves that taking fur from an animal was like a haircut, or they simply stopped caring about the freedom and lives of living, feeling beings because a piece of clothing is more important. It's in this season that people really show their worst.
This isn't about pushing an alternative belief or ideology, it's about pulling off the rose-tinted lenses that society puts over our eyes when it comes to the things that we buy. People make purchases every day, not interested in how the product was made, whether or not it was made with child labor, or if the production hurts other living beings. We contribute to the destruction of the planet every day without even knowing it.
You might be wondering what all of this has to do with fur. Well, ask yourself some important questions. Do you actually know what the fur industry looks like behind closed doors? Have you seen the conditions the animals are kept in and how their fur is taken from them? If you've answered yes, good for you for educating yourself. If you answered no, then you're, unfortunately, one among far too many who have been desensitized to violence against animals.
Here is what the fur industry really looks like:
Before they're killed, animals in the industry are confined to tiny cages, where they often live in their own excrement. The animals suffer both physical and psychological trauma from being deprived of what all living beings need to thrive, like freedom to access food and water, space to move, companionship, sunlight, and more. Their behaviors, such as pacing back and forth for hours on end, show immense suffering. It's all clear in the video above. If you can't watch the video, ask yourself why. Unfortunately, sometimes we as human beings need to see suffering in order for it to become real for us.
The fur industry doesn't care about animals, not in the least. In fact, if you think there's even a sliver of compassion in this industry or that animals are treated with even the most minimal decency, the industry has you fooled.
This season, challenge yourself to consciously care about other living beings and to show it. Stop living a life that harms other beings, otherwise, you make it totally justifiable for the universe to then send you harm and bad things. As they say, do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. In other words, you wouldn't want someone pulling your hair out and wearing your skin, so maybe don't do the same to something else.
I don't think it's asking a lot to challenge people to not pay to kill other animals. I also don't think it's too much to ask people to give up the capitalist, fashion-inspired sense of elitism that they get from wearing fur. Spoiler alert: no one really thinks you're a cool or great person because you wear fur and because celebrities and rich people wear fur. For the most part, people just think you're greedy and bougie.
