'I hate gay Halloween' explained: How queer people are making the holiday their own

In gay world, Halloween is the one night a year when "chronically online" people can dress as a ghost, cowboy or fashion designer Queen of Melrose explaining how her grandmother converted from Catholicism to Jehovah's Witnesses at a dysfunctional family dinner.

In the internet's latest trend, people are showing off their hyper-specific Halloween costumes of niche pop culture references. These elaborate outfits honor a wide range of material including viral memes, song lyrics, reality TV scenes, celebrity interviews, AI generated images and objects in films. There are truly no limits.

On X, formerly Twitter, posts open with the same signature phrase, "I hate gay Halloween, what do you mean you're" followed by the description of the costume, a photo of the costume and a reference. Popular examples include Beyoncé’s horses, the tired DW meme from the cartoon "Arthur" and the tennis ball from the movie "Challengers."

For Dylan Guerra, a 30-year-old New York based writer and director, finding the perfect costume to wear to his friend's gay costume party is a mission.

His initial concept, fusing Marvel's "Madame Web" with "Survivor" contestant Amanda Kimmel, failed to come into fruition on time for his party. Instead, Guerra found a raggedy green wig in his closet that reminded him of the fiasco Willy Wonka experience in Scotland that went viral earlier this year. And so he dressed as the female Oompa Loompa performer.

"What makes it really fun is it makes you feel like you're in on a joke," Guerra told USA TODAY Tuesday. "There's a little bit of a communal laughter in the nicheness. Finding the right pockets of cultural intersections that we can laugh at in what I think is the best holiday."

Even through posts like Guerra's, which garnered nearly 140,000 likes on X, have become extra popular on social media this year, niche costumes are nothing new.

From Taco Bell item to Four Seasons baby dad: 'gay Halloween' costumes stand out

Gabe Bergado, a 32-year-old editor and comedian from California, always goes all out for the holiday. He explained that while the concept of "gay Halloween" has long existed, he's thrilled to see it spiral into a new life form.

This year, he embodied the father in the viral video of a baby excited for a trip to the Four Seasons Resort Orlando. In previous years he's been the "Last Gasp" challenge from "Survivor," a Pop Crave tweet and Chris Pine during the "Good Luck Darling" press tour. In 2018, he combined a Taco Bell crunch wrap supreme and Sarah Paulson as "The Supreme" in "American Horror Story: Coven."

Whether it's reconceptualizing two ideas or subverting popular internet moments, Bergado said he values seeing other people's creativity.

"I hate straight Halloween. Like, what do you mean you're a nurse or a witch," Bergado said mentioning another popular post. "It's a super saturated world now on the internet so everyone is trying to find the thing that makes them a little different."

Couples can embrace niche costumes

Queer couples are also getting in on the trend including Motti, a 28-year-old comedian based in New York, who goes only by their first name.

While their redhead girlfriend Britt Migs already planned on being pop star Chappell Roan, Motti wanted a costume that would compliment hers. So they decided to be a passenger seat, referencing a lyric from the singer's track "Casual."

"I like to do silly costumes, it's not important for me to necessarily look good," Motti said. "I wanted to challenge myself and I've never really built myself a costume before and so I decided to take that on."

Spending around $60, Motti transformed into a passenger seat using a black morph suit, car seat covers, thick cardboard poster, packing bubbles, frame hanging wire and a go-kart seat belt. They began crafting the costume since early August and once the "gay Halloween" posts gained traction, it was clear how the couple would share it with the world.

"I think people just end up conflating anything that's popular on the internet as a meme," they said. "Like some of them are memes, but I think that it cheapens it a little bit. People put a lot of thought into it and we're like pulling out really niche references."

Last minute 'gay Halloween' costume

Some spend months planning out the perfect "gay Halloween" costumes, but Holly West had less than a day to put a costume together for a party she was invited to at the last minute.

The 27-year-old theme park performer from western Ohio quickly opted to be the young girl wearing purple glitter in the viral video on former platform Vine. Using the right shades of eyeshadow and glitter as well as an Oscar worthy impression of the child, West nailed the look.

Despite it taking a while for guests to figure out what her costume was, her X post received over 3.6 million views. She explained that the trend of niche costumes has grown so popular because the creativity of queer people.

"People in the LGBTQ community are very observant and know how to hop on a trend," West said. "Some of the funniest people I know are gay and I think so much of online culture comes from the queer community."

'gay Halloween' costume posts go viral online

This story has been updated to add a photo.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What are 'Gay Halloween' costumes? Explaining the internet trend