Suddenly, we’re midway through October. Life goes fast when every day I read about a new cruelty perpetuated on my communities – the gay one, the trans one, and the living in Austin one. But it’s easy to pull up evil stuff happening and complain. I’ll try to be more positive, at least in this column.
I’m so happy to see how many local queer folks are getting into this upcoming election. Early voting for the upcoming ballot – which features many propositions that our fabo News team has reviewed and made thoughtful recommendations on – starts this Monday, Oct. 20, so make sure to get out and cast your vote.
Also worth a big wahoo is allgo, the local queer & trans BIPOC org, hitting 40 years in the event-organizing and community-making biz. Having written my fair share of copy about their many wonderful kitchen workshops, altar buildings, and otherwise, the breadth of allgo’s work truly boggles my brain (complimentary). Since their founding in 1985 to now, they’ve made sure there’s space for non-white queer communities that’s inclusive, fun, and informative. “This milestone is not only a celebration of our past,” said executive director of allgo Kelle’ Martin in their recent PR release, “but a recommitment to the work ahead.” Here’s to many more years of allgo!
I’ll send y’all off with a lovely quote from the recently departed Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, who spent over 50 years fighting for LGBTQ rights: “Our stories are not all the same, but the destination is: to get some place where we have some peace and harmony, and we can be at ease with ourselves and the people around us. You make the best of it and hope you can help make it a little better for the gurl after you.”
Highland Vogue Nights
Thursday 16, Highland Lounge
House of Lepore goes big by bringing a weekly mini-ball to Austin’s tri-story gay club on every third Thursday. The Legendary Natalie Lepore emcees with several cash prize categories avails for competition. Cover costs $7. 9pm.
Queer Film Theory: Scream Queens
Thursday 16, the Highball
Four queer film “professors” – including me, your friendly neighborhood Qmmunity editor James – present their thoughts on homosexual horror movies with wit and style. 7:30pm.
Mochi Mochi Presents Junji Ito Drag Show
Thursday 16, the Highball
Louisianna Purchase, Leia Sakua, Tatiana Cholula, Salem Purchase, and Target perform drag in the twisted style of Uzumaki creator Ito. 9pm.
PRISM 38: aGLIFF’s LGBTQ+ Film Festival
Thursday 16 – Sunday 19, Galaxy Theater
Queer cinephiles, listen up! Austin’s longest running film fest (and also one of its queerest) makes all the Galaxy screens gay with a lineup that includes a Sordid Lives anniversary screening with writer/director Del Shores, crowd-pleaser Blowie, coming-of-age feature Other People’s Bodies, and many more. Tickets run $20-75, so snag one soon!
Trib Fantasy: Thou Trick or Trib
Friday 17, Tiny Minotaur Tavern
TribRelations takes Halloween to a medieval fantasy land at this party featuring drag, burlesque, vendors, and lap dances. Plus, it’s Viper Lepore’s b-day!
Noxx’s Nightshade Nerdlesque Presents Silver Screams
Friday 17, Showpony at the Jackalope South Shore
Get ready for the big scream with Nightshade Nerdlesque’s tribute to horror cinema, featuring performances by Rose Thornflower, Omyn Sins, Lash the Stampede, Dez, Luna La Creme, Sweet Baby Ray, Temperance, and founder Raven Noxx. 7:30pm.
Die Felicia
Friday 17, Elysium
Once more does the coffin lid close on this long-running horror drag show, and host Louisianna Purchase asks you to attend its final rites. Featuring performances by Rosalind Hussell, Sticky Gold, Bubu, Bobby Pudrido, McTangelo, Jenna Talia, Munster Mash, Tatiana Cholula, and Diamond Dior Davenport. 11pm.
Intersex Art Jam
Saturday 18, Community Arts
Join in crafty community with other intersex folks at this creative gathering. Attendees are welcome to draw, craft, bring a project, or just hang-out among other people with a relationship to intersex identity.
Filth!
Saturday 18, Hyperreal Film Club
Find your new favorite queer erotic snippet from perverts past and (sort-of) present at this screening series that features selections from “vintage arthouse pornos, 80s-90s backroom home movies, 00s web boom, and into the tech fueled world of the 2010s to present.” 7pm.
Coming Out: A Queer Stand Up Showcase
Saturday 18, Fallout Theater
Host of podcast According to an Idiot Moe Christine wrangles this cavalcade of queer comics into a showcase that’ll have you laughing, loving, and absolutely living for it, honey. 10pm.
LGBTQIA+ Youth Market
Saturday 18, Central Library
LGBTQ youth org OutYouth hosts a young-entrepreneur centric market made up of vendors between 13-23 years old, each one showing off amazing crafts and creations. 1pm.
ASHwell Presents: HoeDown Electric Rodeo
Saturday 18, Sign Bar
ASHwell goes country at fun and funky fundraiser for the sexual health clinic’s Health Justice Fund, which helps your fellow Central Texans living with HIV by bridging gaps in care coverage. Plus, after you’ve ridden the party down dirty, put it all away wet at the Austin Eagle-set afterparty. 7pm.
The Twilight Saga Drag Tribute
Saturday 18, Cheer Up Charlies
Whether you’re team sparkling vampire twink or team whiny werewolf twink, there’ll be plenty to enjoy at this drag show themed around the supernatural romance trilogy that introduced us to the real queen, Renesmee. 10:30pm.
Hairspray to Hell
Sunday 19, HiFi Hair
An eerie spirit comes to this hair-snipping spot as there’ll be Halloween-style drag, live music, and a vendor market to get you in the haunting mood. Plus, voter registration! 12pm.
Vixens of Volstead: AHS
Sunday 19, Hotel Vegas & Volstead Lounge patio
Though he’s moved on to making melodramatic TV-movies about real serial killers, the Vixens tribute the original Ryan Murphy horror anthology series – American Horror Story – at this Halloween edition of their drag brunch. 1pm.
Bootscootin’ Brunch
Sunday 19, Central Machine Works
Kick off a sensational Sunday with Country Fried Dance as they give you the boogie how-to to work off the brunch you just munched from CMW. 12pm.
Sapphic Singles
Sunday 19, Ani’s Day & Night
Meeting new lesbian lovers and friends doesn’t have to be frightening, especially when you’ve got this social meetup where the vibes are lowkey and only lightly spooky – you know, for the Halloween times. 5pm.
Lesbian Wedding
Sunday 19, Sahara Lounge
Have you truly lived if you haven’t enjoyed a little queso and cake at the legendary Lesbian Wedding? Get a shock to your system via the DJs, drag, music, and more hitting the stage alongside host Nikki DaVaughn. 3pm.
Equinox Infusion
Sunday 19, dadaLab
Stretch not only your body but your relaxation techniques at this interactive art and yoga experience from the Pilates Apothecary and Hope Rising. Redeemer Small Batch’s also on hand, in case you need a little CBD-boost to your calming routine. 10:30am.
The Dirty Bird Show With Joella
Sunday 19, the Austin Eagle
Host Malibu Imported with cast members DeeGee Rey and Tiffany Epiphany welcome to the stage Drag Race season 17 star Joella to end the weekend on a wild and wonderful note. 12pm.
Country Fried Dance Lesson
Monday 20, Twin Oaks Branch Library
Been wanting to learn a boot-scoot or two but can’t make it to the club? Country Fried Dance founder Nico Osier brings the boots to this library branch for an all-experience-levels-welcome workshop. 6:30pm.
Ivanna’s House of Horrors
Monday 20, Butterfly Bar
Scare up a little Monday mischief with Haus of Pump, who’re bringing killer drag and a costume contest to the stage. Performances will be kid-friendly until 9pm, after which the vibe gets more mature. 8:30pm.
It’s All My Fault
Wednesday 22, Rain on 4th
Celebrate Reneé Rapp’s recent concert with a sapphic takeover of this Fourth Street spot. Scissor Sisters ATX hosts, with a vendor market, drag, spins by DJ Lavender Thug, and the fifth annual arm wrestling contest all on the docket for the discerning lesbian partygoer.
Kraft Punk
Thursday 23, Volstead Lounge
Halloween gets a techno upgrade with DJs Dana Scully and Beaujolais as French fromage spinners Kraft Punk pumping the club full of hot horror dance tracks. 9pm.
The Peppermint in Your Jean Pocket Poetry Tour
Thursday 23, Sahara Lounge
Poet Amber Isaac swings back around to Austin town with a mini tour. At this stop, she’ll be joined by fellow wordsmith Cloud Delfina Cardona and in addition to readings from both authors, there’ll be tunes from Pam3 and DJ Veneer. 7pm.
In the Calendar
Austin Rainbow Theatre Presents Sagittarius Ponderosa
Friday 17 through November 1, Ground Floor Theatre
I moved here from Seattle (hey, at least it’s not California!), and I still sometimes miss the intense tree coverage there. But it wasn’t always that way. I used to fear the ever-encroaching tree line, branches that swallowed any signs of life. In Sagittarius Ponderosa, playwright MJ Kaufman understands the deep shades of forest – how that darkness can threaten, but how it also promises protection from the elements. The PNW woods stand for both in the tale of Oregon native Archer returning to a place where he’s still called Angela, roots that hurt but maybe, just maybe, can heal as well. – Cat McCarrey
Jurassic Parque
Saturday 18, Sky Candy
Swapping spiders for sauropods, Sky Candy is blending Cirque du Soleil with the Jurassic Park franchise for one night only. The show promises sequences based on asteroids (trigger warning for any real prehistorics attending), the human heartthrobs of the films, gentle giants, and more surprises. The two-hour long showcase will also feature a local vendor market outside of the stage area. With no news on reviving the pterodactyl, aerial dino-impersonators may be the next best thing. – Flora Belle Farr
Highway Hypnosis
Sunday 19 & Friday 24, AFS Cinema
Formerly local, currently NYC-based queer film scholar – and programmer of Queer Cinema: Lost & Found – Elizabeth Purchell video-introduces this trancelike art-horror by Ken Camp, director of As the World Burns and Mantra. It follows the fictional Los Angeles Freeway Killer as he stalks California and Nevada highways – an amalgam of three real serial killers that terrorized Camp’s Long Beach home in the Seventies, two of which were later identified as the Trash Bag Killer and the Scorecard Killer. More a meditation on eroticized violence than a horror film, this evocative feature hasn’t been seen in a theatre since its 1984 premiere at West Hollywood’s EZTV Video Gallery. Take this rare chance and immerse yourself in the hypnosis of the highway on the big screen… if you dare drive home afterward. – Lina Fisher
This article appears in October 17 • 2025.