It's not always easy being queer in a world that hasn’t quite caught up. But between the activism, the self-discovery, and the constant emotional whiplash of existing under late-stage capitalism, sometimes what we really need is a meme about how our gender identity changes depending on the lighting. Or one that captures the feeling of coming out to your pet before telling your family.
We’ve gathered the best LGBTQ+ memes from this dedicated Instagram page. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote the most relatable examples and be sure to share your own thoughts and ideas in the comments section down below.
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When I came out as a lesbian to my mother (I am not a lesbian but back then I thought I was (but I'm still LGBTQ+)), she just told me to go put my empty cereal bowl in the dishwasher and to do my homework. I mean she had a lot of lesbian friends so I wasn't expecting her to make it a huge deal, but that was still nice.
Reminds me of that Larry the Cable Guy joke about proorvraphy
In the corners of the internet where mainstream culture rarely looks, queer meme culture is thriving, chaotic, razor-sharp, and profoundly specific. If you’ve ever stumbled across a post that combines a screenshot from Shrek 2, a quote from Judith Butler, and a caption like “me trying to girlboss too close to the sun,” then you’ve had a brush with it.
But to truly understand queer meme culture is to enter a coded world where the absurd, the transgressive, the traumatized, and the celebratory coexist in strange, humorous symbiosis. It's more than jokes, it's language, lifeline, lineage.
You know what Yeshua of Nazareth said about homosexuality? Absolutely NOTHING. He, however, had a lot to say about kindness to foreigners.
Gay men and lesbians have long employed inside jokes and coded discourse to build community in opposition. With the internet age, that tradition has come to manifest as meme culture that is actively opaque, self-referential, and dripping with levels of irony. From the earliest fandoms on Tumblr to niche communities on TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), queer folks have developed a digital slang that combines political commentary, niche style, fandom tropes, and pop culture into something that's half-performative art, half-group therapy.
I wear my FREE DAD HUGS t-shirt to Pride and if I'm not in the parade but go as a spectator I get about 60-70 hugs, and *all* of them walk past me first, think about it, and then come back and check if I'm for real. And I am. And we cry a bit. (Normally I'm in the parade in a Proud Parents group...where I tend to get included in selfies more than hugs. I assume so they can show a parent...hey this old dad is cool with it....)
I know that violence is not very good, but this................................somehow it just seem natural:)
The humor is often intentionally unpredictable, swinging wildly from sh**posting to existential horror to self-aware melodrama, a survival mechanism that's more read as catharsis than as humor.
It is no accident queer memes go viral within tight-knit social circles and barely register anywhere else. A meme reading "screaming, crying, throwing up because your therapist told you you can't marry a cartoon rat" is not just absurdism, it's a demonstration of how queerness remaps attachment, desire, and identity.
There's a version of this where the girl in blue leaves the guy and marries the girl in red
These memes demonstrate a lived experience with earnestness and contradiction, where gender is a revolving door, labels are sacred and disposable, and the distinction between parody and truth is fine by design. It's humor out of liminality, not quite in and not quite out of the culture it is satirizing.
Much queer meme humor survives on recontextualization. A clip from a Disney Channel original movie can be paired with an irony-laden comment about top surgery. A frog in a tiny hat photograph is now a transmasc joy symbol. The sillier the juxtaposition, the more it will speak to people, especially those who are seeing themselves in the mess. It's not always necessarily a thing to be interpreted, and that's its glory.
I'm and ordained minister... and you are all Fabulous! Have a marvellous day!
People looking at future parents while the baby is still in the belly : "You are both so pretty, your future child is going to be a heartbreaker !"
Queer meme culture, at its simplest, isn't necessarily about being funny in the classical mode. It's about finding meaning in s**t, wholeness in fragments, and power in play. It offers a space in which people can post hyper-specific emotions, dysphoria, happiness, longing, rage, without having to explain or justify them to anyone outside the bubble.
Uh oh, I’m awkward thumbs up… is there a finger gun addition imminent?
It isn't closed off, exactly, but it's close. And in a queer world that is always demanding palatability, this kind of highly specialized, gloriously sloppy humor is like a small act of defiance, and a constant love letter to all the people who have ever laughed along with them through the absurdity of it.
Well yes we are , they wouldn’t that say that if we where in a same s*x one would they lmao 🤦♀️
So I am hetro, but even I was annoyed when shake shack advertised that they were supporting pride by offering rainbow sprinkles for an extra $0.50. Upselling people for their pride is NOT "support". It would be like if Jack in the Box charged an extra $1 for straight fries.
If a "lady's man" is attracted to women, who is a "man's man" drawn to?
Gluttony is also a Sin according to the Bible, so everyone who wasn't hungry but still "had a little room for dessert" is going to Hell !
I always use partner because if you know me, you know their gender, and if you don't, it's not relevant and not your business.
"But the sanctity of marriage....?" Said the person who is divorced 3 times with children with 5 different partners
I genuinely hope that Stephanie and Kate got to write their beautiful verses until the end.
A New Zealand politician made a fantastic speech years ago when NZ was voting to legalise same s*x marriage. Look up Maurice Williamson's Big Gay Rainbow speech; it included such gems as: 'the day after it is legalised, life will continue exactly the same as before, your teenage daughter will still argue with you like know more than you' and 'I would really like to know how will the Gay Brigade take over? Will they come down the highway in troops?' He is an older white man but he spoke with humour, love & passion about how same s*x marriage only affects those people who love each other enough to want to make it official. It affects no one else. 💜💜
With one exception: a man attracted to Pedro Pascal (and Pedro only) isn't bisexual. That's just common sense.
wait, this actually clears it up, I've been so stressed about what I actually am TvT, i think I'm just bi. :D
"I'm bisexual which means I'm attracted to the same thing in the future as well as the past." Well, okay phone, that's a bit too deep for a lazy Saturday afternoon.
I've never heard "strap" used as a synonym to "gun", I've only heard "strapped" as an adjective for when someone has a gun strapped to their belt
After years of trying to figure out my romantic and Xual identity, I was so happy to finally get the answers I was looking for. And then I realised I now had to explore my gender identity and I kinda gave up on that.
lol, the first moment I thought squirtle is flipping the bird in the left picture :D
Or when people think that the "A" in "LGBTQIA+" is for "Ally"...
You like who you like, end of. Doesn't need a label, just needs the other person to say "I like you too".
I do that all the time, because I'm terrible with faces/names and I'll be like "where have I seen you before....." 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
If anyone has any questions about some terms, I am open for answering them !
So nice of you. <3 The question that remains is...what is a quarterback?
Load More Replies...I really dislike the word queer, would hate to be called that. I'm a homosexual, that's my word.
Wrong. Straights don't actually care who you sleep with. We all have our own lives, and what you do with yours isn't my concern. There, said it.
I know it can be used offensively but you can't be punching people, Bret. Nowadays many people use it as a neutral term and it depends on the context.
Load More Replies...If anyone has any questions about some terms, I am open for answering them !
So nice of you. <3 The question that remains is...what is a quarterback?
Load More Replies...I really dislike the word queer, would hate to be called that. I'm a homosexual, that's my word.
Wrong. Straights don't actually care who you sleep with. We all have our own lives, and what you do with yours isn't my concern. There, said it.
I know it can be used offensively but you can't be punching people, Bret. Nowadays many people use it as a neutral term and it depends on the context.
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