Our Favorite LGBTQ+ Celebrity Halloween Costumes of 2024

If Halloween is gay Christmas, then queer celebrities are reindeer … or something? Maybe they’re the elves? Look, what I’m trying to say is that famous gay people are pretty good at dressing up for parties in October, and this year has been no exception. From Bowen Yang dressing up as a moisture-absorbing packet of silica gel to Riverdale star Lili Reinhart drawing on a third eye, LGBTQ+ celebrities tend to opt for outré but still legible concepts that don’t require much explanation — a sharp contrast to the convoluted, hyper-online costumes some of us layqueers devise for our own Halloween gatherings. (What do you mean you’re the passenger seat from Chappell Roan’s “Casual”?)

And maybe we should learn from our idols and icons, to be honest. Instead of going as something that requires you to explain the entire history of a meme known only to a handful of hardened gays who are still using X, why not go as your favorite pop star or as a beloved movie character? Then you can spend the party dancing or talking to people instead of starting every interaction with, “Oh, my costume? I’m the beach umbrella from the ‘Espresso’ video … obviously.” Repeat after me: Twitter is not real life, Twitter is not real life, Twitter is not real life.

For more style inspiration, I’ve been assembling a list of my favorite LGBTQ+ celebrity Halloween costumes from 2024, from Hari Nef’s devil costume to Troye Sivan’s refreshingly low-effort Mrs. Clause. The point of this curation is less so you can copy these particular outfits and more so you can draw lessons from the general ethos: Ten years from now, do you want to look back at a photo of yourself dressed as a cool Matrix character, or do you want to remember Glasgow’s failed Willy Wonka “Chocolate Experience?” The choice is yours. And if you do decide you absolutely have to go as a meme, make like TikTok it girl Ve’ondre Mitchell and really commit to it.

See our full list of favorite LGBTQ+ celebrity Halloween costumes below.

Bowen Yang — packet of silica gelInstagram content