Gift Guide for the Queer Person in Your Life
Quick Answer
What are good gifts for a queer person? Skip the rainbow-gradient tote bag from the airport. The queer person in your life has an actual aesthetic, an actual sense of humor, and strong opinions about what goes on their body. Murder Apparel's pride collection covers the range: Gay Ghost for the spooky one, Not Today Jesus for the one with church trauma, Alpha Male for the one who finds the whole concept funny, and Protect The Dolls for the trans person or the ally who means it.
The queer person in your life does not need another rainbow-gradient tote bag. Murder Apparel's pride collection is the alternative.
Every pick here is from the collection. All of them say something specific. None of them look like they came from an airport gift shop.
Gay Ghost
A skeleton wearing sunglasses with a pride flag. That is the whole concept. The Gay Ghost T-shirt is the most versatile pick in the collection, but the line goes well beyond shirts. There is also a hoodie, a sweatshirt, a beanie, a bucket hat, a polo, and a patch. The patch is the right pick if you want something small or if they already have the shirt. The polo is the right pick if they have a dress code to work around.
Not Today Jesus
The Catholic Church classified homosexuality as a sin in 1179. The American Psychiatric Association classified it as a mental disorder until 1973. A lot of queer people grew up in households where one or both of those positions were taken as fact. The Not Today Jesus T-shirt does not engage with any of that. It declines.
The line also comes as a crop top, a tank, a hoodie, a dad hat, and a mug. The mug is for the one who wants a statement on the counter every morning. The dad hat is for the one who wears it to family events and lets relatives figure it out on their own.
Coming Out Of The Grave
A skeleton climbing out of a coffin. The pun works on two levels and does not need explaining. The Coming Out Of The Grave T-shirt comes in a crop top, a tank, a hoodie, and a mug. The person who has a dark sense of humor about their own coming out story will get more out of this one than the average recipient. They exist. Buy them the shirt.
Alpha Male
The phrase "alpha male" comes from wolf behavior research published in 1970. The researcher who coined it, David Mech, spent the following decades trying to get people to stop using it. He wrote a paper in 1999 specifically explaining that wolf packs do not actually have an alpha male in the way the term implies. Nobody listened. The term got more popular.
The Alpha Male T-shirt is for the queer person in your life who finds the whole situation funny. It also comes as a tank, a hoodie, and a mug. The mug has a specific use case that does not require further explanation.
No Kings Yas Queens
The political piece in the collection. The No Kings Yas Queens T-shirt is for the queer person in your life who is paying attention and has thoughts. The line is one of the biggest in the collection: crop top, tank, hoodie, mug, tote, and a flag. The flag is for the one who wants to put it in a window. The tote is for the one who takes it everywhere.
Protect The Dolls
For the trans person in your life, or the ally who means it and wants to say so out loud. The Protect The Dolls T-shirt comes in a crop top, a tank, a hoodie, a mug, and a tote. If the trans person in your life wants the history: where the community came from, how long it has existed, what the people who argue against their existence are actually ignoring: the post on trans people existing before the word did is worth sending alongside it.
Skella Gay
Skeleton plus gay. That is the whole thing, and for the right person, it is everything. The Skella Gay T-shirt comes in a crop top, a tank, a hoodie, and a mug. The design is exactly what the name says. The queer person in your life who is also a Halloween person will not need to be told twice.
The full collection
The full pride collection has more: Be Gay Do Crime, Love Is Love, Pridemonth, Everyone Is Welcome Here, Monster Love in ASL, and more. The collection runs wide. Most of it also comes in mugs, totes, stickers, and posters if the person in your life already has all the shirts.
For more on the history behind some of what this collection references: the post on who really started Stonewall covers what the drag queens and trans women at the center of the riot were actually fighting and what happened to them afterward. And if the person you're buying for is also a drag fan, the post on drag being 2,500 years old makes the case that the current legislative pushback is very late to a very old argument.
Murder Apparel is an independent, husband-and-wife brand making spooky, political gear for people who give a damn. We donate to fight injustice and support communities in need. 500,000+ weirdos on Instagram. Come find your people.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are good gifts for a queer person?
The best gifts for the queer person in your life match their specific personality, not a generic category. Murder Apparel's pride collection covers most of the types: Gay Ghost for the spooky one, Not Today Jesus for the one with complicated religious history, Alpha Male for the one with a dark sense of humor about gender, No Kings Yas Queens for the politically active one, Protect The Dolls for the trans person or their closest allies, Coming Out Of The Grave for the one who finds their own coming-out story funny in retrospect.
What is Gay Ghost?
Gay Ghost is a Murder Apparel design featuring a skeleton with sunglasses and a pride flag. The line includes a T-shirt, crop top, hoodie, sweatshirt, long sleeve tee, polo, beanie, bucket hat, dad hat, patch, and sticker sheet. The polo and dad hat are the picks for people who need something wearable in professional or family settings. The patch is the pick for a smaller gift or an add-on.
What does "Protect The Dolls" mean?
"The dolls" is a term of endearment within LGBTQ+ culture, particularly in drag and ballroom communities, for trans women and femme-presenting queer people. "Protect The Dolls" is a direct statement of allyship. The shirt comes in multiple formats including a hoodie, crop top, tank, mug, and tote. The Murder Apparel blog post on trans people existing before the word transgender did covers the history behind why that protection matters.
What is Skella Gay?
Skella Gay is a Murder Apparel design that combines a skeleton motif with queer identity. It is exactly what the name suggests. The line includes a T-shirt, crop top, tank, hoodie, sweatshirt, long sleeve shirt, and mug. It is the right pick for the queer person in your life who is also into Halloween, horror, or dark aesthetics.
What is the Not Today Jesus shirt about?
Not Today Jesus is a direct response to the history of organized religion's relationship with the LGBTQ+ community. The Catholic Church classified homosexuality as a sin in 1179. The American Psychiatric Association classified it as a disorder until 1973. A lot of queer people grew up in religious households. The shirt doesn't argue. It declines. The line includes a T-shirt, crop top, tank, hoodie, dad hat, beanie, mug, tote, and sticker.
What is No Kings Yas Queens?
No Kings Yas Queens is a politically oriented design combining an anti-authoritarian message with queer culture. The line is one of the largest in the pride collection: T-shirt, crop top, tank, hoodie, sweatshirt, long sleeve shirt, mug, tote, sticker sheet, flag, and poster. It is the right pick for the queer person in your life who is politically engaged and wants their gear to reflect that.
