In the year of our fickle goddess 2022, we undertook a massive Autostraddle Reader Survey, and out of that survey so much information and so many delightful anecdotes were shared with us, including the tidbits I shared in a list entitled “The 68 Absolutely Gayest Ways You Met Your Gay Partner(s).” But there were some stories about how you met your significant other(s) that were a little bit longer and a lot bit adorable, and today I am here to share some of those with you.

“We met at an interview for art school nine years ago. She hated me immediately. She also had a boyfriend and identified as straight. Reader, I married her.”

“We were friends and neighbors when we were little kids, but my family moved to a different part of town and we lost touch. In 2021, our parents ran into each other at Lowe’s and were basically like “Hey, my kid’s gay and mentally ill too!” I reached out on FB and we spent the next 6 months trying to figure out how to ask each other out. It finally happened over TikTok DMs.”

“Returning home to Malaysia after 11 years of studying in the UK on a music scholarship, I got my first job at a local music school. She was already a seasoned veteran working there. It’s common for kids at this school to pick up 2 instruments, so we shared students — she teaches the violin, and I teach the piano + theory/music history classes. On first impressions, I thought she was too cool for school, she thought I was a prat. We became friends after she realised I was not actually 100% a prat (most of the time), and due to our shared ‘custody’ of school kids, we had to communicate quite a bit. Then one day she opened up about knowing queer people and having had almost-queer relationships with people in her past (I was vocal from day 1 about being queer), and then I knew I may have had a shot (useless gay here, gaydar broken when applied to self). In the middle of the convo, she put her hand on my knee as comfortably as if she’d known me forever, and the furiously quick retraction of her hand a milisecond later was enough for the friendship to move silently into potential ‘what if’ territory. A ‘climbing date’ later (story for another time) and the rest is history – we’ve been together 6 years now.”

“I went to a swing dance in Moscow, ID, and saw her on at the outskirts of the dance floor. I asked her to dance, she said yes, I complimented her on her turtleneck, that led to a whole conversation about how turtlenecks are underrated, and over ten years later, here we are!”

“We went to high school together and were loosely friends at the time. I went to her 16th birthday party and made a card using rainbow duct tape. We also did a group project together that involved a fictional backpacking trip to the Pacific Northwest. Anyway, we both moved away to college to the same state and didn’t talk for seven years until we reconnected on tinder just before the entire world fell apart. Then we U-Hauled because I was supposed to be in Peru and had no job and no place to live. It’s all worked out great! ”

“Working at the library. I noticed how great her butt looked in her work pants and then spent the next year getting her to notice me by doing silly stuff like having her race me to put a cart of dvds away and making themes our all of the cds that showed on the front of the display.”

“Her roommate moved out. I was looking for a place to live at the same time. Met on SpareRoom. I moved in. We had a “Will they, Won’t they” thing for about 3 months til we got drunk one night and admitted we had feelings for each other. Been together 3 years now.”

“We first met at university where she worked and did her PhD and I studied and worked as a TA. But I was in a relationship at the time and we didn’t really get to know each other.Later we met in the German queer literature studies bubble on Twitter. (I swear that bubble is better than any dating app!) I instantly liked her a lot and after a while we met up in person. I developed a huuuge crush on her and kept asking myself whether or not she liked me back romantically (it may or may not have been obvious to the normal observer that the attraction was mutual but the more I like someone the less I trust my gut). Eventually I wrote her a postcard and told her about my feelings. She felt the same. That was about a year ago and I’ve never been so happy.”

“I was 23, depressed and sitting in a park near my apartment. A stranger stopped to see if I was okay. She got my number and checked in on me every day. We became friends, then romantic partners after six months. We’ve now been together for 8 1/2 years. ”

“We met while working together at Disneyland together about 10 years ago when we were 19! We went on a date after flirting during some shifts. After a few weeks of dates we made things more official. Then I invited her over one night to stay the night because she had gotten into a fight with her family and they didn’t want her staying there that night so she came and basically never left but at that point we were already falling in love. We traveled the world together and keep building our lives together now. We got married about 6 years into our relationship and have been married now for 4 years. We are still very much in love and I couldn’t imagine my life without her. I still find myself looking at her and thinking how lucky I am and how beautiful she is. I still cant enough of her kisses. We are currently starting to plan out having a baby! Somehow forever doesn’t seem long enough with her.”

“At a pro-queer university Christian club, this was the late 90’s, I was the one asking what everyone’s sexual orientation was so I could figure out who the very attractive new member was. And reader, I married her!”

“We met at science camp as teenagers and were super into each other but went back to our lives on opposite sides of the planet, I continued to nurse my crush through 12 years and their transition and then we matched on tinder and now we’re dating and it’s the best.”

“She was a pirate on stage, I was backstage crew. We hooked up after the last night, had an LDR for one year before she moved to England to be with me. Five years later she was directing and I was stage managing so I managed an onstage proposal in the same theatre where we met in Belgium. ”

“Back in the 90s there was a website hosted out of Germany called “Dykes World.” They had a moderated/safe message board for queer women under 21. My current spouse accidentally clicked on my profile and waited ages (it was during the days of dialup) for it to load – worried that their grandparents would walk in any moment and catch them on a queer website. To their surprise, I lived in the same US state – less than 2 hours away from them. They reached out in friendship with corny jokes that were adorable. After awhile as penpals, we met in person. I fed them and they never left 😂”

“We sat next to each other in class freshman year of high school, which was TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO.”

“My former partner hosted a Lex meetup in our neighborhood. I’m not on Lex. The person I’m dating now is also not on Lex, but their best friend brought them along. So we initially met at a Lex gathering even though neither of us are on it. A few months later she recognized me at the cafe she was working at, and gave me her number, and we started hanging out! She gave me Covid on our first kiss (truly tragic even though it was a great kiss) and now we both have debilitating Long Covid symptoms. We have been navigating a lot of care together! What is sweeter than weekly dates to the community acupuncture place? A nice queer love story.”

“We were high school best friends. I moved away for college. She stayed in our small Midwest town. We stayed friends through college. Came out to each other during that time. After college she moved up to work with me in the tourist town I lived in. Two weeks later we were in bed together and professing our love to each other. Nearly 30 years later we are still together. ”

“We have been best friends since 8th grade (20 years). About 2 years ago we discovered that there were more feelings beneath the surface that never use to be there. Got lucky to have my best friend as my partner.”

“We met in high school at a nerdy, extracurricular banquet. Our parents recognized one another from decades prior so we sat together. We like to say that our parents introduced us.”

“We were friends for three years! We met at a party in my first year of grad school, and she offered me chickpeas she roasted herself. I thought, “oh she’s gay”, but then a mutual friend told me she wasn’t and she also started dating a male friend of ours. I dropped the thought and was happy to be friends with such a kind and cool person. The whole time they were dating, she slowly came to realize that she had feelings for me. I was, of course, oblivious — both to how she felt and how I did. When they broke up, we started spending a lot more time together — I’d drive two hours every weekend just to hang out and she’d spend a ridiculous amount of money that she didn’t have to come to me. That whole time, we circled around each other. I’d realized I was interested in her, but she was steadfast that we were just friends (while laying on top of me at every given opportunity, bless her). She started going to therapy to work on accepting how she felt about me, which is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. I knew we were going to date the moment she held my hand in the mall, and I’ve never been so sure of anything or anyone in my entire life. I know her like I know myself. She needed time and I was happy to give it to her, always saying, “You ready to admit we’re dating yet?” She’d always giggle. When I was in a car accident, it was the trigger for both of us. She was the first person I called after 911 and the only person I wanted to talk to, and she realized very suddenly that she loved me and could have lost me. When we were finally able to see each other again after, we went on our first actual date and talked. And she finally said that, yes, she was ready to admit we were dating, and had been for a while. It’s been 6 months so far, we’re slightly less long distance than before, and I’m so in love with my best friend that it’s crazy. I’m so happy to call her my girlfriend. I’ve never felt more loved or known in my entire life.”

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