What’s a Guncle? | Celebrate Gay Uncles Day

What is Gay Uncles Day and Why is it Important?

Family can be a challenging topic in the LGBTQ+ community. While “[92% of LGBT+ adults] say society has become more accepting of them in the past decade and an equal number expect it to grow even more accepting in the decade ahead…, (Pew Research Center, 2013) this does not mean that everyone is accepting of identities outside of heterosexual cisgender ‘norm’. In the same 2013 study “[a]bout four-in-ten (39%) say that at some point in their lives they were rejected by a family member or close friend because of their sexual orientation or gender identity…,” (Pew Research Center, 2013).

Six years later, in a 2019 study conducted by Just Like Us (a Uk-based organization as opposed to the Pew Research Center, which focused on American LGBTQ+ individuals) interviewed “3,695 adults aged 18 to 25 [and] found that LGBT+ young adults were twice as likely as non-LGBT+ young adults to say they were not close to their immediate family members (14% compared to 6%)”.

This means that a holiday like Gay Uncle’s Day, which is celebrated on the second Sunday of August each year (2024 being the 13th) (Ghazali, 2023) can be a time to celebrate those family connections, whether the ‘Guncle’ (gay uncle!) and the niblings (a gender-neutral term for those kids typically called niece or nephew) are related by blood or not. Found family is a huge part of the LGBTQ+ community!

See-ming Lee 李思明 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/seeminglee/), CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Gay Uncles Day is an opportunity to “increase the visibility of L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ people in families, rather than being seen as just another group of people” (Ghazali, 2023). I love this outlook, we, as LGBTQ+ people are whole people, including our familial relationships.

As the stereotype of queer individuals (particularly men and those assigned male at birth) being harmful to children for a variety of reasons, a holiday that celebrates the inclusion of, in this case, specifically, gay relatives in the lives of children, and the family at large and it being a normal, healthy part of family life, is very affirming for the Guncles it celebrates, as well as creating examples to normalize this for individuals who are unused to having LGBT+ individuals in their families.

Gay Uncles Day is usually celebrated by the Guncles themselves (or their family members) sharing pictures of them with their niblings on social media, with captions celebrating the Guncles’ involvement and impact on their niblings’ lives (checkiday, n.d.). It’s also a great time to spend time with your Niblings, or your Guncle. You could also give your guncle a gift or send him a card.

History

Gay Uncles Day is a new holiday, “[t]he idea for the day came from C.J. Hatter of Florida, who made a Facebook post on May 8, 2016, that said: "I hereby proclaim the second Sunday in August to be Gay Uncles' Day! Hey, we deserve a holiday of our own!" (checkiday, n.d.). Simon Dunn, an Australian athlete, also posted “I've seen a few post today wanting to make August 14 "Gay Uncles Day" or "Guncles Day" what do you think?” on Instagram (Harper, 2016) as well, and like a lot of good (and bad) things on the internet, it took off. Now it’s celebrated on the second Sunday every August, and it’s no longer the only holiday of this type. Nonbinary Parents Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of April (Planned Parenthood, n.d.).

Bibliography

Checkiday. (2024, August 4). It’s Gay Uncles Day! Checkiday.com. https://www.checkiday.com/747690e5293a7466f7c85e6d4222acf2/gay-uncles-day#:~:text=The%20idea%20for%20the%20day,isn’t%20just%20for%20uncles.

Data shows majority of LGBT adults estranged from family. Just Like Us. (2023, April 18). https://www.justlikeus.org/blog/2023/04/19/new-research-shows-almost-half-of-lgbt-adults-are-estranged-from-family-and-a-third-not-confident-their-parents-will-accept-them/

Ghazali, S. (2023, August 4). Gay uncles day. National Today. https://nationaltoday.com/gay-uncles-day/

Harper, N. (2023, October 23). Photos celebrating “national gay uncles day” are adorable. QNews. https://qnews.com.au/these-photos-celebrating-national-gay-uncles-day-are-adorable/

Let’s celebrate nonbinary parents! Planned Parenthood. (n.d.). https://www.plannedparenthood.org/blog/lets-celebrate-nonbinary-parents#:~:text=Each%20year%20the%20third%20Sunday%20in%20April%20marks%20Nonbinary%20Parent’s%20Day.

Pew Research Center. (2013, June 13). A survey of LGBT Americans. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2013/06/13/a-survey-of-lgbt-americans/