In many ways, I owe my own queerness to the Internet. It was through engaging with online LGBTQ+ communities that I first realized I’m queer, and through those same communities that I made some of my first LGBTQ+ friends. The Internet provided me with a space to go to seek and develop friendships with other LGBTQ+ folks, learn more about my own community, and strengthen my allyship with those in the LGBTQ+ community who are less privileged than I am.
The Internet is also where I have faced the worst harassment for being queer. It is where complete strangers have told me I was broken, where a preacher admonished me for dragging others down to hell with me by promoting “a certain lifestyle,” and where I have been repeatedly threatened with sexual assault as a way of “fixing” me.
I have complicated feelings about being openly queer online. For most LGBTQ+ people, these complicated feelings are familiar. Many LGBTQ+ people find both friends and foes online, and while the Internet provides lots of platforms for expressing oneself loudly and proudly, it is important as marginalized individuals to use it with caution. This is why I feel compelled this Pride month to write about LGBTQ+ experiences online.
The LGBTQ+ community tends to be heavier users of the Internet than others, and young LGBTQ+ people in particular rely on the Internet for everything from building a community to learning about their health. Research conducted by LGBT Tech indicates that 81% of LGBTQ+ youth use the Internet to seek out health information (versus 46% of non-LGBTQ+ youth). Additionally, 80% of LGBTQ+ individuals surveyed use social networking sites, compared to only 58% of the public.[1] While this higher engagement may result in a wider support network, it also opens up LGBTQ+ individuals to more risks online.
Of course, here at Digital Tattoo we are interested in empowering everybody to take control of their digital identities. Issues like data breaches are detrimental to everyone. However, for LGBTQ+ individuals, these breaches can take on another dimension. As the National Cyber Security Alliance points out, breaches which expose an individual’s LGBTQ+ identity can result in the loss of family, friendship, jobs, and in some cases even result in that individual becoming the target of physical harm.[2] After all, being “out” (having one’s LGBTQ+ identity publicly known) can be a very dangerous experience. In 2016 Xulhaz Mannan, the founder of Roopbaan, Bangladesh’s only LGBTQ+ magazine, was brutally murdered.[3] While the attack came on the heels of similar attacks on other reporters, its brutality may also be explained by the country’s criminalization of homosexuality. Many of its LGBTQ+ activists have been forced into exile. Meanwhile, closer to home, in 2016 the New York Times wrote about an FBI investigation which found that LGBTQ+ individuals were more likely to be targets of hate crimes than any other minority group, and I can only assume the statistics are even more dire for LGBTQ+ individuals who are additionally marginalized in other ways (based on race, religion, etc.)[4]. Clearly, safety is a major concern for the LGBTQ+ community.
With the stakes being higher for LGBTQ+ individuals than for those who are not, online safety is a vital aspect of digital citizenship for those in that community. These threats to safety are not limited to individual threats from individual people, however. The Electronic Frontier Foundation lists the following as online threats to LGBTQ+ safety and freedom:[5]
- Bills limiting online discussion of LGBTQ+ issues and existence, such as a Russian bill passed in 2013 which criminalizes the distribution of materials (both online and off) which promote “non-traditional sexual relationships.”
- Online privacy from individuals, which may result in bigoted reactions from employers, family, and friends.
- Government surveillance measures which may aim to track or monitor the activities of LGBTQ+ individuals and activists.
- Attempts to prevent LGBTQ+ individuals from sharing within and growing their online communities.
Meanwhile, a 2013 survey by GLSEN found that LGBTQ+ youth are three times more likely to be harassed online than their non-LGBTQ+ counterparts, and 1 in 4 LGBTQ+ youth said they had been bullied online specifically because of their sexual orientation or gender expression (1 in 5 said they had been the victim of this same bullying via text message). Another sad statistic: LGBTQ+ youth were four times as likely to have been sexally harassed online than their non-LGBTQ+ counterparts.[6]
So, what are we LGBTQ+ folks to do to remain safe?
The sad fact of the matter is that, as it stands, we live in a world where homophobia, transphobia, queerphobia, lesbophobia, and a whole other host of -phobias still exist. However, there are things we can do to protect ourselves.
- If you are still closeted, use separate accounts when interacting with LGBT+ spaces online than you normally use. This makes it less likely for you to share a post which will out you on accounts with less accepting followers.
- Some social networking sites, such as Facebook, have features which allow you to prevent entire groups of individuals from seeing certain posts. Use these features liberally. This will make it easier to determine who gets exposed to which aspects of your identity.
- Try not to post things which indicate your location, schedule, age, or other personal details.
- Additionally, try not to post things which offer this information about your friends. This will make it tougher for online individuals to find you offline.
- When possible, don’t make your avatar image one of yourself. Try a pet, a favourite team logo, or even a meme. This makes it harder to pinpoint you out in the real world.
- Create usernames which aren’t related to your own name (either assigned or chosen). This makes potential efforts to track you down more difficult.
- If you decide to meet up with online friends offline, make sure the meeting is in a public place to which you must both travel, and make your plans (including a start and end time) known to trusted friends and family.
I hope that one day we will live in a world where it isn’t our responsibility, as LGBTQ+ people, to prevent bigots from finding, threatening, and harming us. I hope that one day those behaviours will be unthinkable, and this article will be unnecessary. Until then, however, we must all work together to make ourselves and others safer online, and to allow all marginalized communities to flourish without the intervention of those who would do us harm.
Stay safe out there, folks, and let us know your top tips for staying safe online in the comments.
Sources
- Data Privacy is Crucial for the LGBT Community
- Data Privacy is Crucial for the LGBT Community
- Founder of Bangladesh’s first and only LGBT magazine killed (Note: this article contains descriptions of Mannan’s murder and other acts of violence and homophobia.)
- L.G.B.T. People Are More Likely to Be Targets of Hate Crimes Than Any Other Minority Group
- Digital Freedom is an LGBT Issue
- Out Online: The Experiences of LGBT Youth on the Internet
Other Resources
By: Samantha Summers
Edited by: Eseohe Ojo
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