ABSTRACT
The LGBTIQA+ community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer/Questioning, Asexual, and other gender and/or sexually diverse) is one of adaptability and resilience. Reliance on one another has always been a key aspect of LGBTIQA+ culture. Due to a chronic lack of resources and physical spaces, this support system has been transposed online, specifically onto TikTok, by the youth of the community. This paper seeks to demonstrate how this newfound non-tangibility may not be an upgrade for the LGBTIQA+ community, but it is a necessity for the survival of its members.
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On a historical scale, public opinion and support for LGBTIQA+ individuals are at an all-time high. There has been a documented rapid increase of public support, including a doubling in public support for gay men and women in the United States in the past three decades (Flores, 2021, para.1). In my experience as a bisexual, transgender person in Canada, I have been fortunate to be able to explore my identity – including affordable access to gender-affirming healthcare – with minimal difficulty. This is a feat which, decades prior, would have been fraught with dangerous hurdles. However, the current wave of progress does not wash away the historical discrimination and violence which the LGBTIQA+ community has faced and continues to face. Decades of homophobia and transphobia have proven fatal, resulting in a critical shortage of LGBTIQA+ elders. This demographic is a trusted source of support, resources, education, and more for LGBTIQA+ youth. Growing up without guidance as a marginalized person is difficult and can be deadly, thus, the young LGBTIQA+ community has developed novel methods of navigating this disadvantage. LGBTIQA+ youth, more often self-referenced online as “the queer community” or “the queers,” have turned to online spaces in an attempt to bridge the generational gap felt from the lack of queer elders. The queer community has thrived on TikTok where the robust algorithm is known to expertly discern a user’s identity, providing content specific to the community to which an individual belongs (Tidy & Galer, 2020, para. 11-16). This paper will argue that the insurgence of the queer community on TikTok was born out of necessity, and despite advantages such as effective queer signaling, the sharing of resources, and increased accessibility, it is not an adequate replacement for physical queer spaces.
DISCUSSION
The LGBTIQA+ community has always been one of resilience and adaptability, shown through aspects such as resource-sharing and ever-changing terminology. The modern day reanimation of the term “queer” as an identity is a prime example wherein the marginalized gay community has reclaimed power over a once derogatory term (Rocheleau, 2019). Though recently popularized, the term “queer” has been discussed as a global descriptor since at least the late twentieth century. It was defined by celebrated queer theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick in 1993 as a term that “can refer to: the open mesh of possibilities, gaps, overlaps, dissonances and resonances, lapses and excesses of meaning when the constituent elements of anyone’s gender, of anyone’s sexuality aren’t made (or can’t be made) to signify monolithically” (Sedgwick, 1993, p.8). At its base, “queer” represents the core values of the LGBTIQA+ community: a binary-breaking term not limited by cis- and/or heteronormativity within which anyone can feel comfortable to express themselves. The modern use of “queer” is the perfect love letter to generations past and has become an important staple of the modern, online LGBTIQA+ community, with hashtags such as #queer and #queertok garnering over 20.7 billion and 1.8 billion views, respectively, on TikTok.
These hashtags, and others similar, provide accurate pointers towards a user’s intended audience and help further direct viewers to similar content and creators. Seeing #gay or #lgbt in the caption of a person’s post quickly indicates not only what kind of content you’re seeing, but also who is responsible for creating it. The use of such classifiers is easily paralleled to queer signaling: the act of covertly indicating one’s identity or preferences to other members of the community (Syracuse University, 2022). Varieties of queer signaling have existed over the years, such as the Hanky Code, pictured here, which was a form of discrete communication initiated by gay men in the 1970’s to indicate their sexual preferences to one another. Depending on the colour of one’s handkerchief and the pocket in which it was worn, hankies were indicative of specific homosexual tendencies. Another person’s sexuality could be easily communicated without the fear of being outed or discriminated against, as heterosexuals were oblivious to the Hanky Code (The Hanky Code, 2010). On TikTok, this same heterosexual ignorance is supported by the algorithm wherein the content you engage with dictates the further content you see. Hence, non-queer TikTok users are often oblivious to the trends and practices of their queer counterparts. This is the unique benefit of hashtags as a form of queer signaling: by engaging with content tagged with queer-specific hashtags, you are further immersed within the queer community.
Furthermore, hashtags have long since evolved from their origins as merely content classifiers. In 2018, the use of hashtags as “a social resource for building relationships and communities” was already being explored (Zappavigna, 2018, p.3). This is how communities on most social media platforms – Instagram, Twitter, etc. – have been forged and maintained. TikTok proves its aptitude in community-building by further addressing the common concern of both users and researchers: what if a post does not use hashtags (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017)? In response, since 2022, TikTok has rendered all of the textual contents of a video searchable – captions (including hashtags), closed captions, words written on-screen, words spoken, and more (Vandernick, 2022). This means that searching for community and remaining within it is simple and accessible on TikTok.
As well, more than simply being said outright, there also exists traditional and covert methods of queer signaling on #queertok. These indicators are under constant evolution as trends evolve, offering an added layer of discreteness. One example is a direct parallel to queer signaling questions such as “Are you a friend of Dorothy?” from the 1940’s. This question was asked by gay men to other men in order to discern whether he was gay as well – if he caught on to the subliminal messaging and answered accordingly, it was indicative of his sexuality (Necessary, 2022). A similar method existed on TikTok in 2020 wherein users could ask non-men creators “do you listen to girl in red?” and, depending on their response, would know whether the creator was lesbian/queer without asking directly (Vaynshteyn, 2021). This phenomenon evolved further, streamlining the process: simply the use of a girl in red audio became indicative of sapphism. This is a common occurence wherein the use of specific sounds on TikTok or participation in certain trends is a clear indicator of queerness. Oftentimes, there will even be queer sub-trends within larger heteronormative trends, proving the ease of bond-building on TikTok. In these situations, it is often not necessary to explicitly state one’s gender identity or sexuality; the mere use of a specific track is indicative enough to the savvy few. A recent example of this was the use of the song “Christmas Kids” by ROAR. The track has been used on TikTok to depict the stark difference of individuals from childhood to adulthood; the trend was quickly co-opted by the transgender community to showcase their gender transitions (Coffey, 2023; Helm, 2023).
Trans-specific trends such as “Christmas Kids” are not a rare occurrence on TikTok; the transgender community is very active on the platform. Hashtags such as #trans and #ftm (abbreviation of female-to-male, in terms of gender transition) currently boast 54.3 billion and 18.8 billion views respectively. As a participant and casual creator within the community, I can attest to its welcoming nature and resourcefulness. My personal testimonies stem from the transmasculine community; however, most, if not all, queer communities practice similar educational and resource-sharing practices.
These communal skills are incredibly beneficial, but they only exist as the result of decades of discrimination – societal, medical, and otherwise – which has led to a critical lack of queer and transgender information. There has been a relatively recent increase in support for gender diverse education such as in Australia, where support for trans-inclusive curriculums in primary schools has increased by approximately 26% since 2016 (Karp, 2016, para.4; Ferfolja & Ullman, 2023). Even so, many educators remain apprehensive when discussing LGBTIQA+ topics and may opt to avoid or only briefly discuss the content due to potential backlash and/or a lack of education on the topics (Ferfolja & Ullman, 2023, para.4). This informational lapse extends into the medical field wherein the majority of medical professionals remain uneducated or under-educated in trans-inclusive healthcare. LGBTIQA+ healthcare education is often compulsory and not mandatory; one of the more common practices is to provide doctors with elective workshop sessions, often of 1-2 hours in length (van Heesewijk et al., 2022, p.834). This evidently leads to many issues such as a lack of participation from certain demographics. It is well documented that male and cisgender people have especially low participation rates (van Heesewijk et al., 2022, p.835). As well, though it has been cited in America that over 85% of their medical schools teach trans-inclusive healthcare, this was based on a minimum of one hour of transgender curricular content – a meager amount considering the average length of a training program is 27 months (Rolls et al., 2020, p.1564). As well, the delivered content most often relates to patient interaction skills (pronouns, preferred names, etc.) rather than medical skills (hormone therapy, surgery, etc.) (Rolls et al., 2020, p.1567). This represents a small, specific fraction of the factors which contribute to not only a chronic lack of experience regarding transgender-specific issues, but also a resulting lack of trust from the transgender community. Thus, many transgender people, myself included, rely on anecdotal or casual information sources from their community. Attesting with my personal experience, transgender people would rather learn from other transgender people – though with the lack of available resources and information, there is often no other option.
Thus, in typical fashion for the queer community, transgender TikTok users use their initiative to bridge the informational gap. Videos such as “Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Testosterone” or “Things No One Tells You About Testosterone” are very common on the platform – testosterone being the hormone used in hormone reassignment therapy (HRT) for transmasculine individuals (Jordyn, 2021; Miles, 2023). As the titles suggest, education about HRT, and gender-affirming care in general, is often incomprehensive. This is dangerous as gender-affirming care has already been proven repeatedly to be life-saving, reducing depression and suicide rates in youth by 60-70% (Tordoff et al., 2022). Through my own experience online, I learned vital information such as the specifics of certain side effects of HRT and advice on how best to apply testosterone, for example. The transmasculine community also shares non-medical information – which remains critical as gender-affirming care – such as navigating “coming out” practices, tips to help pass as one’s gender, and more. In the comments of these videos, you can find hundreds and thousands of other transgender individuals exclaiming their appreciation for the information and revelling in the relatability. This solidifies the globally accepted claim of researchers that having access to minority role models increases resilience and quality of life (Hurd et al., 2008).
Beyond the transgender community, online spaces allow for more individuals to participate in queer culture, such as allowing queer elders to remain connected with one another as their mobility reduces (Bitterman & Hess, 2020). Other individuals who may also experience accessibility issues (such as those with disabilities, those living in rural areas or with homophobic families, etc.) also benefit from the on-demand nature of the TikTok community. Queer spaces and queer events, such as a queer book club for example, are no longer off-limits to a substantial demographic of people (Cervini, 2023). This means that a larger amount of the public is able to access life-saving resources, educational material, and general community support. Queer people are already more likely to declare themselves as “lonely” due to a multitude of factors – a state of being which can lead to depression, suicidal ideation, increased risks of heart disease & stroke, premature death, and more (Merschel, 2023). Any efforts made to combat queer isolation is an act of queer preservation.
CONCLUSION
In the aftermath of a global pandemic which incited chronic isolation for everyone worldwide, it is clear how important it is to have these accessible infrastructures in place lest we need them once more. The queer community already persists as a demographic more strongly impacted by the effects of isolation, and as such, it is especially important to combat it at all costs. Online spaces on TikTok curated by younger generations have readily become the heart of the queer community, keeping the culture and its members alive. Presented with this information, it is tempting to declare that an online existence presents an improvement for queer culture. However, certain people may have difficulty or reservations, rendering it difficult to engage online effectively. Existing online does not necessarily render a service more accessible. As well, critical aspects such as providing shelter & housing, safe spaces, and career opportunities are lost in non-tangible spaces (De Lise, 2022). Though having an online community is better than no community at all, there needs to be a multifaceted strategy in order to better support queer youth and futures. To serve the queers as a whole, we need to adopt an approach to LGBTIQA+ community-building that is as inclusive as the community itself.
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Hi L, The thing is the paper is mainly concentrated on the African continent particularly.If you make an analysis of…