The 14 Bt Gay Datg S: LGBTQ+ Datg Apps to Fd Love | Observer

Contents:

• GAY MOROC
• MAKG VISIBLE THE UNSEEN QUEER: GAY DATG APPS AND IOLOGI OF TTHMAKG AN OUTG CAMPAIGN MOROC
• THE TOP LGBTQ+ DATG S AND APPS: 14 BT GAY DATG S
• 10 BT GAY DATG APPS & S FOR LGBTQ+
• DOZENS OF GAY MEN ARE OUTED MOROC AS PHOTOS ARE SPREAD ONLE

GAY MOROC

Alongsi other popular gay apps like PlaRomeo and Hor, Grdr appeals to s ers wh the promise that, by downloadg the app, they will be put ntact wh an unseen world of men-seekg-men that exists around them— their neighborhood, their cy, their muny—through the means of s lotn-based chat servic. In recent years, lotn-based gay datg apps like Grdr, Hor, and PlaRomeo have been ployed as tools for homophobic vigilant to “hunt” gay men orr to expose their sexual orientatn, to shame gay men ont of their fai and iends, and to m homophobic acts of vlence. In Rsia, for example, crimal gangs are known to create fake profil on gay datg apps, lurg unspectg men to meetg them only to extort the men for brib unr the threat of exposure or vlence (Carroll, 2019).

In South Korea, screenshots om gay datg apps have been ed as evince ary trials implitg active-duty soldiers of illegal same-sex acts (Gzen, 2021) this chapter, I analyze a mpaign targetg gay, bisexual, and queer men Moroc which young women create fake profil on Grdr and PlaRomeo orr to expose or “out” lol men prumed to be gay. Footnote 1 In addn to facg potential crimal punishment on the basis of their sexualy, many Morocn gay men experience abe and vlence om the police, neighbors, and fay when they are perceived to challenge lol heteronormative expectatns of proper genred behavr (Ale-Ebrahim, 2019).

I argue that the sign featur of lotn-based gay datg apps like Grdr and PlaRomeo allow for the possibily of both sirable nnectn and unwanted exposure for queer men Moroc, challengg the misnceptn that the apps functn as unplited “safe spac” for queer timacy and muny buildg. Multiple actors Morocn social media works, workg alongsi the sign of the apps themselv, “entextualize” (Bman & Briggs, 1990) imag and text msag shared on gay datg apps as transparent ditors of same-sex sire, a “media iology” (Gershon, 2010) that prents risks for gay app ers Moroc. This teractn soon beme a nontatn when Talouni prsured the young man to publicly intify himself as gay and threatened to post “revealg photos showg him wh another gay man” if he did not ply (Alami, 2020).

MAKG VISIBLE THE UNSEEN QUEER: GAY DATG APPS AND IOLOGI OF TTHMAKG AN OUTG CAMPAIGN MOROC

After he persistently refed to intify himself as gay spe creasg prsure om Talouni, she then displayed a photo for her viewers of what appeared to be the young man loungg at a pool wh an olr beard European man, prentg the photo as unniable evince of his homosexualy. In later social media posts, Talouni claimed that her tent wh this send livtream was to brg gay men “closer to the mastream society” Moroc by enuragg her followers to “thk of gay people as the man or woman next door and to stop the negative fantasy of who gay people are, how they look like and how they live” (Greenhalgh & Al-Khal, 2020).

Dpe her claims, this send Instagram broadst rerc misogynistic, homophobic, and transphobic rhetoric Moroc that glorifi hegemonic heteromasculy at the expense of non-normative genr exprsn and same-sex sexualy. Talouni begs her send Instagram broadst by statg, lloquial Morocn Arabic, “I feel bad for some loubiyat [rogatory term for gay men, roughly equivalent to ‘faggots’ English], but I don’t really re.

” She go on to enurage her female dience to download gay datg apps like Grdr and PlaRomeo as tools to disver a salac unrworld of same-sex sire their immediate geographil vicy:Listen up, girls: Open the App Store, you’ll type [ the search bar] ‘gay apps. All you women, girls, those who wear hijab who say ‘there is no hband like me [on the apps], ’ the mother who says ‘my son is the bt’ and curs and swears about homosexuals like me, who says ‘my hband is much more mascule than you, Sofia, you loubia. Talouni giv tailed stctns for how women n easily create fake profil on gay apps like Grdr, posg as gay men orr to solic promisg rmatn about the same-sex sir of their male relativ and neighbors for future e blackmail and timidatn.

THE TOP LGBTQ+ DATG S AND APPS: 14 BT GAY DATG S

Talouni prents this as a quasi-femist act, enuragg her female followers to arm themselv wh an archive of digal evince pictg the shameful homosexual sir of the men their immediate social circl as a way to unteract potential future cricism of their own sexualy and relatnships.

The women created several private Facebook pag to share the screenshots they had taken om gay apps, seekg to publicize the shameful and crimal sir of men their muni. In the Instagram broadst that started this outg mpaign, Talouni displays a digal photograph, obtaed om an unknown source, as supposedly unniable proof of a young man’s homosexual orientatn.

10 BT GAY DATG APPS & S FOR LGBTQ+

Dpe his own protts and persistent refal to intify himself as gay, Talouni succeeds outg him to an dience of tens of thoands by displayg a photograph of him loungg a pool close physil proximy to an olr shirtls man. What is important nstctg the young man’s gay inty this moment is not his own words but rather the publicly displayed photograph; is amed as physil evince of the man’s te hidn sir, a more tstworthy ditor of his ner homosexual nature and of his endurg ternal feelgs than his own verbal ttimony this moment.

The image speaks for self, functng as a potent enpsulatn of the young man’s same-sex sir, challengg his own verbalized nial of any homosexual or queer orientatn. In the face of nflictg evince regardg the man’s sexualy, Talouni prents the digal photograph as ntrovertible proof of the young man’s te ner nature as a gay man. Like a urtroom attorney simply prsg “play” on an dtape rerdg, Talouni tak up the footg of “mere nonspeakg relayer” of the image’s msage, enuragg her dience to let the photograph “speak for self” as a transparent ditor of the man’s past homosexual acts and his ongog same-sex sir (Matoian, 2001: 146).

She simply prents the image as transparent proof that the man is lyg about his sexualy, darg him to ny what appears to be the objective tth reprented this image of him stg a pool, suggtively close to an olr beard man drkg a uy Talouni herself, the women who rpond to her ll to create fake profil on gay datg apps also teract wh digal imag and text msag as transparent ditors of hidn same-sex sire. After llectg screenshots of gay datg app ers their lol vicy, they share the uncensored imag large private Facebook groups wh tens of thoands of followers.

DOZENS OF GAY MEN ARE OUTED MOROC AS PHOTOS ARE SPREAD ONLE

The members of this group lgh at the men they disver on Grdr and other gay apps, exprsg how shocked they are to fd so many faggots [loubiyat] their lol neighborhood when they download the app.

They lgh about how they had hoped to disver whether their ex-boyiends were secretly gay, g the app to “expose the faggots [zawa] among the guys our neighborhood” [kanqilb ʿala zawa dyal oulad rbna] sharg photos of nventnally attractive Morocn men wh handsome beard fac and mcular bodi, the women tend to huiate and shame men who might otherwise pass for straight by exposg their same-sex sir a public Facebook group wh thoands of members. They project a homosexual inty onto the men simply by referencg the fact that their imag were found on same-sex datg apps, makg an assumptn that the imag reveal a hidn tth about the men’s supposedly-effemate genr inty and queer sexual orientatn that is at odds wh their external mascule appearance. Like Talouni’s prentatn of the photograph as clear evince of the young man’s ternal sir her Instagram live broadst, the women who post the screenshots on Facebook prume a strong and transparent lk between a visual digal artifact and the hidn queer subjectivy of the gay datg app er picts.

Regardls of whether the men the imag would intify themselv as gay, bisexual, or queer, the imag functn as unqutnable evince of the men’s homosexualy sce they origate om a platform that is signed explicly to facilate male same-sex fact that Talouni and the women engage wh imag and text shared on gay datg apps as transparent ditors of same-sex sire and therefore queer subjectivy is not surprisg, sce this is an iology built to the sign of the apps themselv. Gay datg apps like Grdr and PlaRomeo are signed to operate as technologi through which the exprsn of male same-sex sire is transformed to visible queer subjectivy, a media iology that Talouni and her followers weaponize orr to expose same-sex sirg men their lol muni.