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).

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

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.

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

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). 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.

10 BT GAY DATG APPS & S FOR LGBTQ+

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.

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

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. 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.