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

Contents:

• UNSEEN, PART 3: POPULAR GAY DATG APP GRDR POS EXPLOATN RISK TO MORS
• A GAY GUI TO PICKG UP THE HOT GUY AT THE BAR
• GAYT PLAC IN CONNECTICUT FOR 2020
• THE TOP LGBTQ+ DATG S AND APPS: 14 BT GAY DATG S
• OUT THE SUN: FLORIDA’S TOP 10 GAY BEACH
• STEP-BY-STEP INSTCTNS FOR SHOOTG YOUR SHOT WH GAY GUYS
• ONLY LADS : EE GAY DATG & GAY CHAT SOCIAL WORK

UNSEEN, PART 3: POPULAR GAY DATG APP GRDR POS EXPLOATN RISK TO MORS

At tim, many gay men feel as though they're the only on experiencg certa thoughts and feelgs, on that society still often ems abnormal. So when a gay man first bonds wh someone else who intifi as gay or queer, 's evably a total lightng bolt moment. One's first LGBTQ iendship is often super-tense; fact, that person n bee jt as important as a first romantic partner.I'm no longer close wh my first gay iend, Jam, bee we're very different people now.

But I still remember clumsily g out to him after a Le Tigre ncert and him sayg, "I thk I'm gay, too." In the months that followed, we weren't always as kd to one another as we should have been, but we absolutely helped each other to accept our sexualy.

Here, their own words, are three men's stori of their first queer iendships.Josh, on AlexWhen I first saw Alex the smokg area at my new llege, I was like, "Oh my God, who is that?" He was hot—I thk everyone thought so—but I didn't thk he was gay. He didn't still a sense of ternalized homophobia me, which was important bee I was a mpy gay guy who'd always been teased for beg mpy.

A GAY GUI TO PICKG UP THE HOT GUY AT THE BAR

After three s of not feelg like I f anywhere, this ltle moment of acknowledgement om another LGBTQ person meant a lot.Sce then I've met other bi people at Pri events, but Charlie's still my clost "queer peer." He gave me the permissn to be myself when I didn't even know who that was.Bill, on DeanI grew up a small nservative town and didn't know anyone gay at school, so I met my first gay iends through social media.

German Chavez was 14 years old when he first started g a gay datg app lled Grdr to fd adult men to pay him for need to help his troubled sgle mother pay the bills, he said, and had no trouble fdg men to purchase him on the popular lotn-based mobile 25 and years away om the sex tra, Chavez is warng other mors to stay away om Grdr, one of the most popular apps the untry for gay and bisexual men. The pany touts s mobile platform as “The World’s Largt Social Networkg App for Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer People” and says s ers have to be 18 years old and the app is teemg wh unrage gay, bisexual and qutng boys, acrdg to rearchers, child exploatn specialists and ers like Chavez who say they n easily lie about their age to ga accs to the LGBTQ teens are seekg nnectn a world that provis few safe spac, rearchers say. More than half of sexually active gay and bisexual boys between the ag of 14 and 17 fd sexual partners on Grdr and other siar apps, acrdg to a 2018 study by Northwtern Universy rearchers.

GAYT PLAC IN CONNECTICUT FOR 2020

Turban recently -published an article the Journal of the Amerin Amy of Child and Adolcent Psychiatry timatg that about one quarter of all gay and bisexual adolcent mal are g Grdr and siar apps — likely hundreds of thoands of youth natnwi. He’s seen gay teens end up at an emergency room Boston — where he worked until last year — crisis after beg sexually exploed by men they met on Grdr yet too ashamed to seek help om other adults.

He says he has received some phback om members of the gay muny about his foc on Grdr, when there are so many s targetg children. There’s a history of anti-gay propaganda patg gay men as pedophil, he said, when there is no rearch to show they are more likely to be predators than others. But Turban says homophobia is also to blame for why LGBTQ youth have so few outlets to fd timacy and also why their victimizatn is so seldom talked about.

He says clicians and fay members should do more to talk to gay youth about the health and safety risks of datg apps. Bradley Tyrrell, 35, of Newton says the app is a “double-edged sword” — a place to meet gay men but also wh many unknowns. Kathryn Mapagal, a rearch profsor at Northwtern Universy, says she first asked teens about hook-up apps 2016 when she was preparg a sex tn program for gay and bisexual boys.

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

Her team nducted more surveys to talk about why they get on the apps — often gay and qutng teens lookg for muny a world that don’t wele them.

Chavez says he first turned to Grdr middle school hopg to learn om others about what means to be gay, qutns he uldn’t answer at home.

“Jt bee I was troduced to this one guy who probably isn’t gay and jt is a pedophile, like, don’t mean that that’s how the muny is, ” he said.

OUT THE SUN: FLORIDA’S TOP 10 GAY BEACH

“That’s the sry part about Grdr, that n be, like, lerally a guy who don’t intify as gay and jt lik kids. "That’s the sry part about Grdr, that n be, like, lerally a guy who don’t intify as gay and jt lik kids.

“When you’re alg wh the vulnerabili of somebody who’s gay and who's velopg our society, ’s tenfold more difficult and more imprsnable, ’’ she said. Kimberly Nelson, a profsor of Communy Health Scienc at the Boston Universy School of Public Health, says s natural for gay teens to head to Grdr to explore their sexualy.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTCTNS FOR SHOOTG YOUR SHOT WH GAY GUYS

”Chris Bat, a Worcter-based traffickg survivor and advote, wish he had been given more warngs about sex traffickg school when he was gay youth livg ral Connecticut. Perhaps watchg Queer as Folk when I was a young and imprsnable teenager wasn’t the bt gge of accuracy for how venturg out onto the gay scene would be. Admtedly, before the advent of hookup apps, when I was a baby gay first on the scene, thgs were a ltle like that, jt whout the great lightg, flatterg mera angl, and wasn’t beg broadst on Showtime.

ONLY LADS : EE GAY DATG & GAY CHAT SOCIAL WORK

Not only are gay bars and clubs crisis, closg left, right, and center, but the art of hookg up has dimished. So, put down your phone and follow this advice and you, too, uld take that hot guy home om the your ey wiselyAny eager beaver a gay bar n roam a room wh their ey, makg ntact wh each Tom, Dick, and Harry the place. In his closed-door posn last month, Ziegler told lawmakers that he is gay, and phed back agast the notn om some right-wg figur that his sexual orientatn fluenc his polics or his job.

“People have said, bee I’m gay and that I am workg as the se agent on this vtigatn, that I mt be a far-left liberal, perfectly placed to f some agenda.

Gav Newsom and sla gay rights lear Harvey the ne-hour Temecula Valley Unified meetg, which ran past midnight, some parents spoke support of the nservative majory on the school board and s buckg of state standards for clive and diverse pated Newsom — who plans to send textbooks that reference Milk to Temecula stunts fiance of the board — as a “tyrant” who “forc his le” upon a district he knows nothg about.

”The bate arose after the board rejected proposed stctnal material that mentned Milk, a member of the San Francis Board of Supervisors and the first out gay man elected to public office California, who was assassated 1978. ” Conservative school board Print Joseph Komrosky, who lled Milk a “pedophile” and has been publicly fdg wh Newsom over the issue, asked sheriff puti on Tuday to remove a teacher om the meetg after she lled nservative board member Danny Gonzalez a “homophobe.