‎Grdr - Gay Datg & Chat on the App Store

Contents:

• MAKG VISIBLE THE UNSEEN QUEER: GAY DATG APPS AND IOLOGI OF TTHMAKG AN OUTG CAMPAIGN MOROC
• DISVER THE BT GAY DATG APPS: A COMPREHENSIVE GUI TO FDG LOVE
• WISNS MIDDLE SCHOOL FEATUR 'THIS BOOK IS GAY' LIBRARY, STIRRG ONLE OUTRAGE

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

DISVER THE BT GAY DATG APPS: A COMPREHENSIVE GUI TO FDG LOVE

It n’t be this easy, and ’s not” (2013: 126) happens when gay datg apps do not functn as the “safe spac” for queer male timacy they are signed to be? 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 Egypt, unrver police officers have ed fake profil on gay datg apps orr to arrt gay men unr charg of “bchery” and “sexual viance” (Trew, 2017).

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.

WISNS MIDDLE SCHOOL FEATUR 'THIS BOOK IS GAY' LIBRARY, STIRRG ONLE OUTRAGE

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. Talouni, a queer dividual who has intified as both transgenr and gay and who she/her and he/him pronouns, is a Morocn expatriate livg Turkey. 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. Simply by displayg this image to her viewers on Instagram, Talouni succeed outg the young man as gay ont of tens of thoands of people. 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).