#Gay zoom community full#
#Gay zoom community Offline#

Well, several, probably – we’re not one homogenous group. Hate to break it to ya – the gays do have an agenda. Same applies to memes, as it does to marketing – the more specific you are, the stronger the pull will be for the people who do relate, the stronger your community. Queer House Party were once a few anarchist pals in a kitchen, and now, thanks to the strength of their community, they’re playing a packed out Wembley. And once you’ve got a hold, starting small and slow, your community is better placed to bloom. Sometimes heady combinations of all three: craft cans funding visibility in the brewing industry, muay thai for self-defence against rising trans hate crime… or simply, ‘clear bags for queer fags’.įor brands, the takeaway here is that grassroots are strong roots. So we give yet more space to it, building homes for our beautifully concrete passions, experiences, and causes. More varied, more niche.īecause queers know that difference is what makes us. Yes, that acronym is one thing that unites them, but they’re more than that. You’ll probably have noticed that all of these communities seem unapologetically, vocally queer – Queer Brewing, Bender Defenders, Lez Bags. They continued to centre all fans, even those who now aren’t comfortable or able to attend physically – they party via Zoom, projected slap bang in the middle of the stage. A pioneering ethos of radical accessibility helped keep their community tight.

#Gay zoom community full#

Their legendary streams exploded from a locked-down houseshare into full blown ‘IRL/URL’ club nights. She regularly drops posts encouraging like-minded fans to comment and link up locally.Ī post shared by Queering The Map take blurring online-offline further, like DJ collective Queer House Party. But why not think social-first? Create community by facilitating that one-on-one connection like (controversial) author Florence Given does. (Sorry, metaverse, but I’m not fully sold.)Īnd so for brands? Retail space, stunts, events, or even sponsorship of local initiatives can play a role. Nevertheless, I’m quite sure there’s some brain gubbins involved here… We are all simple creatures who need to be seen and touched, ultimately. Partly because that physical proximity has been undervalued. Further case in point: after decades of closures, sorely needed queer spaces are popping back up. Not in that sense – although there is a trope about friend groups where everyone’s your ex – but in that these communities are galvanised by IRL roots: meet-ups, protests, markets, club nights. Extrapolate this local social phenomenon, and you begin to get a sense of just how expert queer people must be at building communities, always with both real life people and social media at their heart.Ī post shared by Queer as Funghi what’s our secret? In my mind, there are a few.

#Gay zoom community Offline#

Online discovery, offline connection, over and over. From fetish brands to fundraisers to football leagues to funghi walks. And then more clubs, events, classes, projects, businesses, sprout up to lure me back in…įor them, Instagram is the perfect hot-house. You can go weeks without needing to leave your tiny gay bubble. Lucky that in my part of London, we have a primo grade supply. When you’ve spent so long without it, getting that sweet hit of belonging becomes addictive. Why do people call a “whole group of gay friends” unrealistic? have you MET gay people we’re like magnets For them, they discovered, community is as much a sense of ‘belonging’ as it is a physical space, a chosen family, a shared experience – or even a meme page. You could call it gaydar… Or, according to a 2012 study by Sheffield Hallam University, feeling an ‘intangible’ connection to other lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans people. Perhaps that’s why we seem to have an almost supernatural ability to find it. Growing up marginalised and isolated, community isn’t just about socialising for many LGBTQ+ people – it can be a matter of survival.

Salad… And community – us queer people have it by the shedload. Now, we all know that queers are better than straights at everything. Im glad the queer community is getting a new 50p coin instead of human rights 🥰🥰🥰 However, in a dramatic departure from this dearly beloved industry tradition – slagging off organisations doing Pride wrong – maybe it’s time we focused on actual LGBTQ+ people? Why we’re so excellent – and how brands could channel a little of that big gay energy for themselves, instead of strategically co-opting and commercialising it. Easy to be cynical about it all, isn’t it? As we celebrate 50 years of Pride in the UK, mainstream media is platforming ‘debates’ about whether trans people deserve to exist, and racism is apparently still rife even within Pride organisations. A post shared by Tanya Compas always a bitter-sweet time of year for queer people.