The Digital Closet and Queer Community Online

Chapter

Author(s) / editor(s):
Alexander Monea , William Beaman

Year: 2025

Language(s): English

Abstract:
This chapter examines the promises and perils of digital spaces for LGBTQ+ internet users. We first explore how online platforms have historically provided queer users with anonymity, community, and a space for self-expression. Queer digital cultures and technological affordances continue to offer crucial support, allowing queer people to navigate identity formation and offline relationships. The second half of the chapter highlights the increasing perils of the internet for LGBTQ+ users. We trace changes to corporate policies, algorithmic biases, and user behavior that have led to the suppression and marginalization of queer content. Major tech platforms—shaped in part by heteronormative workplace cultures—embed systemic discrimination into their moderation policies, forcing queer users into ‘digital closets’ through a combination of censorship, shadowbanning, and platform-enabled harassment. As digital spaces become increasingly inhospitable to the queer community, this chapter calls for a renewed effort to reclaim the internet’s transformative potentials for queer community-building and resistance.

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111316857-025

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