Stuff Gay People Like: The Internet

In the future we will discover gay men have electrodes in their eyes and fingers, giving them distinct sensations of pleasure and belonging while communicating with electronics.

Nothing else explains why no matter what stage in the development of information technology you look at, gay people get there first. They were using Instant Messengers in 1995, Friendster accounts when “social networking” was still unheard of, livejournals before the word “blog” existed, and iPods when your friends thought the commercial with the dancing silhouettes was for a radio station.

If you are gay, the first time you told your friends you were planing to meet a slightly older guy online (you were probably 15 or 16 years old) because he seemed friendly and has nice abs, they were shocked.

“Wait, you know him from the Internet?” they collectively gasped. The next thing they wanted to know was, how might they talk you out of it, and at very least does your cell phone have 9-1-1 on speed dial.

Unexpectedly, it was the most dramatic confession you made since coming out. And after you finally went on your date, your friends set themselves to looking for an advice hotline for victims of sexual predators, and scanning the news to see if there are any cereal killers out. Meanwhile were out having a nice conversation with a 20-something college guy and hoping to get a blowjob out of it.

Gay people aren’t as creeped out by the Internet as straight people are. To a lot of gay people who live far from gay bars and don’t know other gay people at school or work, the internet is the only place to meet somebody.

Gay men were meeting online before Facebook existed and when Myspace was still “just for emo kids.” Surely there are a few really disappointing encounters here and there – and some are even so much as traumatic – but it’s worth it when you have no other choice. The only rule is, when you finally fall in love with someone, you invent some other story of how you met.

“Oh, just around,” you say. “You know, like out and stuff.”

Over time, straight people have begun to use the internet in ways that were once limited to gay people, which has eroded the stigma (though most straight people would still be completely blown away by Manhunt). Many uses for Internet technology we all once would have considered beyond the pale in geekiness or obscurity are now popular: how many of your friends were rushing off to “fertilize a neighbor’s artichokes” (no that’s not a sexual innuendo) in 2010, or creepily checking their ex-girlfriends’ Facebook profile sixteen a day to see if she’s still single?

And honestly, folks, lets not kid ourselves: is there really any non X-rated purpose for a webcam?

But LGBT folks still dominate the internet. If you want to know where the “gay community” is headquartered, it’s no longer in Manhattan or the Castro; it’s everywhere, because it’s online.

Stuff Gay People Like (SGPL: ABOUT) is a regular column. Visit the Facebook Page.