There’s a social network for every community out there. There’s Stache Passions for people really into moustaches, Vampire Freaks for goths and Slipknot fans, and weird corridors of 4chan for men’s rights activists. So it was only a matter of time before a platform purely for the LGBTQ community found its feet.
Q is not quite a convention social network like Facebook and it’s not quite a dating app. What it aims to do is cultivate authentic personal bonds between people. In an interview with Slate, Eric Cervini, Q’s creator, said that he thinks of it primarily as “a platform to meet,” one that allows LGBTQ individuals to reach out to one another “in a non-hypersexualized context.” Facebook, as he points out, is fundamentally a straight space.
Where it really differentiates from Facebook is through its personal profiling. Facebook’s controversial “real names policy” has been consistently accused of excluding trans people, feminists, drag queens and minorities from the site. While the social media giant has tried to make it easier for people to change their name, its rules are still troublesome for many. Cervini says Q would have direct contact with its members “if someone is having an issue”.
The idea of an app bringing gay, bi, non-gender conforming and trans people together has come at a perfect time. Trans-exclusion, for example, remains a problem in many queer circles, as seen in the recent petition to remove the T from LGBT. Cervini acknowledges these trends and suggests that Q seeks to help correct them. “I think it would do our movement good to bring people from all backgrounds together to cultivate empathy,” he told Slate.
It’s unlikely something could can battle the behemoth that is Facebook, but Q is an interesting alternative for those alienated by the mainstream option.
