Queer HCI

LGBTQ+ people face unique challenges with technology—from restrictive identity categories that fail to capture the nuance of queer identities, to harmful content moderation that disproportionately affects queer content, to fundamental lack of representation in the design process and research community.

This project examines how technology can better serve queer communities. We document the current state of LGBTQ+ research in HCI, investigate the lived experiences of queer users across platforms, and develop design recommendations that center queer needs. Our work spans dating apps, social media platforms, and community spaces, with particular attention to how multiply marginalized identities experience technology differently.

Researchers

Katy Weathington, Morgan Klaus Scheuerman, Michael Ann DeVito, Jordan Taylor, Ellen Simpson, Jed Brubaker

Publications

CSCW
XOXO or XX/XY? Gender Essentialism and Queer Exclusion on Dating Apps Katy Weathington, Morgan Klaus Scheuerman, and Jed R. Brubaker
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 9, CSCW
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- DOI: 10.1145/3711109
In a world with shrinking queer spaces, dating apps serve as a useful way to find romantic or sexual partners, make friends, and develop connections in an often fragmented community. However, dating app structures may exclude queer users more than their cisgender heterosexual counterparts. We examined how gender and sexuality are formatted as data in dating app profiles and algorithmically curated matchmaking functions. Based on an analysis of ten popular dating apps, we found gender and sexuality were often divided into descriptive labels and functional categories, which systematically marginalize or exclude queer identities from the matching process despite appearing inclusive.
CHI
Cruising Queer HCI on the DL: A Literature Review of LGBTQ+ People in HCI Jordan Taylor, Ellen Simpson, Anh-Ton Tran, Jed R. Brubaker, Sarah E Fox, and Haiyi Zhu
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2024) Article 507
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- DOI: 10.1145/3613904.3642494
LGBTQ+ people have received increased attention in HCI research, paralleling a greater emphasis on social justice in recent years. However, there has not been a systematic review of how LGBTQ+ people are researched or discussed in HCI. In this work, we review all research mentioning LGBTQ+ people across the HCI venues of CHI, CSCW, DIS, and TOCHI. Since 2014, we find a linear growth in the number of papers substantially about LGBTQ+ people and an exponential increase in the number of mentions. Research about LGBTQ+ people tends to center experiences of being politicized, outside the norm, stigmatized, or highly vulnerable. LGBTQ+ people are typically mentioned as a marginalized group or an area of future research. We identify gaps and opportunities for (1) research about and (2) the discussion of LGBTQ+ in HCI and provide a dataset to facilitate future Queer HCI research.
CSCW
Safety and Community Context: Exploring a Transfeminist Approach to Sapphic Relationship Platforms Michael Ann DeVito, Jessica L. Feuston, Erika Melder, Christen Malloy, Cade Ponder, and Jed R. Brubaker
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 8, CSCW1 Article 203
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- DOI: 10.1145/3653694
Relationship platforms (e.g., dating apps) are crucial tools for sapphics (trans women, cisgender women, and nonbinary people who are attracted to other sapphics). However, current platforms are not designed in a way that accounts for sapphic lived experience, especially the lived experience of sapphics who hold multiple marginalized identity characteristics. Even on platforms that do exist for sapphics, transgender women and nonbinary people are often subject to discrimination, fetishization, and stigmatization. To aid in the design of platforms that better serve the needs of multiply marginalized sapphics, we engaged a diverse group of 25 sapphics in six rounds of community discussion on key topics for relationship platform design. Based on participant discussions, we identify key challenges when designing for multiply marginalized sapphics around relationship structures, gender and sexuality classification, and safety priorities for interaction. We present two design priorities alongside community-sourced design directions which can help future designers address these challenges: identity-centric safety and community-based information formats.
CSCW
Best Paper Honorable Mention Diversity and Inclusion Recognition
Queer Identities, Normative Databases: Challenges to Capturing Queerness On Wikidata Katy Weathington and Jed R. Brubaker
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 7, CSCW1 Article 84
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- DOI: 10.1145/3579517
The collection, organization, and retrieval of data about queer individuals and their identities challenge the creators and curators of highly structured database systems. While prior research in archival studies and demographics has examined processes of collecting and storing queer identities, they do not examine the complexities of highly democratized platforms that lack top-down mandates that often structure archival schemas. To examine the representation of queer people on open-platform databases, we performed a trace ethnography and thematic analysis of Wikidata, an open collaboration, highly structured database. We specifically examined the creation of, changes to, discussions around, and impacts of properties that encode queer identities, such assexual orientation andsex or gender. We found that changes often have unexpected impacts, that contributors struggled to determine vocabulary for queer identities which were accurate across the diverse cultural contexts of the Wikidata community, that the recording of queer identities could cause a stigmatizing effect for LGBTQ+ individuals, with further concerns of spreading rumors or outing closeted people, and that contributors proposing changes which would cause biased representations of queer people. Our analysis demonstrates inherent and unaddressed frictions when translating queer identities to the confines of a structured database. We conclude by discussing ways that the highly bottom-up, collaborative nature of platforms such as Wikidata, often seen as a major strength, can be vulnerable to individuals or small groups derailing and filibustering changes they disagree with on politically charged topics such as queer identities.
CSCW
Best Paper Honorable Mention Diversity and Inclusion Recognition
"Do You Ladies Relate?": Experiences of Gender Diverse People in Online Eating Disorder Communities Jessica L. Feuston, Michael Ann DeVito, Morgan Klaus Scheuerman, Katy Weathington, Marianna Benitez, Bianca Z. Perez, Lucy Sondheim, and Jed R. Brubaker
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 6, CSCW2: 1–32
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- DOI: 10.1145/3555145
The study of eating disorders online has a long tradition within CSCW and HCI scholarship. Research within this body of work highlights the types of content people with eating disorders post as well as the ways in which individuals use online spaces for acceptance, connection, and support. However, despite nearly a decade of research, online eating disorder scholarship in CSCW and HCI rarely accounts for the ways gender shapes online engagement. In this paper, we present empirical results from interviews with 14 trans people with eating disorders. Our findings illustrate how working with gender as an analytic lens allowed us to produce new knowledge about the embodiment of participation in online eating disorder spaces. We show how trans people with eating disorders use online eating disorder content to inform and set goals for their bodies and how, as gender minorities within online eating disorder spaces, trans people occupy marginal positions that make them more susceptible to harms, such as threats to eating disorder validity and gender authenticity. In our discussion, we consider life transitions in the context of gender and eating disorders and address how online eating disorder spaces operate as social transition machinery. We also call attention to the labor associated with online participation as a gender minority within online eating disorder spaces, outlining several design recommendations for supporting the ways trans people with eating disorders use online spaces. CONTENT WARNING: This paper is about the online experiences of trans people with eating disorders. We discuss eating disorders, related content (e.g., thinspiration) and practices (e.g., binge eating, restriction), and gender dysphoria. Please read with caution.
CHI
Revisiting Gendered Web Forms: An Evaluation of Gender Inputs with (Non-)Binary People Morgan Klaus Scheuerman, Jialun Aaron Jiang, Katta Spiel, and Jed R. Brubaker
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021)
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- DOI: 10.1145/3411764.3445742
Gender input forms act as gates to accessing information, websites, and services online. Non-binary people regularly have to interact with them, though many do not offer non-binary gender options. This results in non-binary individuals having to either choose an incorrect gender category or refrain from using a site or service—which is occasionally infeasible (e.g., when accessing health services). We tested five different forms through a survey with binary and non-binary participants (n = 350) in three contexts—a digital health form, a social media website, and a dating app. Our results indicate that the majority of participants found binary “male or female” forms exclusive and uncomfortable to fill out across all contexts. We conclude with design considerations for improving gender input forms and consequently their underlying gender model in databases. Our work aims to sensitize designers of (online) gender web forms to the needs and desires of non-binary people.
CSCW
Entering Doors, Evading Traps: Benefits and Risks of Visibility During Transgender Coming Outs Anthony T. Pinter, Morgan Klaus Scheuerman, and Jed R. Brubaker
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 4, CSCW3 Article 272
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- DOI: 10.1145/3434181
Coming out and being visible online can offer transgender and/or non-binary people benefits not found elsewhere. However, it also can expose them to negative reactions and bad experiences. Through an analysis of 15 semi-structured interviews, we investigate the experiences of transgender and/or non-binary people coming out across social media sites (SMSs). We found that participants employed strategies around disclosure and visibility to limit the consequences of coming out and to access support. Using trans theory on visibility, we discuss how online spaces present metaphorical "doors" to resources, support, and recognition—but can also be "traps" for those that do not meet the expectations of the space. We discuss how visibility empowered participants to create "trapdoors" to new spaces within SMSs where they could create positive outcomes for themselves and their communities. We close with considerations for designers as they create online spaces, and present a broader call to action for the HCI community around designing online spaces.
PACM HCI
Best Paper Honorable Mention
Values (Mis)alignment: Exploring Tensions Between Platform and LGBTQ+ Community Design Values Michael Ann DeVito, Ashley M. Walker, and Julia R. Fernandez
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 5, 1: Article 88
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- DOI: 10.1145/3449162
Social platforms hold great promise for supporting marginalized communities, such as the LGBTQ+ community, yet they are frequently sites of further stigmatization and harm. By engaging a diverse sample of 31 US LGBTQ+ users in five qualitative, design-based value elicitation exercises, we find that misalignments between perceived platform values and the values of the marginalized users they serve are at the heart of this disconnect. We inductively identify two community-based design values for supporting LGBTQ+ users: self-determination and inclusion. These values can be used as design heuristics for both improving existing platforms as well as guiding future new platform development. Based on participant feedback, we provide directions for enacting these values to better align platform values with this marginalized population’s needs.
CHISIG
Queer in HCI: Strengthening the Community of LGBTQIA+ Researchers and Research Michael Ann DeVito, Caitlin Lustig, Ellen Simpson, Kimberley Allison, Tya Chuanromanee, Katta Spiel, Amy Ko, Jennifer Rode, Brianna Dym, Michael Muller, Morgan Klaus Scheuerman, Ashley Marie Walker, Jed Brubaker, and Alex Ahmed
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021), Extended Abstracts
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- DOI: 10.1145/3411763.3450403
As Queer Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) becomes an established part of the larger field, both in terms of research on and with queer populations and in terms of employing queering theories and methods, the role of queer researchers has become a timely topic of discussion. However, these discussions have largely centered around member-researcher status and positionality when working with queer populations. Based on insights gathered at multiple ACM events over the past two years, we identified two pressing issues: (1) we need to better support queer people doing HCI research not specific to queer populations, and (2) we need to identify how to best support member-researchers in leading Queer HCI while including collaborators beyond the queer community. This Special Interest Group (SIG) aims to directly address these challenges by convening a broad community of queer researchers and allies, working not only on explicitly-queer topics but across a broad range of HCI topics.
CHISIG
Queer in HCI: Supporting LGBTQIA+ Researchers and Research Across Domains Michael Ann DeVito, Ashley Marie Walker, Caitlin Lustig, Amy J. Ko, Katta Spiel, Alex A. Ahmed, Kimberley Allison, Morgan Scheuerman, Briana Dym, Jed R. Brubaker, Ellen Simpson, Naveen Bagalkot, Noopur Raval, Michael Muller, Jennifer Rode, and Mary L. Gray
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020), Extended Abstracts
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- DOI: 10.1145/3334480.3381058
As Queer Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) becomes an established part of the larger field, both in terms of research on and with queer populations and in terms of employing queering theories and methods, the role of queer researchers has become a timely topic of discussion. However, these discussions have largely centered around member-researcher status and positionality when working with queer populations. Based on insights gathered at multiple ACM events over the past year, we identified two pressing issues: (1) we need to better support queer people doing HCI research not specific to queer populations, and (2) we need to identify how to best support member-researchers in leading Queer HCI while including collaborators beyond the queer community. This Special Interest Group (SIG) aims to directly address these challenges by convening a broad community of queer researchers and allies, working not only on explicitly-queer topics but across a broad range of HCI topics.
CHISIG
Queer(ing) HCI: Moving Forward in Theory and Practice Katta Spiel, Os Keyes, Ashley Marie Walker, Michael Ann DeVito, Jeremy Birnholtz, Emeline Brulé, Ann Light, Pınar Barlas, Jean Hardy, Alex Ahmed, Jennifer A. Rode, Jed R. Brubaker, and Gopinaath Kannabiran
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2019), Extended Abstracts
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- DOI: 10.1145/3290607.3311750
The increasing corpus on queer research within HCI, which started by focusing on sites such as location-based dating apps, has begun to expand to other topics such as identity formation, mental health and physical well-being. This Special Interest Group (SIG) aims to create a space for discussion, connection and camaraderie for researchers working with queer populations, queer people in research, and those using queer theory to inform their work. We aim to facilitate a broad-ranging, inclusive discussion of where queer HCI research goes next.
iConference
The Black at the End of the Rainbow: Online Discrimination Among LGBTQ African Americans E. J. Rivera, M. Poldruhi, C. R. Ward, G. E. Jenkins II, E. Nichols III, and A. T. Pinter
iConference 2019
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- DOI: 10.21900/iconf.2019.103350
Both the LGBTQ and African-American communities are marginalized and at greater risk of both online and offline discrimination when compared to the non-LGBTQ and white communities; yet little is known about the LGBTQ and African-American intersectional community’s online experiences with discrimination. Extant literature indicates that this discrimination has negative consequences on mental health and identity. In this literature review, we present a synthesis of the existing research at the intersection of these identities to inform how online community-based sites and social media platforms serve as both spaces of victimization, as well as environments of support. Altogether, we found that past research has primarily focused on these communities separately, and the research that exists about African-Americans in the LGBTQ community mainly studies the intersectionality of these identities offline and information seeking behaviors around HIV. Our literature review indicates that further research is necessary to study the online experiences of these online users and the potential effects on mental health.
CSCW
"Coming Out Okay": Community Narratives for LGBTQ Identity Recovery Work Brianna Dym, Jed R. Brubaker, Casey Fiesler, and Bryan Semaan
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 3, CSCW: Article 154
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- DOI: 10.1145/3359256
Online communities provide support for those who are vulnerable, such as LGBTQ people while coming out. Research shows that social support and personal narrative construction are important when recovering from personal crises and traumatic events. As an online community focused on writing fanfiction and also consisting of a large number of LGBTQ members, transformative fandom provides an opportunity to examine the relationship between support, crisis, and narrative. Through an interview study with 31 LGBTQ fanfiction authors, our findings mirror Herman’s model of trauma recovery: these spaces self-organize to support recovery work through constructing "community narratives" that help LGBTQ people establish safety when exploring their identity and build LGBTQ support structures without publicly outing themselves before they are ready, challenge stereotypes, and support others through reshaping existing media that perpetuate inaccurate or harmful LGBTQ narratives. These online communities embody "selective visibility"–that is, though not specifically designed as support structures for identity work and recovery, their design allows people to selectively find and create communities of support for stigmatized issues that they might be unable to safely seek out in other spaces. Based on lessons learned, we generate insights that can inform the design of safe support spaces online.
CSCW
Diversity and Inclusion Recognition
Safe Spaces and Safe Places: Unpacking Technology-Mediated Experiences of Safety and Harm with Transgender People Morgan Klaus Scheuerman, Stacy M. Branham, and Foad Hamidi
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 2, CSCW Article 155
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- DOI: 10.1145/3274424
Transgender individuals in the United States face significant threats to interpersonal safety; however, there has as yet been relatively little research in the HCI and CSCW communities to document transgender individuals’ experiences of technology-mediated safety and harm. In this study, we interviewed 12 transgender and non-binary individuals to understand how they find, create, and navigate safe spaces using technology. Managing safety was a universal concern for our transgender participants, and they experienced complex manifestations of harm through technology. We found that harmful experiences for trans users could arise as targeted or incidental affronts, as sourced from outsiders or insiders, and as directed against individuals or entire communities.. Notably, some violations implicated technology design, while others tapped broader social dynamics. Reading our findings through the notions of ’space" and ’place," we unpack challenges and opportunities for building safer futures with transfolk, other vulnerable users, and their allies.
Journal
“theyre all trans sharon”: Authoring gender in video game fan fiction Brianna Dym, Jed Brubaker, and Casey Fiesler
Game Studies 18, 3
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Underrepresented fans of media, such as women, members of the LGBTQIA community, and other marginalized people use fan fiction (new narratives constructed from elements of existing media) to critique and recraft their representation in media such as television, movies, books and video games. This article explores fan response to diverse gender identities, or their absence, in video games, through stories found on the popular fan fiction website Archive of Our Own (AO3). The analysis examines metadata from over 2,200 unique fan fiction stories, focusing on freeform, user-generated tags. In addition to categorizing works, tags are also a place for authors to describe their intentions and respond to the source material. This analysis reveals that authors are recrafting video game narratives to include more diverse gender representation in a way unique to the current cultural nuances of video games. This article argues that game developers can expand diversity in games not only by adding queer characters but by leaving narrative choices and details open so that players can interpret character identities in multiple ways.
CHI
Best Paper Honorable Mention
Digital footprints and changing networks during online identity transitions O.L. Haimson, J.R. Brubaker, L. Dombrowski, and G.R. Hayes
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2016)
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- DOI: 10.1145/2858036.2858136
Digital artifacts on social media can challenge individuals during identity transitions, particularly those who prefer to delete, separate from, or hide data that are representative of a past identity. This work investigates concerns and practices reported by transgender people who transitioned while active on Facebook. We analyze open-ended survey responses from 283 participants, highlighting types of data considered problematic when separating oneself from a past identity, and challenges and strategies people engage in when managing personal data in a networked environment. We find that people shape their digital footprints in two ways: by editing the self-presentational data that is representative of a prior identity, and by managing the configuration of people who have access to that self-presentation. We outline the challenging interplay between shifting identities, social networks, and the data that suture them together. We apply these results to a discussion of the complexities of managing and forgetting the digital past.
CSCW
Best Paper Honorable Mention
Disclosure, Stress, and Support During Gender Transition on Facebook Oliver L Haimson, Jed R. Brubaker, Lynn Dombrowski, and Gillian R. Hayes
ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW 2015)
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- DOI: 10.1145/2675133.2675152
Social computing technologies, such as social networking sites (SNSs), often privilege people who fit within expected, static categories. Thus, users embarking on major identity changes, such as gender transition, often encounter stress when using SNSs to interact with their online social networks. To address this problem and reflect on the design of SNSs and other social computing systems, we present the results of a comprehensive online survey of transgender and gender non-conforming SNS users. Our findings indicate that although Facebook can be a stressful place for gender transition due to difficulties of transition disclosure, support from one’s Facebook network can help to mitigate some of this stress. We examine Facebook both as a site of stress and as a site of support. Better understanding the relationships between stress, disclosure, and support on SNSs for these particular users can inform technology design that will benefit people who struggle with navigating a wide range of major identity changes online.
HICSS
Best Paper Nomination
Social and Personal Disclosure in a Location-Based Real Time Dating App Colin Fitzpatrick, Jeremy Birnholtz, and Jed R. Brubaker
2015 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS)
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- DOI: 10.1109/hicss.2015.237
Users of location-based real time dating (LBRTD) apps must decide what to disclose in their profiles. Based on 25,365 profiles from one app, our study explores users whose profile photos disclose a face, a personal disclosure that identifies them as an individual, in relation to available social disclosures, those that do not identify them as an individual. Using logistic regression models with face disclosure as the outcome, we find: older users, and users who share race are less likely to disclose a face, and higher body mass index (BMI) users, users who disclose relationship status, and users who are seeking friends or relationships are more likely to disclose a face. We frame and discuss these results in relation to literature on location norms, body image, race relations, and social stigma, and propose future work to investigate these findings, particularly those of race, relationship status, and goals, in qualitative depth.
CHI
DDFSeeks same: sexual health-related language in online personal ads for men who have sex with men Oliver L Haimson, Jed R. Brubaker, and Gillian R Hayes
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2014)
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- DOI: 10.1145/2556288.2557077
The HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s fundamentally changed sexual practices of men who have sex with men (MSM) in the U.S., including increased usage of sexual health-related (SHR) language in personal advertisements. Analyzing online personal ads from Craigslist, we found a substantial increase in SHR language, from 23% in 1988 to over 53% today, echoing continuing concern about rising HIV rates. We argue that SHR language in Craigslist ads can be used as a sensor to provide insight into HIV epidemiology as well as discourse among particular communities. We show a positive significant relationship between prevalence rate of HIV in an ad’s location and use of SHR language in that location. Analysis highlights the opportunity for SHR information found in Craigslist personal ads to serve as a data source for HIV prevention research. More broadly, we argue for mining large-scale user-generated content to inform HCI design of health and other systems, and explore use of such data to examine temporal changes in language to facilitate improved user-interface design.
Journal
Departing glances: A sociotechnical account of ’leaving’ Grindr J. R. Brubaker, M. Ananny, and K. Crawford
New Media & Society 1461444814542311–
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- DOI: 10.1177/1461444814542311
Grindr is a popular location-based social networking application for smartphones, predominantly used by gay men. This study investigates why users leave Grindr. Drawing on interviews with 16 men who stopped using Grindr, this article reports on the varied definitions of leaving, focusing on what people report leaving, how they leave and what they say leaving means to them. We argue that leaving is not a singular moment, but a process involving layered social and technical acts - that understandings of and departures from location-based media are bound up with an individual’s location. Accounts of leaving Grindr destabilize normative definitions of both Grindr’ and leaving’, exposing a set of relational possibilities and spatial arrangements within and around which people move. We conclude with implications for the study of non-use and technological departure.
PACM HCI
Identity, identification and identifiability: The Language of Self-Presentation on a Location-Based Mobile Dating App Jeremy Birnholtz, Colin Fitzpatrick, Mark Handel, and Jed R. Brubaker
International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI 2014)
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- DOI: 10.1145/2628363.2628406
Location-aware mobile applications have become extremely common, with a recent wave of mobile dating applications that provide relatively sparse profiles to connect nearby individuals who may not know each other for immediate social or sexual encounters. These applications have become particularly popular among men who have sex with men (MSM) and raise a range of questions about self-presentation, visibility to others, and impression formation, as traditional geographic boundaries and social circles are crossed. In this paper we address two key questions around how people manage potentially stigmatized identities in using these apps and what types of information they use to self-present in the absence of a detailed profile or rich social cues. To do so, we draw on profile data observed in twelve locations on Grindr, a location-aware social application for MSM. Results suggest clear use of language to manage stigma associated with casual sex, and that users draw regularly on location information and other descriptive language to present concisely to others nearby.