Live Streaming Identity: Opportunities and Challenges for LGBTQ Communities

FAIN: DOI-293774-23

Regents of the University of California, Irvine (Irvine, CA 92617-3066)
Bo Ruberg (Project Director: February 2023 to present)

Research and development of a scholarly monograph examining the cultural tensions surrounding LGBTQ live streaming.  

This project seeks to understand the ambivalent relationship between internet technologies and the empowerment or endangerment of LGBTQ people. It does so by examining one subset of LGBTQ people online: LGBTQ live streamers and their viewers. As many news reports have documented, the phenomenon of live streaming grew exponentially during the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly on real-time on platforms like Twitch, Instagram, or Zoom. LGBTQ people have played a prominent yet precarious role in the rise of live streaming. Many LGBTQ streamers have become public role models for a new generation of young LGBTQ internet users and LGBTQ groups gather regularly for events. Concurrently, anti-LGBTQ harassment is rampant on these same platforms. This project looks specifically at LGBTQ streaming on Twitch, the largest live streaming platform, to understand how LGBTQ streamers simultaneously express identity, build community, combat harassment, and navigate regulatory platform politics.