As a teenager, Dr Gemma Killen found support and friendship among queer-friendly spaces of the internet. More than a decade later, she explored that sense of belonging for her PhD. Contributing writer. When Dr Gemma Killen came out as queer at high school, she encountered a lot of homophobia. The bullying took a toll on her mental health and she dropped out when she was So it was a very difficult environment to learn in.
There were places to commiserate and places to celebrate and that was really helpful. In July, kitted out in a borrowed robe and a floppy Tudor bonnet, Killen graduated in absentia with a PhD in Sociology and celebrated with a cake bearing the front page of her thesis.
Her research then moved towards the concept of belonging for queer people. Her final thesis examines how online spaces can contribute to creating queer communities, and how people find each other and a sense of belonging through the internet. The many and varied representations of queer life online can be encouraging and also build confidence. I think these spaces often make room for you to try on different things, to be open to the possibility of change, and to try and find identities that feel like they fit you in a safe way, and a friendly way and fun way.
The ever-changing landscape of the internet and social media means the popularity of some of those earlier blogging sites and chat rooms has faded.
But new platforms have emerged that provide avenues to bring queer people together, and sometimes in a more accessible way. While the internet provides many queer-friendly spaces, there are policies that can be detrimental to the queer community and scope for changes that could help more people.
