Queer Visibility: Supporting LGBT+ Selective Visibility on Social Media

LGBT+ people adjust the presentation of their gender and sexual identities in response to social pressures, but their level of visibility differs between social media. We interviewed seventeen LGBT+ students at a socially-conservative university to investigate: (1) how do social media affect LGBT+ user experience of managing self presentation; and (2) how do social media affect participation in LGBT+ communities? We develop implications for design to support queering social media. (1) Give people abilities to present themselves with selective visibility, enabling choices about privacy and sharing, in contrast with the HCI design principle of indiscriminate `making visible'. That is, enable participants to define their social media identities in their own ways. (2) Conduct studies, with a methodology likewise ensures that participants can define their gender and sexual identities in their own ways, rather than according to a predetermined vocabulary.