While TikTok has garnered much attention for its rapid uptake by youth, it has also seen adoption by older age demographics. Given social media’s longstanding importance for convening LGBTQ+ publics and the rarity of intergenerational offline spaces, this paper examines the intersection of age and sexual identity on this short-video platform. It does so through qualitative analysis of 23 semi-structured interviews with elderqueer TikToker users. Findings indicate that participants experience age as an ambiguous identity marker due to TikTok's affordances for rendering its expression fluid and LGBTQ+ approaches to life course stages as less rigid than heteronormative milestones. Despite this ambiguity of age, participants found TikTok's algorithmic curation and passive viewing features inhibited the formation of interpersonal connections across generations. They attempted to overcome these constraints by contributing, and engaging with, personal narratives sharing about past resilience and present life as an elderqueer while drawing inspiration from younger LGBTQ+ people. These preliminary findings illustrate how TikTok’s affordances and individuals’ fluid expressions of age alongside personal narratives of sexual identity give rise to an intergenerational co-presence that recognizes struggles of the past while giving hope for the future.

Social Virtual Reality (Social VR) has become a crucial space for LGBTQIA+ individuals, fostering self-expression, representation, and community-building. Platforms like VRChat provide a digital refuge, enabling identity exploration and social connection through immersive interactions and customizable avatars. While existing research has primarily examined embodiment and community dynamics, little attention has been given to the digital media productions created by LGBTQIA+ users in Social VR.

This study employs a digital and media ethnographic approach to analyze queer media content in VRChat, including documentaries, performances, tutorials, music videos, and erotic role-playing. Through content analysis, documental analysis, and interviews with queer creators, this research explores how VRChat functions as a site for queer worldmaking, documenting LGBTQIA+ experiences and expanding visibility.

VRChat is a vital tool for "Embodied Visibility," where queer users utilize virtual embodiment to construct and express identities that may not be possible in offline spaces. Media productions within VRChat, categorized as "machinima" or "metaverse films", serve as archival records of queer life, resisting systemic erasure and affirming LGBTQIA+ existence.

As LGBTQIA+ rights encounter growing threats, these digital productions emerge as forms of cultural preservation and resistance. By capturing and amplifying queer narratives in Social VR, creators challenge and disrupt dominant discourses through queer worldmaking, offering representation and visibility while shaping digital spaces.

High-profile cases of gay influencer nude leaks have prompted widespread discussions of the risks and harms of how gay and bisexual men who exchange intimate content online negotiate privacy, risk, and sexual desire. Indeed, gay and bisexual men who use geosocial dating apps like Grindr are significantly more likely to be the victims of revenge porn than both the general population and the gay community more broadly. Yet, the critique imagines intimacy, exposure, hurt, and harm through histories of heterosexual desire. This project will engage in a queering of discourse around sexting and revenge porn through a qualitative interrogation of four areas of practice: taking, sharing, disseminating, and consuming nude and pornographic content. In doing so, this research will contribute to new ways of thinking sexting and revenge porn that are unburdened by heteronormative expectations and hegemonic constraints on online sexual expression.