TikTok offers LGBTQI community platform to create true icons, visibility

The Chinese-owned TikTok has exploded in popularity in Australia since the pandemic, with users turning enforced isolation into an opportunity to create content.

Users, including Canberra's Chanelle Fyve, have pointed out its popularity with the queer community.

"I love TikTok," Ms Fyve said. "It's where all the gays are."

Sociologist Gemma Killen said TikTok has provided an avenue for LGBTQI people to connect with one another.

"Young people are being exposed to LGBTQI content in an entirely different way than mainstream media like film and television, which can focus on the hardships or tragedies of our lives," she said.

"Content about our lives that is produced by us will always contribute positively to acceptance, I believe."

Braith Hartfield was 15 when he came out to his friends and family in Canberra.

He said for non-heterosexuals to see people they can relate to and idolise on a social platform has a huge impact.

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"Using TikTok makes it so much easier for people to express themselves and be who they are without the feeling of being judged," he said.

In addition to dance, lip syncing and comedy videos, beauty tutorials are hugely popular on TikTok.

Braith said Australian artists like 23 year-old Michael Finch from Myrtleford whose makeup lessons have migrated from Instagram, to YouTube, to TikTok are having a big impact in the gay community.

"Just allowing people to express who they are through makeup and art is so important," he said.

Braith said gay sports stars are also taking part in TikTok's dance challenges, presenting a side to themselves their fans may not have seen.

"I think straight, gay, bi, trans - whatever you are - it is definitely a positive social media platform to express who you are and anyone should be able to jump on to it and have positive outcomes from it," he said.

Ms Killen said her research at the Australian National University has looked at how social media has given queer people the opportunity to experiment with different expressions of identity that might not always feel possible offline.

She is also looking at how queer life and history are being recorded through social media.

"Historically, queer life and communities had to operate in secret, which meant that very little was recorded about the daily life of LGBTQI people," Ms Killen said.

"Now that we can produce, record and share content with each other with such ease, new archives of queer life are popping all over the place - such as on TikTok."

The social media platform has not turned a blind eye to the upsurge in content created by queer idols.

As part of Pride Month - celebrated throughout June - TikTok nominated 25 users as trailblazers for LGBTQI advocacy and matched them with relevant organisations to fundraise for.

Deputy officer of the ANU Queer Department Vincent Li said content creators had used the app to educate others during Pride Month.

The 20-year-old said the representation of queer people in popular culture really took off with You Tube and now TikTok was furthering the cause.

"Prior to that people were growing up without seeing themselves in the media and not knowing these differences were okay," he said.

He said queers being represented in media was also shifting with the popularity of TikTok, from the "gay white man" to people of colour who identify as queer, transgender people, intersex people and asexual people.

"I think that's a really good thing to show to the younger generations," he said.