I'll never forget the first time I encountered Grindr. In 2009, I was enjoying happy hour at Cobalt, a since-shuttered gay bar in D.C.'s Dupont Circle. My friend, spying the mustard skull on an iPhone (first released in 2007!) from across the room, nudged me. "That's the gay hookup app," he whispered scandalously.
When I got over the stigma of downloading Grindr, I was astounded how easy it was to flirt with nearby queer men — and to network. During RuPaul's Drag Race season 3, I changed my username to "Team Jujubee," a nod to a frontrunner, which helped me find a viewing-party friend in my neighborhood. When I lived in New York, I would sometimes engage in friendly chats with the app's gay founder, Joel Simkhai, who'd pop up on my grid from time to time.
For good and ill, tech and our relationship with it has changed a lot since the aughts. Gay apps are no longer a battery-draining novelty; for many, they're as quotidian as texting, a digital town square where a Madonna takeover and catfishing are commonplace. Many, like Grindr, are also now owned by straight people. And no need to comb the upper reaches of Cablevision's channels to find Drag Race anymore — there's an app for that too (several, in fact, depending on the region and season).
This is Out's Tech Issue, and we could think of no better cover stars that encapsulate this queer new media landscape than Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova. These queens went through the TV crucible of the House of Ru to emerge as stars of social media and the podcast world. (Their popular podcast, The Bald and the Beautiful, just signed a three-year deal with SiriusXM.) In their cover story on page 36, the media mavens discuss their dizzying rise through the digital spheres — and how their real-life friendship has kept them grounded.
Elsewhere in cyberspace, the advent of artificial intelligence has brought many miracles but also new terrors in how our data can be exploited. Learn how to protect yourself in the online dating world via Last Call (page 58). Technology does have its benefits; find ways it can improve your looks in our Beauty guide (page 26). But it's also important to find ways to unplug. In Out Picks, our editors highlight products that help them blissfully disconnect (page 8).
#time #drag #first
When I got over the stigma of downloading Grindr, I was astounded how easy it was to flirt with nearby queer men — and to network. During RuPaul's Drag Race season 3, I changed my username to "Team Jujubee," a nod to a frontrunner, which helped me find a viewing-party friend in my neighborhood. When I lived in New York, I would sometimes engage in friendly chats with the app's gay founder, Joel Simkhai, who'd pop up on my grid from time to time.
For good and ill, tech and our relationship with it has changed a lot since the aughts. Gay apps are no longer a battery-draining novelty; for many, they're as quotidian as texting, a digital town square where a Madonna takeover and catfishing are commonplace. Many, like Grindr, are also now owned by straight people. And no need to comb the upper reaches of Cablevision's channels to find Drag Race anymore — there's an app for that too (several, in fact, depending on the region and season).
This is Out's Tech Issue, and we could think of no better cover stars that encapsulate this queer new media landscape than Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova. These queens went through the TV crucible of the House of Ru to emerge as stars of social media and the podcast world. (Their popular podcast, The Bald and the Beautiful, just signed a three-year deal with SiriusXM.) In their cover story on page 36, the media mavens discuss their dizzying rise through the digital spheres — and how their real-life friendship has kept them grounded.
Elsewhere in cyberspace, the advent of artificial intelligence has brought many miracles but also new terrors in how our data can be exploited. Learn how to protect yourself in the online dating world via Last Call (page 58). Technology does have its benefits; find ways it can improve your looks in our Beauty guide (page 26). But it's also important to find ways to unplug. In Out Picks, our editors highlight products that help them blissfully disconnect (page 8).
#time #drag #first
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