Video summary
The speaker introduces himself as Nick Swifer, a philosopher and former student of computer science who has been active in the hacker scene since 2010. He notes that upon returning to this community after a period of absence, he observed a significant shift: the scene had become markedly queer. He defines hackers not merely as information security experts but as individuals who systematically investigate systems to find weaknesses and improve them. This environment naturally attracts neurodivergent individuals, such as those with ADHD or autism, creating a strong correlation between neurodiversity and queerness within the group. The speaker emphasizes that his analysis is subjective and rooted in culture studies, acknowledging that there are no strict right or wrong answers when discussing complex social dynamics involving people's diverse values and experiences.
The presentation delves into the nature of queerness, defining it not just as a sexual preference but as a conscious challenge to heteronormativity and patriarchal systems. The speaker explains concepts like "gaydar," which functions similarly to dog whistling by allowing queer individuals to recognize each other through subtle cues like clothing choices or notification sounds, fostering a sense of safety and community. He also details historical codes used for cruising, such as the hanky code and harness colors, which conveyed specific information about sexual preferences and practices like BDSM or fisting. These codes illustrate how marginalized groups developed their own languages to navigate public spaces safely, even as modern dating apps have somewhat replaced traditional cruising grounds.
The talk further explores the history of queer liberation, tracing it from ancient cruising practices and the Stonewall riots to the rise of online dating platforms. The speaker highlights a crucial demographic shift: while early internet pioneers were predominantly queer due to the need for safe connection spaces away from hostile physical environments, mainstream technology has since become dominated by heterosexual users. This transition has led to a "generation gap," where an entire cohort of older gay men was lost to the AIDS epidemic, leaving younger generations who are statistically more queer and kinky but face new challenges. The speaker argues that as general-purpose technologies like Tinder became ubiquitous, specific niche spaces for queer communities diminished due to regulation and homogenization, forcing the community to retreat back toward offline events and specialized platforms to maintain their distinct identity and safety.
In conclusion, the speaker attributes the current prevalence of queerness in the hacker scene to its evolution into a safe space where individuals can freely explore their identities without fear of being outed. He contrasts this with the historical necessity of hiding one's queer nature due to visible stigma, noting that while some still prioritize anonymity over physical safety, many now find security in open environments. The talk ends on a somber yet reflective note regarding the loss of older queer voices and the changing landscape of digital spaces, suggesting that despite the ubiquity of online dating, the queer community is increasingly seeking refuge in dedicated offline gatherings and specialized online niches to preserve their culture and ensure they are not lost to the dominant heteronormative currents of the broader internet.
Read the full video transcript
Hello everyone. Um, okay. Mic is working
good. So, um, we Oh, there and there we
have the, uh, uh, screen. So,
I wasn't prepared for being like on a
big stage. I expected to be like in a
small stage with like I don't know 30
people or something. So I basically
prepared the talk on the train coming
here. Um yesterday when I saw this is
going to be my stage, I did polish it a
little bit or try to. Um but we'll see
how this goes. Um I'm going to start a
little bit with talking about me. Who
the [ __ ] am I? Um in 2011
I think I gave my name um like my the
Nick Swifer. Um, it is German. It means
to doubt. Back at the time, I was like
studying philosophy and found it very
interesting and good and doubting. I
still feel like it's an important thing
to do um, in general.
And so it became kind of like my nick in
chaos or like the hacker scene
environment. Um, and I've been around
the hacker scene for a while. Um, like
my first uh, chaos communication
congress by the CCC um, was like in
2010. Um, however, there was like a time
that I wasn't very active at the hacker
scene. Um, I was like busy with like
other things and it was kind of like a
little bit moving away and then I kind
of like came back to the hacker scene
and was kind of like, oh, that changed a
lot of things. And what I noticed the
most was it got really [ __ ] queer. I
was like, beforehand I knew that to some
degree, but it wasn't really visible.
And so for a while I've been thinking um
to get a little bit into it. Um [snorts]
I did study for like two semesters
computer science and math. So I do some
nerdy things but ultimately I'm more
like of the talking things. So of like a
um a degree and culture studies and well
I studied philosophy and some other
topics. Um,
and with like culture studies as with
most of these talking study topics, um,
I find it important to say that there's
often like not a very strict right and
wrong or like very strict this is how it
goes. Um, in math you usually have that
like well there's equation and like you
have a proper solution. Um in all these
kind of culture studies um you basically
talk about people and people have like
very different impressions and different
ideas um values. So maybe some of you
will not agree with what I'm saying and
this is part of the whole thing. So it
is more like a debate or like I'm trying
to do that. um and make sure sometimes
you can't have like very strict and very
clear answers because people are messy
and chaotic and that is a good thing. Um
so let's come to Oh, also well yes I'm
pretty gay.
[applause]
I am talking a little bit like from my
perspective. Um, that is also like one
of the things in culture studies that we
often do is that you kind of like make
sure from like what perspective you're
talking because everything I'm talking
is like kind of like flavored in my own
experience and some people have
different experiences and that is okay
um and important to acknowledge I
believe. So let's start with like some
definitions. What the [ __ ] is a hacker?
Um that's like sure like the the
information security thing and like the
computer science stuff. Um for me the
most important thing about hackers is
they're like in they are investigating
systems like they think or like they try
to think in like a bigger picture and
like how can you penetrate something
like how can you figure something out?
How do you develop something? [snorts]
Um and the big important thing is for
for me it's like both the investigating
part but also like the systematic part
like how do you test things
systematically
um they're like a little bit experts on
finding weak points like how can you
penetrate a system like how can you get
in like what is broken um and there's to
quite some degree also like the approach
of particularly hacker scenes like these
I would say there's like a big focus on
improving ing things and fixing them. Um
kind of like what is broken in whatever
systems like okay how can we fix it like
how can we make it good. Um
and yeah I am a bit focusing on the
systems. We come to that a little in a
minute. Um, and one thing that I did
notice or like that is I guess very
clear to a lot of people, this scene is
like has like a lot of n neuro diversity
like a lot of ADHD people, a lot of
people with autism with whatever
diagnosis you can have. We have a lot of
them here. Um,
and the science is not very clear on
this as much as I understood and I'm
like I'm not a biologist or like a not
an I don't know uh medical expert on
that point but neurodeiversity
correlates quite strongly with
queerness. Not necessarily like there is
like the science is like not really
clear why but we see a lot of
correlation between this [snorts]
um and
the scene like the hacker scene
altogether it's like well it is full of
outcourse that is very much known I
guess to everyone here I don't think
this is news for everyone [snorts]
um and it's like not really interesting
that like special interest fks are like
around here because well this is what we
are Um, and then we come to queers. Who
the [ __ ] are queers? Um, the easy answer
is like, well, they're like not cisero.
Um, for people who do not know what sis
means, it's like the opposite of trans,
which means like, well, you're assigned
the gender at birth and you still are
the same. Um, the opposite is trans. And
then it gets a little bit blurry with
whether non-binary people are like trans
and everything, but queers are basically
the opposite. That is like one
definition. Um, and it's kind of like
the umbrella term for like well all the
lesbians and gays and non-binaries and
gender queers and the huge amount of
queerness you can have. Um,
I would say queers also generally clash
with heteronormativity.
Um and to some degree like the
patriarchal system cuz like they kind of
don't accept how society for we come to
that in a little bit um decided how
humans should live together. So they
challenge that and they clash to to that
to quite some point. Um, and they do
that by having like a very
self-determined active decision like how
their sexuality or like how they're
living is happening. Um, I find it
important to define queerness um, also
to some degree less about sexual
preference. That is the thing that like
a couple of years ago I would strongly
disagree with. But now I know a couple
of gays or also lesbians who say they're
like lesbian or gay but like not queer.
And what they mean is kind of like well
they are somewhat fitting into like the
patriarchal system. They're like not
really clashing with it anymore because
well gay like being gay or being lesbian
is not as much as an um as an I don't
know outcast it was like 10 years ago or
like 20 years ago. like it got more
accepted and then you have like some
parts I would say from within the um
scene that is kind of like rejecting the
queerness. Um and for me queerness is
more like the challenging of sexuality
and gender norms altogether like what
does it actually mean? Like why do we
live in this patriarchal system? How is
it supposed to work? And it's more like
a conscious conscious thing um like a
conscious decision. Um for the next I do
want to talk about GADA. Um
I do not mean the website that some of
you probably know because there's a gay
dating website in UK called GAA. Um we
come to that as well. Um, I mean more
like the ability or sometimes thought
ability by queer people or gay people to
see each other without actually knowing
anything about it. So it's kind of like
a six sense that you know like oh this
person yeah I see them. Yeah I know. Um,
and a lot about it, it's like kind of
like subtle clothing hints or like, oh,
this is like, oh, this this button is
like a little bit too deep or well,
sure, like I'm wearing a skirt that is
very much not Cetro. Um,
but to some degree also like the way you
you look or like the the way you
interact with each other. Like sometimes
it's like the the hands that you kind of
I don't know. I'm not sure why this is
happening, but for a lot of gays it is.
Um, and it's a little bit to some degree
something I would call dog whistling,
which is not really right because well,
dog whistling is originally when you
call your dog with like a whistle that
normal people shouldn't be able to hear
because it's very high pitched. And the
term dog whistling um got adapted into
like the political landscape when people
speak about like very broad terms that
like a lot of people can agree with and
only like a few people um understand
what they mean. And I would say it is a
little bit similar with a gay, not so
much in like garnering support or like
power or something. Um, but it's like
having kind of like signals that a lot
of other people don't really notice. So
the example that I'm having is
[laughter]
who now in this room has the urge to
check their phone.
I would say 98% of all gays know this
sound whether they still use it or not.
It's like the notification sound of
Grinder. And [snorts] non-gays usually
have no clue what it means. Like they
don't even notice what the [ __ ] is that
even happening. Um a couple of months
ago it got like a little bit more
popular as it became like a Tik Tok
trend. Um where you play the sound and
then check the room like who's actively
checking the phone and you kind of out
them by that. not a particularly good
thing to do but there's like kind of
like the understanding of the scene like
you have signs that you only you
understand. Um
yeah that's like the doc wisdom to your
own community and it is important thing
like it is how you recognize your own
people, how you connect to them, how you
know where to go to like where to feel
safe, where to date. Um
yeah, [snorts] and then there's like a
thing queers love codes. I'm claiming
that. Um the example here is the hanky
code. Um who in this room knows what the
hanky code is? Can you
>> Okay, that is a bit less than the half I
would say. So the hanky coat um is a
cruising practice. Um we come to
cruising in a bit. um where you
basically have like kind of bandanas or
handkerchiefs and originally you put
them into your back pocket and well I'm
like wearing a skirt I can't really put
it in and [snorts] different colors of
the handkerchiefs have like different
meaning. Um so the one we see here like
the green one um is the one saying that
you're like a a sex worker or like a
hustler. Um, if you have it in your left
pocket, it means you're offering sex
work. If you have it in your right uh
back pocket, it means that you're
looking for sex work. The white one we
see um is universal. Doesn't matter
where you wear it. It just stands for
your prefer safer sex. So, like only
with condoms or sometimes even like no
no penetration whatsoever. Um the purple
one I didn't really know until like I've
never seen that in in reality.
Apparently, it should be about
piercings, whether you want to be
pierced or not. Um, I've never seen that
in real life, but I found this picture
and I quite liked it. Um, and if you
don't have like a back pocket, you
usually take like this one is like dark
blue. Um, [snorts] and you put it like
around your wrist or sometimes even like
around your neck and then like depending
on where you have the knot, it says
whether you're like on the top side, on
the bottom side. Um, [snorts] or like
also like with the light blue or like
the dark blue means generally
penetration. like if you want to have
anal sex. Um the light blue stands for u
um [ __ ] and you always have a little
bit the thing that like if you wear it
on the left side you're a top and if you
wear it on the right side you're the
bottom or like you're the receiving
part. Um and you have like a lot of
codes that kind of like come from that.
So like the the colors are still the
same. Um, even if you wear like
harnesses or something, like if you see
someone in like a um dungeon with like a
red harness, it usually means they're
into fisting. If you don't know what
fisting is, Google it or use some other
word. I'm not going to go into there.
Um,
same with like just black harnesses, it
usually means that you're generally into
BDSM play. Um, if it's a yellow harness,
it usually means piss play. Um, so you
do have like a variety and like these
codes. Um, even if like the the hanky
coat isn't really in use anymore because
we have like dating apps and stuff
nowadays and cruising isn't happening as
much, but the colors still very much
active like you still see them at like
lots of queer parties. [snorts] Um,
yeah. So, let's go a little bit into the
history of queerness and to some degree
like the the gay scene. Um, I am a
little bit focused on the Where am I?
I'm here. Um I'm a little bit focusing
on the gays because it feel like they
were more the forefront and to some
degree it is also like the way gays have
been discriminated is a little bit
different from like lesbians and a lot
of non-binary and trans folks is to some
degree a point that we um it's kind of
like a new development and that sounds
awful because no they've been around
forever like we know that for like long
time but we didn't have like a lot of
words to that and we I do come to that
like a little bit more on the sciency
part about it. Um but so the history of
like the Gian we do have like a lot of
cruising happening for ever like we can
go back to like ancient Rome and stuff
and we know that that happened. Um we
see that like in the time of uh um
Shakespeare or like of I don't know like
it was always a thing. Um and if you're
thinking at cruising about like some
cruise ships somewhere like how is that
connected to the gay scene? Now, there's
like a practice where you basically have
sex in somewhat shady places like some
forest or like some park um or nowadays
or like for a while often like public
toilets or something. Um you may not
approve but it is happening. It has been
happening since the beginning of time.
Um, also with the gay scene or like the
the queer scene altogether, there's like
a lot of sex work happening there and
has been since ever and I sometimes feel
a bit like the scene is a little bit
removing that because we don't want to
have too much to do with that. A little
bit like the cruising like we don't
really want to talk about it publicly.
Um, but it's like an important part and
it has been for ever as well sex work is
the oldest profession in the world. Um,
at some point we got a little bit more
liberal. We got like the gay bus and
like the dark rooms and like we have
more specific places where to meet and
hook up. Um, one of them was like the
Stonewall in or still is a Stonewall Inn
where the Stonewall riots happened in
1969. You probably know all know of this
and was kind of like the yeah big start
of the new gay liberation. Um and well
the last part is kind of like the online
dating that came to life to everyone but
also to the queers. Um
now let's talk a little bit about like
stigma and shame because stigma and
shame is a big part of the scene uh uh
of the scene whether we want to or not.
Um Evan Goffman, a sociologist um or
like an American sociologist um wrote a
couple of pieces about like uh stigma
particularly and he differentiated
differentiated between visible and
invisible stigma. So some people get
stigmatized for like their skin color
and you can't really hide it or like
very bad. So you always have to deal
with it. And something like being queer
is something that you usually can hide
pretty well. Like I don't have to wear
heels and a skirt and I can put like my
hair away and don't wear fancy earrings
and then maybe people don't notice that
I'm queer. Maybe they still do, but like
I can try to hide it. Um, hiding your
skin color is something you can't really
do. And it has a little bit of
difference like your gender, you hardly
can hide it too. Um, so the difference
in like how you how visible you are for
whatever you get stigmatized is also
like a response in how you can react to
it. So if you can hide it, people tend
to hide it. Like you can't really hide
your skin color. So it has for a long
time like a different um approach and
that is one of the reasons why a lot of
the queer scene was for a very long time
very invisible because you simply didn't
see like they didn't show it. Um,
[snorts]
now I've lost my part. Um, yeah. So,
with the stigma and shame, for some
people it is more important to not be
outed than to be safe. Like going
cruising into like some park and hooking
up with someone you've never talked to,
you don't know their name or anything.
It can mean that you have great sex, but
it also can mean that things really get
ugly and you don't like it at all. And
yet a lot of people prefer this to some
degree because it is safe because like
you can't be outed like your co-workers
or your family or something doesn't
know. Um so like some people choose the
more dangerous approach over the
possible being outed or like telling
your family or anyone like where you go.
Um
and so there's like a lot of focus on
anonymity.
um like you often have no names or like
no no no personal info. Even like today
with like online dating that is still
quite a lot of thing for a lot of
people. Um also like a lot of not
showing their faces. It got less over
the years but it's still a thing for
quite some people. Um but then with that
I also want to say like a lot of
cruising to some degree also became a
kink. Like some people it isn't really
about like oh my god I need to be really
protected. For some people it's just the
kick itself like, "Oh my god, what's
happening? Is anyone gonna catch me?"
Like this is a thrill for some people.
Um,
and then well with the internet, no one
knows you're a dog. [laughter]
I kind of disagree with it by now to
some degree. Um, but back then it was
like uh the cartoon was made in 1993.
Um, it was very much like the internet
was kind of like the safe place. you can
just like be whoever you are. Maybe
that's also where the puppies were born.
I don't think so. I do believe they were
around longer than that. Um, but yes, on
the internet generally it's kind of like
a a safe thing or like they believe it
was. Um,
and then let's talk a little bit about
like the sexual Oh, no. I'm the wrong
side. [snorts] Um, on the sexual
liberation. Um, what does it actually
mean? Um well there was like the sexual
liberation and like the 1968
and 69 and like the stonewall rights and
we talked a lot more like in the 70s
about uh sexual sexual liberation and
like kind of like getting out of
patriarchy. Um [snorts] and what we see
by now is that younger generations have
less sex than older generations. And
that is to some degree why is that
happening? Like we are more liberal so
we can do more things. But we do see in
signs or like in in statistics that
younger people on average have less sex
than um previous generations. Um
however they also on average have more
kinky sex like they are more kinky and
they're also a lot more queer than
previous generations. Like no generation
has been as queer as the young people
today. Um one of the arguments that is
often coming a lot of it is like uh
coming by porn because we watch porn. So
something's like, well, you can just
like watch porn, so you don't really
have to find anyone and like have sex
with them anymore. You can just watch
porn and masturbate and be happy about
it. Um, often it is kind of like used,
oh my god, this is like so evil and so
bad and like it's making everyone kinky
and everyone queer. Um, and there is
some point in it because like porn is to
a lot of people also like an entry way
to just know what you actually want or
like to see that you're not alone with
whatever is happening in your head or
whatever is your fantasy. Um the science
on pawn is really complicated like there
is not a lot happened. There's a lot of
opinion about pawn but there's like very
little um good science happening on it
to some degree also because yeah
academics are somewhat
aware of porn and there like not many
many people researching it all together.
Um and then we have uh Michael Fuko um
like the French philosopher who wrote
already like he wrote a lot about
sexuality and like what you can say
about sexuality and he wrote already
like a point that um sexuality becomes
like more individualized like people
have more indivualities and that was
before the golden age of porn like that
was like in the 70s um that it was like
really active um so it's like to a
little bit like we see some correlation
but we I don't really know if there's
actually um like an actual cause between
this. Um [snorts]
and as we are like the French
philosopher uh Fuko, does anyone of you
know the mini tail?
Yeah, some people. Impressive. Um I
didn't until like a couple of days ago
when I was re researching a little bit
more about the the talk here. Um it was
like an basically a shed system in
France uh generated in uh 1980 and it
was like shut down in 2012. However, the
last couple of years it was very little
used basically for like some freight
fright uh things. Um
and with the Minel we had the Minel
Ross. It was like in the 80s um a very
popular way to share like to to do a lot
of sexing. I do not know to what extent
that was also queer. I was trying to
research it, but as I just came across a
mini tail a couple of days ago. Um I
don't really know how much it was.
However, there's like an um
um a mass murder happened like in 1991
where like an uh French guy was
convicted after killing three gay people
for meeting over Minel um for like BDSM
sessions. So that did happen and we know
that Miniale was also used for like
queerness. Um and I am mentioning it so
much because Miniale was kind of like
the first proper online dating. That is
not completely true. There were like
some online dating happening like
already or like some systems
>> [snorts]
>> um happening in Boston before when the
internet was done long before the web.
Um but miniale was like the first big
one. And with that
we come a little bit more into like the
online dating alto together. Um and like
how did it develop? Um the first proper
online dating app or website was
match.com and match.com was like
originally the idea was like in 1993 and
1995 it became um uh yeah active um and
it included from the very beginning like
queer people. It had like from the very
beginning to some degree like a focus on
it. After that, the next uh gay sites or
like the next dating sites there were
were like Gada. We mentioned that
already like in 1999. [snorts] Um in
2002 there came Gay Romeo by now only
Romeo a German dating site. Um, in 2004,
the Tuts, a German newspaper, leftwing
newspaper, talked about like the pink
lists claiming that um the like the gay
romeo website is so popular in Germany
that basically all gays are on that
website. So, they talked about like the
pink list that the Nazis had to search
for like queers or gays um were like
reenacted on that website. So it was
like really popular and to some degree
still is. Um then in 200 uh
in 2009 uh no still in 2004 um there
came also OkCid. I guess a lot of people
know here know this one. Um and my
experience was always pretty nerdy and
pretty technical. It got a lot less over
the years but like in the beginning it
was quite nerdy. Um in 2009 we had
Grinder. um we heard the sound already
like it's I would say the prime gay
dating app nowadays. Um and then like in
2012 Tinder became a thing and that is
when I noticed like oh actually um non
queer people are using online dating as
well. Um so what I'm saying is that
there's quite a time gap between um when
queers used online dating and when like
the heterosexuals started with it as
well. Um,
okay. No, this doesn't work. Um,
so let's talk a little bit about
heteronormativity.
Um,
the idea about like no, we we need to
start with uh marriage, which is well
like a very hetronormative thing like
well a woman and a man come together and
they laugh and marry each other.
Historically speaking, this is not
really true as in they didn't marry for
love. They were basically um workmates.
a little bit similar to what sometimes
we nowadays or like particularly in the
US I think um is called with like the
work wife that you have because like you
work together and back in the days like
we go back centuries um a marriage was
basically like a union of people to care
for each other when you're getting sick
like when you have children like
bringing up um it wasn't really anything
about love um
we have a lot of religion forming
hetronormativity
um not all religions But like a lot of
them particularly in Christianity um
like kind of telling us like how we we
live and there's like a point where
hetronome uh no where the very loyal
approach and like the very you only have
sex to make children was useful and
smart and that is before we had any kind
of antibiotics which means like well
back in the days a lot of people got
like some kind of STI and you couldn't
treat them. So like the idea about being
very loyal to your partner made back in
the time actually sense to save the
population as its whole because you
could just like die of syphilis or
anything. Um so I think like sometimes
when we we talk about heteronormativity
um or like heterosexuals like this very
strong focus on on loyalty and monogamy
um we kind of miss from what time this
approach came. And back then it was like
not super stupid that the religion was
so strongly monogamous. Um, by now it
doesn't really make any sense anymore
because you can treat all of it pretty
easily. Um, but back then it was like an
actual thing. Um,
yeah. And then well we did have like the
the Victorian age and like the
restoration that was like when a lot of
roles for people or like a lot of gender
roles were like a lot stronger and
forced than before. Um [snorts]
and the idea about like um marriage is
for laugh is basically like a Hollywood
idea. Um okay we don't have as much time
anymore. Um basically done. Um there's
like one thing like in the digital
development. So let's talk about like
why this one is so queer. Um San
Francisco was like always kind of like
the queer heaven and the hippie haven
before it became Silicon Valley. Um
innovation is needed or like always
prescripted by by social need. Um we can
skip a little bit of it. So let's talk
about the flip. Um there's like an
British philosopher Miranda Fricker um
who coined the to term epistemic
injustice. What it means is that you
need words to describe what you are um
or like what you experience. Her
experience was um sexual harassment. So
before the term sexual harassment was
coined, you couldn't really talk about
it. And this is a bit the same with like
a lot of queer people because before you
had words for like to describe you
couldn't really say what you were and
you couldn't really find anyone. Um by
now queerness is like a lot more
accepted general in the public. So
coming back to the hacker scene like
where did the big flip come from? Why is
now everyone queer? Um the hacker scene
became like a safe space. So like first
when I was like entering the hacker
space it didn't feel like a safe space
or like it didn't feel like a a queer
safe space but when I kind of like came
back I noticed like oh my god there are
a lot of queers and like the general
acceptance is here. So the hacker events
itself also became kind of like safe to
just try out things and to figure out
things. Um
and yeah um with that I think we are
kind of done. Um I'm Oh no, I'm sorry.
[laughter]
Important thing I missed. Eight. One of
the things we sometimes miss in this
like when talking about it is also that
like a generation of queers or
particularly gays is simply vanished.
Like they don't live anymore. Like we
don't have a lot of old people telling
us how to do that because there was the
AIDS epidem to some degree still is. um
and just eradicated like a whole
society. Um so that's to some degree
also like why we um yeah
why the flip just happened because now I
feel like I'm the old one. Um because
people are 30 years older than me. There
aren't many queers or [snorts] like many
gays particularly. Um the early internet
um it was over useful for queers. Um,
basically if you live like somewhere in
the countryside, you want to find
similar people than yourself. So when
the internet was around, it was like a
really good way to just find each other.
Um, because the one bar you can't really
go to. You're not sure if it's safe. Um,
and so if you're like more inclined to
use it, you're also more inclined to um,
get involved and develop it. So that's
like one part why so many people end up
here. Um and the late internet like what
we see nowadays is a little bit the
opposite. Um as in first we kind of like
made the internet for ourself and now we
have a little bit like works for most
and often it doesn't really work for the
queers anymore or for like specific
groups. That is like a fundamental
thing. It's not so much about like
queerness. It's if some technology get
adopted for like everyone it does not
mean that the specific groups are like
always best met. And to quite some
degree I see that lately um on the
internet like tech development
altogether [snorts] um and well you have
like less niches that you can go to
because a lot of regulation happened and
you simply don't have yeah the niches
that we we need. Um, and that means a
little bit like, okay, we go to like
Macedon and stuff um, and have like
their own website to like try to find
that. And to some degree, I noticed that
it's like the queer scene is moving a
little bit offline again. To some
degree, it's like, well, we are meeting
here. We are not just like in some
stream or something. It is also like
these events became more important like
the offline events. I mean, it's all
streamed and everything. And sure, we
are like all very digital. Um, but it's
also like the the offline part becomes
to some degree more of a safe space than
um yeah, online. And this video we're
going to skip um because we don't really
have time for that. But I guess most of
you know this. If not, look for it. The
internet is for porn. Um was like an uh
yeah um musical in New York. Um and then
well contacts if you do want to contact
me um there's like my email and my
master account also like some website um
you can check out also if you disagree
with something if you say like I I don't
know missed a lot of things um just come
to me to um the Q&R tent. I'm not sure
where exactly it is afterwards. And also
come to me today because I'm only here
today. This is a little bit of an awful
thing, but that was the only thing I
could manage um timewise because I have
to leave tonight sadly. And with that,
thanks
[applause]