“A Double-Edged Sword”: Health Professionals’ Perspectives on the Health and Social Impacts of Gay Dating Apps on Young Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer Men

ABSTRACT

Gay dating apps (GDAs) play a central role in partner-seeking for many men. The purpose of the present study was to explore health professionals’ perceptions of the effects of GDAs on young gay, bisexual, trans and queer men (YGBTQM). Because health professionals have access to privileged information about YGBTQM's experiences with GDAs, they can provide unique insights about their impacts on YGBTQM health and well-being. This study drew on 28 in-depth semi-structured qualitative interviews with health professionals who provide services to YGBTQM in British Columbia, Canada. Using thematic content analysis, we identified three themes showing participants’ conflicting perceptions of GDAs’ impacts on YGBTQM: (1) the accessibility of sex on GDAs as either transactional or pleasurable; (2) the building of community and increased safety, which at times corresponds with increased exposure to rejection and discrimination; and (3) a perceived escalation in sexual and drug-related risk-taking in conjunction with the opportunity for education, prevention and intervention. In response to the often polarizing literature on GDAs, this study is among the first to contribute empirical evidence into the perceptions of health professionals working with YGBTQM who use GDAs, while simultaneously providing actionable insights and strategies to help identify potential harms and maximize benefits.

Acknowledgments

Maxim Gaudette is supported in part by a doctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec (FRQ)– Société et Culture. Rod Knight’s time was partially supported by a Scholar Award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. Dr. Ferlatte was supported by a Junior 1 research scholar award from the FRQ – Santé. We would like to thank the health professionals who participated in this key informant study for sharing their experiences and knowledge. The authors would also like to thank the following individuals: Henry Wu, Victoria Panwala, Rodney Stehr, A.J. Lowik, P-j Coulaud, Eric Eligh and Jill Aalhus for their contributions to data collection and analysis. Finally, we would also like to thank Emmanuelle Gareau for reviewing and providing feedback and suggestions on this manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ We use this term to express the opposite sides of the impacts of GDAs that are both positive and negative. Participants in this study highlighted the dualism within GDAs; that is, these impacts, though opposite, exist simultaneously.

² Chemsex, also known as PNP (party n’ play), involves the sexualized use of substances; that is, intensive polysubstance use to maximize duration, pleasure and sociability with sex partners (Bourne et al., 2014; Maxwell et al., 2019).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research [CTW-155550].