Digital Intimacies: How Gay and Bisexual Men Use Smartphones To Negotiate Their Cultures of Intimacy, 2020-2021

This project was undertaken by an interdisciplinary team of researchers with backgrounds in public health and media and cultural studies and by working closely with the project's partners - Terrence Higgins Trust, London Friend and Waverley Care - all key third sector organisations working with gay and bisexual men. Drawing on these various expertise, we undertook in-depth qualitative interviews 43 queer men from two different locations in the UK - London and Edinburgh. The project explored how queer men in the UK used smartphones and digital technologies to mediate intimacy.

This project data set includes 43 semi-structured qualitative interviews with gay and bisexual - or queer men - including cis (33) and trans (10) men based in London and Edinburgh. Interviews were undertaken online between July 2020 and January 2021, during the first year of the COVID pandemic in a period before vaccines were available.

Topics covered include sexualities, relationships, intimacy, racism, transphobia, disability, vulnerability, COVID-19 mitigations, hook-up or dating apps, media and culture.