You hear it all the time, in bars and clubs, at the spa: the Internet is damaging gay culture. But is it? Genre provides a provocative snapshot of trends that allows you to decide the Internet’s impact for yourself.

So Many Members.

Like never before, we are linked to each other, all over the world. Try  these for size: Manhunt: 1,600,000+ members; Gay.com: 8,800,000+ profiles; Myspace: 117,600,000+ users; Facebook 132,100,000+ users.

An Unhealthy Pattern is what many current psychologists in America fear is the result of Net phenomena like Manhunt. With nude, objectifying self-marketing and unending sexual shopping, such repeated exposure may create mental blocks to emotional intimacy and damage one’s self-esteem.
Gay-Straight Alliances. Registered student organizations in North American high schools and universities topped 3,500 in 2007. Yet they began with just one small Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) back in 1988. They should bode well for our future.

Infection Rates of HIV/AIDS are increasing among gay men. Between 2001 and 2005, cases of HIV infection in the United States rose 13%. Researchers note that prevention programs are difficult to translate to the Net, while visibility at bars and clubs was easy.

Planet Pride.  In recent years, oppressed foreign gays have held their first pride parades: India: 1999, Serbia: 2001, Israel: 2002, Taiwan: 2003, Latvia: 2005, Poland: 2005.

Gay Themed Vacations are thriving. Atlantis Events, the largest gay tour operator, held its first ever gay resort event in 1991 to 300 guests. Today, they top 20,000 annually. The market for these vacations is still in its infancy.

“Infomania” Lowers Your IQ. A study at King’s College, London, in 2005 showed that human IQ drops an average 10 points from the constant bombardment of e-mails, chat, text messages, etc. The information overload to the brain can permanently damage concentration; personal productivity decreases markedly.

LGBT Welcoming Church Programs have grown dramatically in recent years. The LGBT-created Metropolitan Community Church, begun with one Los Angeles congregation in 1968, now includes over 250 congregations in 23 countries. Amen.

MTV Creates Logo On June 30, 2005, the LGBT community got its third and most visible cable television channel—the others being the Premium Network, Here! and the now defunct Q Television Network. This only adds to a fast growing number of gay celebrities and gay culture TV shows.

First Male Sex Partners found online was noted in 2.3% of Britain’s gay men in 1992. By 2003, 61.2% of British gay men found their first sexual partner online.

Gay Porn Explodes with a proliferation of Internet sites. Though not statistically known, gay porn’s growth is most likely in line with total U.S. porn revenue, estimated at $10 million in 1970, growing to over $12.6 billion in 2005.

“An Endogenous Drug” is how psychologist Dr. Judith Reisman refers to pornography, stating that “it restructures the brain” and conduct, causing dramatic changes in viewers’ behavior, impairing capacity to love, encouraging violence, and creating addiction more difficult to beat than cocaine.

A Syphilis Epidemic is striking the gay community. Rate of infection increased by 12% in 2007, marking the seventh consecutive year of increases for syphilis—startling, since the disease was nearly wiped out a decade ago, and gay men carry about 60% of the current infections.

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