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Hey everyone, welcome back to Teenage Therapy. I'm Gyael. I'm Thomas. I'm Isaac. I'm Kaya.

And welcome back to another episode of Teenage Therapy, which is actually a very special episode because this Pride Month we're dedicating the entire month of June to a campaign that we made.

And the campaign that we're making is all about the exploitation of LGBTQ plus youth in online communities and how we could help facilitate better and safer online spaces together.

And what that means is that we're basically going to be focusing on the issues that a lot of young queer people fall into, you know, such as grooming and sexual assault and dating apps, also known as GNAs, geo-social networking apps.

And for the rest of June, we're going to be doing six episodes. There's going to be the first episode, which is this one, is going to be the kickoff episode, where we'll be talking about basically a summary of the issue.

And the next five episodes, we're going to be interviewing celebrities, influencers, we're also going to have an episode with experts talking about the issue and therapists.

We're going to have an episode with activists. And finally, we're going to have an episode talking to teenagers around the world who have also experienced these issues firsthand.

And this is really important to us because I think this issue specifically is one that's not really talked about. And it's one that's very, you know, it's tucked under the rug, but it's affecting a lot of people.

And we just think it's really important. And we wanted to dedicate the entire month just talking about this and spreading it to as many people as possible. And we hope that to you listening, if you're queer and you're young, that this is something that you've probably experienced, but also I hope this campaign helps you.

I think this is an issue that is so normalized and it's not talked about enough, but I guess like it's pretty reasonable, which is why we are doing this campaign to bring more awareness to it.

And it's an issue that I think affects Garland, I'm very deeply because we are part of the LGBTQ plus youth community.

So yeah. So to get into the issue, let's start off basically with explaining what a GNA is. So I think we kind of came up with the term because geo social networking.

No, that is like a, that is the only definition of it.

I was like, if I didn't flow, I thought you were the one who created the term.

We just play well. No, a scientific term that I created, not scientific, it's just like an abbreviation. GNA is short for geo social networking apps.

That means an app that allows you to, that uses your location to connect you with people around you.

And one of the ways is like Tinder, right? Like Tinder, Bumble. It's a dating app that you go on it and it connects you with people around you in the area that are looking today or make friends or connecting what not.

And the problem in the queer community is that because society as a whole is still very much, still very much homophobic, I guess, and maybe not as accepting of queer relationships as they are of heterosexual relationships.

So one of the ways that this affects queer youth is that queer youth don't necessarily have the same spaces to explore their sexuality, the romantic interests and really just get to know themselves in the same way like a straight person does.

Right? If, for example, if you are straight and you're in school and you're a teenager, you could find people to day easily. Like you just start talking to a girl to a boy and they're more likely than not going to be straight and like there might be something that could happen.

But if you're queer, if you're gay, lesbian, pansexual, the chances are that are so much lower because you don't know who's out. Maybe you're not out yourself. Maybe people around you aren't accepting and they could bully you.

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