Looking Back at Pride Month

“I’ve made so many amazing friends who also identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community through Yubo,” says 18-year-old Asher from Australia. “I absolutely love how open and supportive we are towards one another.” It’s always great to get this kind of feedback as we want Yubo to be a platform where everyone can express themselves without fear of judgment. 

Indeed, we’re extremely proud to have such a large and active LGBTQIA+ community on Yubo. 2.8 million users have included the Pride flag in their Yubo profile since April 2020 and more than 4,000 livestreams about gender identity, sexuality and other LGBTQIA+ topics take place worldwide on our platform each day – that’s around 1.45 million livestreams a year! 

Encouraging discussion

Earlier this year, we asked Yubo users in the US, France, UK and Australia who identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community to pick the most pressing topics for them and their allies so that we could put together a programme of livestreams to celebrate Pride month. 

As a result, we hosted various educational talks and Q&A sessions throughout June on topics such as gender fluidity, family acceptance and challenging racism. We also organised make-up tutorials, discussions about self-love and youth engagement and a drag queen ball. 

It was quite a month and we couldn’t have done it without the amazing support of a number of LGBTQIA+ organisations and influencers from around the world, including @montykeates, @sebbbyjon, @calypso_jete, and @lyanna_queen. Thank you to all those involved – you helped members of the Yubo community to think, laugh, share, meet new people and get inspired.

Driving inclusivity

In mid-June, we announced that 35 gender identities and 50 pronouns in multiple languages are now available on the Yubo platform to give our users a more personalised and inclusive experience. It’s another proud moment for us as we’re the first platform to enable our users to customise their profile in this way. 

We worked with UK-based LGBTQIA+ focused NGO Mermaids on this initiative. As Matt Moore of Mermaids says, “It’s extremely important that organisations like Yubo are taking these steps to make their platforms a more inclusive place for gender-diverse young people.” 

Our CEO and Co-Founder Sacha Lazimi notes that we want our entire community to feel accepted and included. We’ve already built a platform that is not focused on followers or ‘likes’ and, by providing LGBTQIA+ young people with a range of gender identities and pronouns for their Yubo profiles, we’re going even further in helping our users represent themselves authentically. 

Providing support

One of our ambassadors, 20-year-old Zach who is based in the US, describes the addition of gender identities and pronouns in the Yubo app as a landmark. They praised Yubo for giving users the option to meet like-minded people who can provide support and comfort they may not get from their community, relatives or friends. “It’s the family you can choose,” comments Zach. 

This sentiment is echoed by 17-year-old Ryan from France who says, “On Yubo I have been able to find friends and to fully accept myself as I am… [Yubo] is full of kindness, we share our doubts and we advise each other to move forward.” Or as 18-year-old Zekorri from the US puts it, “… we can find people who are like us and who can help us feel more ourselves.”

Pride month was an opportunity for Yubo to help advance LGBTQIA+ equality and amplify young people’s voices. As June drew to a close, we realised something: our platform really is a safe space for LGBTQIA+ young people; a place where they can open up and share their hopes, dreams and concerns. 

With Asher, Zach, Ryan, Zekorri and many others in mind, we remain committed to making Yubo even more inclusive and working with young people around the world to get their voices heard – during Pride month and every other month of the year.

Want to know more about how Yubo supports young people?

Check out our ‘Friends not followers’ and ‘Let’s talk identity’ blogs.