This year, in recognition of International pride month Instagram chose to roll out new features as a celebration of its LGBTQ+ users. Working alongside @lgbt_history Instagram kicked off pride month by revealing 10 physical art installations in New York City that seek to bring a spotlight to some of the LGBTQ+ pioneers that are not so commonly known. Honouring this community and striving to make Instagram more inclusive has been a move that sees Instagram truly attempting to move with its users and the times, to create a modern platform that identifies with each of its users in the way that they want and need.
In celebration of their vibrantly diverse community, Instagram has featured the hashtags #untoldpride and #comingout alongside a new range of colourful tools and stickers to empower expression, meanwhile also fostering safety across the platform. This allows its users to honour history whilst being able to create their own stories too. The hashtag #untoldpride inspires an opportunity for users to connect, reflect, share and form part of the LGBTQ+ community whilst in turn allowing others the opportunity to learn more about it.
One feature sought out by many users has been a change in the gender options. Instagram has listened once again to what their users want and have responded by including the option to specify the gender with which each of them identifies. The options now include Female, Male, Prefer not to say and Custom, where you can write your own addition.
As well as this Instagram has released a LGBTQ+ teens guide to online well-being and self care as a special partnership with The Trevor Project and illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky. The Trevor Project is the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ young people, their guide however offers great tips for vulnerable young people of the LBGTQ+ Community as well as other users. These tips include information about how to manage your account and how to go about changing settings to control options such as comments, how to report offensive or sensitive content, how to block and unfollow.
Another partnership by Instagram has been that with GLAAD, in which Instagram highlighted key hashtags used by the LBGTQ+ community; #lgbtq , #bornperfect , #equalitymatters, #accelerateacceptance and #pride2019. To highlight the celebration of pride this month, using these particular hashtags in your feed you will notice that the text will be displayed with a rainbow gradient effect and likewise in stories, the ring around the stories image will be displayed with rainbow colours during its 24hrs.
To allow users to really feel identified on Instagram you will also now be able to use your own effects or effects uploaded by other users and artists. You can do this by accessing the highlighted stories of users (located at the top of their profile page) and clicking the option “view effect” when you find one that you like, in doing this the camera will open and the effect will appear in the options. Some popular artists with pride themed effects are @danmollervfx , @shaunpez, @chrislprice and @codymesh. To ensure others see your stories and posts with special filters during pride, Buy likes on Instagram, to keep your posts current and avoid losing them to the algorithm.
One celebrity who openly supported and celebrated pride this month is the Heidi Klum. The German-American supermodel who was first to become a Victoria’s Secret angel posted various photos showing how she supports and celebrates along with others at pride. In one particular post dancing in her underwear and painted with coloured powder paints she wrote “Happy PRIDE, celebrating and supporting all of those in the LGBTQ + community today….and everyday. Thank you for educating, inspiring and continually fighting for a world that is tolerant and equal.”
Another post by @heidiklum left little to the imagination, seemingly challenging Instagram’s censoring of the chest. It’s clear that Heidi feels comfortably open to challenge this and express all of herself via Instagram as she has done so numerous times already. The boomerang which has received some 5,000 comments and over 2,000,000 views she captioned “GUTE NACHT IHR LIEBEN” which translates as “Goodnight my loves.” It’s clear that whilst Instagram wants to do right by censoring overly sensitive content, they are also allowing their users more creative freedom of expression.
Mural project
Another way Instagram has shown support to the LGBTQ + community has been through its mural project. Two years ago in celebration of international pride month, Instagram launched the World Pride mural project that has seen some amazing new appearances this years pride across New York City. The initial idea was to create colourful selfie-worthy backdrops for people to take photographs using the mural as a background whilst in turn giving a new life to older or industrialised areas and providing the chance for artists to make their mark. The murals include lots of colour and messages of empowerment for passers by. This particular mural was created at Arlo SoHo in collaboration with @TheLISAProjectNYC, @HSBC and @Macys, this stint of the initiative will work with 50 national and international artists to create new murals in the 5 boroughs of New York.
One thing is definitely clear, and that is that however you may choose to celebrate pride you will be able to do so and share it with friends, family and followers via Instagram. Whether it’s your coming out story, a post at a pride march, a photograph against one of the beautiful murals or a message of love and support to the community, you can be sure that with Instagram’s new features and colourful effects, this month is going to be a fabulously colourful and inclusive one for all.
Hi there! I’m Sethu, your go-to guy for all things tech, travel, internet, movies, and business tips. I love sharing insights and stories that make life more interesting. Let’s explore the world together, one article at a time!
