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Gender is essential to our identity. As information and communications technology (ICT) permeates every aspect of everyday life, a body of literature has emerged that broadens our understanding of IT and gender. A growing number of studies have shed light on the implications of ICT for gender and sexual minority populations in various areas. Gender and sexual minorities commonly referred to as LGBT consist of people whose gender identity diverges from predominant conceptions of masculinity and femininity or whose sexual orientation differs from the majority. Previous literature reviews on IT and gender have focused on the underrepresentation of women in the IT landscape. This paper presents the preliminary results of a literature review focusing on gender and sexual minorities and ICT. This paper contributes to the IS literature on gender by providing a foundation for ideas on ICT’s role in mitigating the stigma associated with gender and sexual minority status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of an ongoing project, this paper investigates the LGBTQ+ individual's emotions they expressed when seeking information and support in online communities by analyzing online user generated posts in LGBT Chats & Forums. Sixty‐one posts that contained emotional texts were coded using content analysis. Seven categories of emotions emerged from the analysis: fear, uncertainty, sadness, anger, shame, joy and others. The results show that emotions LGBTQ+ individuals expressed in their online requests are often unpleasant and evoked their needs of informational and emotional supports. The findings contribute to the existing knowledge of how LGBTQ+ individuals cope with unpleasant emotions and how online communities can better support sexual and gender minority people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]