As Pride Month comes to a close and we watch corporate rainbow logos fade, the need for safe communities for LGBTQ+ people remains consistent year round. The explosively accelerating growth of Hornet’s brand-new SPACES app as the first and only online platform for the entire LGBTQ+ spectrum to safely and authentically build communities and connect over shared interest shows this need beyond doubt.

SPACES is seeing great traction among the entire spectrum of the LGBTQ+ community since its March 1 launch, and is on track to surpass 100,000 DAUs (Daily Active Users) in the coming months. This makes SPACES the first and only app not only calling itself an LGBTQ+ app, but unlike the first generation of queer apps — either predominantly gay or lesbian, and hence at their core basically dating apps — the first and only true LGBTQ+ community online platform.

A majority of LGBTQ Americans (64%) have been subject to increasing online discrimination on heteronormative social networks like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, according to GLAAD’s Social Media Safety Index. And now, with over 20% of Gen Z identifying as LGBTQ in the United States, there is a huge gap and need for a dedicated technology company serving this fast-growing, influential, and high earning consumer segment.




“It’s troubling that mainstream social apps still rely on algorithms to anticipate the need for safety among queer and trans users,” says Ashlee Marie Preston, an American media personality, the first trans woman to become editor-in-chief of a national publication, and an advisor to Hornet. “Queer folks can’t thrive in environments that deem their expression an anomaly. Spaces is removing those barriers by empowering queer users to grow communities that nurture social autonomy, diverse interests, and authentic engagement.”

On June 26, which commemorated the anniversary of the queer community’s Stonewall Uprising, Apple featured SPACES as the “App of the Day” ahead of the mainstream heteronormative social networks and gay or lesbian-focused queer apps of the first generation. In “What we love,” the Apple team elaborated on their reasons: “The liveliness of the apps’ Spaces, which are basically group text messages connecting people from around the world with common interests; you can ask questions, share photos, and react to posts from other users. Tap members’ names to see their bios, profile pictures, and the Spaces they’ve joined.”