Dream the Dream: Futuring Communication between LGBTQ+ and Cisgender Groups in Metaverse

2026-03-19

AI Summary

This study addresses how digital platforms often reinforce heteronormative norms and structural biases, impeding inclusive communication between LGBTQ+ and cisgender communities. Through participatory design workshops situated in metaverse contexts, the research engaged both groups in identifying communication barriers and co-envisioning future interaction scenarios. Integrating speculative design and futures studies methodologies, the project proposes an inclusive design framework structured across four interrelated layers: activities, interactions, settings, and spatial configurations. The work elucidates how spatial cues and power dynamics shape digital interactions, systematically mapping challenges in cross-group virtual communication. It further identifies key design opportunities emerging from identity fluidity, presence, and community governance in the metaverse, and articulates design principles to counteract the geometries of power in digital spaces, thereby advancing equitable communication infrastructures.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Game Design — Virtual Humans, NPCs and Autonomous Characters
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Multiagent Systems: Agent Communication

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Web for democratic and emancipatory futures
• Security and Privacy: Data transparency and provenance
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Incentives in network design for Web infrastructures and ecosystems

Abstract

Digital platforms frequently reproduce heteronormative norms and structural biases, limiting inclusive communication between LGBTQ+ and cisgender individuals. The Metaverse, with its affordances for identity fluidity, presence, and community governance, offers a promising site for reimagining such interactions. To investigate this potential, we conducted participatory design workshops involving LGBTQ+ and cisgender participants, situating them in speculative Metaverse contexts to surface barriers and co-create alternative futures. The workshops followed a three-phase process-identifying challenges, speculative problem-solving, and visualizing futures-yielding socio-spatial-technical solutions across four layers: activity, interaction, scene, and space. These findings highlight the importance of spatial cues and power dynamics in shaping digital encounters. We contribute by (1) articulating challenges of cross-group communication in virtual environments, (2) proposing inclusive design opportunities for the Metaverse, and (3) advancing principles for addressing power geometry in digital space. This work demonstrates futuring as a critical strategy for designing equitable, transformative communication infrastructures.

Problem

• LGBTQ+
• cisgender
• Metaverse
• inclusive communication
• heteronormativity

Innovation

• futuring
• participatory design
• Metaverse
• inclusive communication
• power geometry