Tough one, this.
Personally I donāt feel the need to create special privileges for people based on whatever because I live by the rule of āwe all piss and shitā (excuse the language), hence I try and treat everybody equal.
That said, I have little knowledge of the LGBQT world so I am open to inside views and experiences.
Not LGBTQ, but personal thoughts:
I suggested we could set up Gender preferences in a way so you could limit your usage of the app to interacting with members of your gender declaration. I think that could be a great feature for members that donāt identify as heterosexual and want to connect within their communities.
But it could also introduce too much separation to the platform. I personally really like the one big circle approach.
And therein lies the problem. You want safety features. You donāt want safety features in a small community that turns it into several smaller communities. Itās like Trustroot tribes, but worse. Maybe that makes sense to revisit part a certain critical mass, but not right now.
We recently discussed a safety feature, which is submitting an SOS message to the local moderators in the town youāre in.
I would think that a safety feature should be available to all guests and all hosts, for that matter. Yes, marginalized groups are certainly more likely to need that assistance. But it makes sense for everyone to have that valve.
Alongside this message field is an option where you can pick if you āWant to be contacted by a person of the same genderā only.
See previous thoughts on that.
Hey Gene, welcome to the Couchers community!! 
I think there might be a misunderstanding from my previous post - this safety feature is for ALL USERS, ALL USERS would be able to submit a message request that goes to a localeās moderators, if they feel that they are feeling threatened and need someone in the community to help them.
Because for situations where things might be more sensitive, e.g. sexual harassment, a female user might for example want to only be contacted by a female local moderator. This is optional and is an option for ALL USERS. So no, itās not only for marginalised groups.
I am specifically asking the LGBTQ community (hopefully thereās someone on the forum here) if there is a way we can make them more comfortable using such a safety feature - or in any other areas of the platform, for that matter - because I think weāre lacking some representation from that community within the team.
Hope that clarifies! 
what @Niek said.
And I would like to add: ask the people involved.
We - heteroās - should not pretend to know their opinion.
Awesome! Thanks for for the clarification on both halves. Apologies if I contributed to a derail.
How about having a 
on the profile? It wouldnāt necessarily need to mean that you identify as lgbt+, but that you belong with the community.
edit: I kind of tried this out on Trustroots, they have a tagline field and when you use it with emojis, itās more or less presented like badges/stickers on your profile. Realized one sticker looks weird, but something more like three can look nice:
So Iām having this calm, homey lifestyle right now. But could have many combinations there, like
or
Could this be a fun way to give some flavour to profiles in list views or else? Could also be a way how to visualize the proposed personality test? Well, like this it would be more expressive about lifestyle choices.
Love the idea of emojis, @nolo, but wish it could be searchable during a host search! Not sure weāll be able to achieve that with anything other than keywords or questionsā¦ but the emojis are super cute!!
I think people should be allowed to express themselves however they like on their profile (within the ToS and policies), and I think itās great if people share that theyāre LGBTQ+ friendly in their profile. However, Iām not sure we should have an optional LGBTQ+ ābadgeā or symbol integrated into the profile. I think our platform should be inclusive and embrace the LGBTQ+ community by default.
I understand that everyone has varying levels of experience/background with the LGBTQ+ community and that sexual orientation is an important part of peopleās identity. I think itās great if people share their background, interests, and values in their profile, but Iām worried that badges or symbols related to sexual orientation (whatever that orientation may be) might cause more problems than they solve.
With that said, I think there are a number things we can and should do to support the LGBTQ+ community:
Hi Nolo,
It looks like Iām āthe only gay in the villageā. So hereās my answer. In Couchsurfing, there were lots of threads in groups about if people should say about thier sexuality. It appeared that if people were open about their being gay/lesbian , they had lots of troubles in geing hosted apart from other gay/lesbians. My own experiences as an old gay couple in Couchsurfing were that lots of people in the 50+ Traveller group paid lip service to GLBT , but when asked if they had real live GLBT friends in real lifeā¦ silence. So, my feeling is that Iām in the same basket at vegans and whales . GLBT happened in Couchsurfing as sort of thing that people ought to support as it is a virtue signalling of being tolerant/progressive/accepting.
I guess there could be a gay or a lesbian group . But honestly, I wouldnāt burst my boiler over it.
Hi, it seems that some more LGBTQ+ input is needed, so here it goes mine, a bisexual trans woman.
I think a feature like this depends on what are you trying to say and/or limit, but could be a very good feature both for LGBTQ+ people as well as for women in general. One big difference you need to make is between āgender preferenceā as you stated, which would be about the gender of people you interact with, and sexuality/gender variance/etc which is a completely separate topic.
Some options:
I believe none of this risks ghettoising the platform, and if some people use it that way it is their own loss. I believe that the safety of individuals is more important than aiming for some happy we-are-all-equal ideal, and definitely something that straight cisgendered men will have trouble understanding because most never had the need to even think about it.
Hi Tina! Welcome!!! Thank you very much for your insight and helpful suggestions!
Same to you, Philip and Hugh!! Your feedback and input is appreciated!
I personally think having a orientation flag or field is perfectly fine as opposed to on CS where you can pretty much infer it, most of the time, rather just have that stated explicitly as opposed to implicitly.
In my experience, most LGBT people who are out might avoid going back into the closet, but donāt necessarily find it relevant when it comes to hosting. While I canāt say I have much experience as a guest in the last 15 years, I do know that as a host during that time, itās always a personal choice to come out or discuss with guests. Sometimes it comes up organically, sometimes not at all, but I certainly wouldnāt bring it up unless it was clear they were comfortable with it.
I do know that LGBT people might face difficulty getting hosting unless from other LGBT people, but as a result most try to hide it or just make their own profiles as neutral as possible in order to raise their chances. This is all the case even in a gay friendly country where I live.
If anything, without being centrally LGBT focused, a āsafe spaceā might be more appropriate and more all-encompassing (LGBT, religion, gender etc.). Though, admittedly I was very shrewd about vetting profiles as a hoster, and as a result I kept my profile as honest and open book as I could. I almost never had negative experiences. Having said this, surfers might encounter more issues about which Iām ignorant.
Hi @oskyldig! Welcome to the community 
Thatās interesting! Could you say more on that? How would you see a safe space within Couchers?
Not sure how much I could elaborate on that, but itās something that is used in schools to indicate teachers have a no tolerance for certain behaviour (violence, harassment, hate speech etc.), the downside is it sort of oppositly implies that there are unsafe places. Many school environments try to implement no-tolerance policies about bullying but itās often not effective as individual personalities may differ or people rather turn a blind eye than stand up. Itās a bit naive to think that an entire community can exist without, but I understand the ideal.
I think that safe space label on profiles is a bit more broad term that might resonate and be safer alternative to something LGBT-related. As others have said, being homosexual in a lot of places is unacceptable or punishable, but tolerance can not be defined or punished as easily. It kind of goes along with the idea that having thoughts isnāt necessarily bad, but acting on them is. The word safe space can resonate with LGBT-community members, or even people that have generally been bullied or harassed, or other minorities. Itās not one specific group.
As for creating a community, canāt say that I have an answer as Iāve never seen a community without some type of harassment. If you mean dedicated features it might be as simple membership to groups that arenāt visible publicly, but even then people can find what they are looking for in non-anonymous settings. Since Iāve never seen the solution myself, unfortunately my mind isnāt innovative enough to imagine it. As side-note, I think thatās something that lot of LGBT people grow up with thinking about: no matter where they are and how out and proud they are, there is always going to be times where they have to hide that part of who they are. As a result most get pretty good at code-switching.
Yes, on the forum we decided against having different standards for that reason. Right now we have general Guidelines that address content standards everywhere. So far it works quite well, but itās also a small community.
We also decided against having special groups with distinguished discussions on the forum, because we donāt want to segment the community. One thing we came up with instead is offering the option to have an āofficialā notice for topics that address a specific groupsā concerns and want that to be especially respected: like this topic notice.
What I could imagine having on the app is dedicated support groups, like @support and @event_hosts and possibly several more. We could still just have one overall Support team. But users could address a specific group and only members of that specific teams would be notified.
I agree with your suggestions. It is a very difficult question to answer. Even people who identify as LGBT (which includes me although I donāt usually want to be labelled unless it helps the discussion) have differing requirements and expectations. I like the idea of an all-inclusive approach where everyone feels valued and protected. This would obviate the need for gender and orientation based differences, unless people prefer to have it that way. Whatever is offered, there will be people who disagree. I like to be honest and provide true information about myself on my profile so that people who are not ok with this can save themselves and me the trouble of possibly complicated situations. On the other hand, there are people who are in cultures or situations where they cannot be so open about themselves on their profiles. How can they be made to feel welcome and/or protected ? I fear that this may be a topic which has no single correct answer.
Hello folks, LGBT guy here. I canāt really think of any dedicated features for LGBT+ members, but I find @tinaās suggestion very good. @Jesse says
I believe Tinaās suggestion would accomplish that.
Not just being able to select that relationship as part of your profile, but making it a mandatory part of it. By default, you are either a part of the LGBT community or you donāt have a problem with them at all.
Actually I donĀ“t want badges like this. I donĀ“t like gamifications or to host in order to to score game points. It should be made optional, or I just would take care not to host LGBT persons. As few compulsory badges as possible, please.
The whole thread makes me confused. For some people a certain religion is a very important part of their lives, and they put it on their profiles. For others itĀ“s important but not in a Couchers context. For others gender preferences are important, others just donĀ“t care. In Couchers or in other contexts, beloning to the LGBT group or not. To make it obligatory is like demanding certain people to walk around with a yellow badge on their clothes.