scruffed

Phillip Picardi: First and foremost, can you tell me how you felt when the news surfaced about the President of Grindr’s remarks on gay marriage?

Eric Silverberg: It's obviously very disappointing...I believe the words that he specifically used were that he believed marriage was a holy matrimony between a man and a woman. What that implies and what that leads one to infer is that he believes that gay marriage is different from — and somehow lesser than — a straight marriage. As a private citizen or an employee, you certainly have your right to your private beliefs, but when a leader in the gay community says these things, they're disrespecting the decades-long work of marriage equality activists, and I think more ominously, they're giving credibility and oxygen to far-right politicians who continue to try and undermine these rights that we really just recently won.

Scruff CEO: The Real Issue with Grindr Is Way Bigger Than Gay Marriage 

And I agree. I'm one of those gays who thinks we should put our money where our mouth is. It's the force of the wallet. Back pocket activism. At this point, I already think that Grindr is way too problematic. Apart from racism, classism, body shaming and internalized homophobia, Grindr sells your information to the highest bidder and is owned by a Chinese conglomerate and led by a straight man. Problematic actually cannot begin to describe it. I'd rather go gay.

I'd rather go for whomever is good for the community and put my dollars where my heart is: I'd always go for the company that's gay owned or gay friendly or has that HRC 100 score. And Grindr is not it. Once they sold it to the highest bidder, Grindr was lost for me. Not that I use it anymore, mind you, but I think I would rather use an app that's been created for queer people by queer people than an app owned by a conglomerate that does not see me as a human being and is just using my information and selling it to enrich itself even more. All the while under the pretension of 'helping' getting some dick when they think that I'm 'less than'.

So yeah. Fuck Grindr and its straight president and his views about gay men. I'd rather go gay.

xoxo