For those living under a rock, the Republican National Convention took place this week, where the party pledged its fealty to former President Donald Trump and where Trump officially accepted the nomination to run as the Republican candidate for president.
There was also a lot of Grindr talk.
BREAKING: An executive of the gay dating app Grindr says the Republican National Convention is “basically Grindr’s Super Bowl.”
— The Halfway Post (@HalfwayPost) July 16, 2024
It started with an account that describes itself as delivering content that’s halfway true comedy and satire tweeting a fake news headline that read, “BREAKING: An Executive of the Gay Dating App Grindr says the Republican National Convention Is ‘Basically Grindr’s Super Bowl.’”
Opening Grindr at the RNC. pic.twitter.com/BhxoOai7GT https://t.co/mRI7dUUOwq
— primordial soup kitchen (@fernbirg) July 16, 2024
Despite being satirical, this spread like wildfire, eventually making it onto the feed of former Republican Congressman and stunt queen George Santos, who retweeted it and added, “When I say it people think I’m being an asshole.” He also responded to another tweet that read, “All of DC is gay/curious,” with “Fact.”
Comeouttheclosestboys! pic.twitter.com/3peFp8KOHh
— George Santos (@MrSantosNY) July 17, 2024
He then posted a follow-up video referencing the tweet, not realizing it was satirical, urging all of the closeted Republicans to come out of the closet, adding that Grindr is basically outing them anyway, so they may as well. In response to his video, one person joked that all of the hits on Grindr were from Lindsey Graham, who has been plagued by rumors about his sexuality for years and has consistently maintained homophobic political positions like calling himself a defender of “traditional marriage.”
https://t.co/res4ZWzbfn pic.twitter.com/U00IU2oBfL
— ten second cam (@camilli_amilli) July 16, 2024
While the tweet is satirical, it does seem to be based in reality. A reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel spoke to one Grindr user in Milwaukee who noted a significant increase in the number of anonymous profiles on the app, while a Vice report from 2016 described Cleveland Grindr as being “bombarded with white dudes” during that year’s Republican National Convention in the city. On the night of check-in for the 2016 convention, there was a 120 percent increase in users online in the area, more than all previous evenings that month.
Since Grindr hasn’t released equivalent data for this year’s RNC (yet), this is as close as we’re going to get to confirmation.
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