The president of Grindr is apparently all about gay sex, not so much about the whole gay marriage thing.
Scott Chen, the heterosexual president of the hookup app primarily used by gay men, announced on his personal Facebook page that he would boycott HTC products because the company’s founder supports groups that oppose gay marriage. But then in the same post he said he didn’t believe in gay marriage either.
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“Some people think marriage is a holy matrimony between a man and a woman. And I think so too,” Chen wrote in Chinese earlier this week.
Into, a digital publication launched by Grindr, published a story about Chen’s stance on gay marriage to which the Grindr president angrily responded.
“I wish you asked my comments before you publish this,” Chen wrote in the comments section of the article. “This article is unbalanced and misleading. It hurts my feelings and it also hurts INTO’s and Grindr’s reputation.”
“The reason I said marriage is a holy matrimony between a man and a woman is based on my own personal experience,” Chen added. “I am a straight man married to a woman I love and I have two beautiful daughters I love from the marriage. This is how I feel about my marriage. Different people have their different feelings about their marriages. You can’t deny my feelings about my marriage.”
The CEO of Scruff, Grindr’s main competitor app that operates in similar ways, was quick to jump in to say he does support gay marriage, if Grindr users are looking for an alternative.
“The beliefs of a few key leaders have led Grindr to sell HIV data to advertisers, led Google to build a censored search engine in China, led Facebook to hand over data about U.S. voters to foreign agents, and led Twitter to turn a blind eye to years of rampant harassment,” Eric Silverberg, CEO and Co-Founder of SCRUFF, said in a statement to VICE News. “Because tech leaders possess outsized social power in our interconnected world, consumers deserve a candid explanation of their values and ethics.”
Cover: People wave rainbow flags during a protest against proposed changes to the constitution that would prevent future recognition of same-sex marriages, in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)
