Grindr Stampede at the Republican National Convention
Satirists called the RNC "Grindr's Super Bowl" and even George Santos got in on the action, urging closeted GOP gays to reveal themselves.
George Santos, the former U.S. Congressman from New York exiled from Congress in December, urged fellow gay conservatives attending the Republican National Convention to come out of the closet in a video on X.
Santos appeared to be basing his statements on an X post from The Halfway Post, a satirical news website, which claimed that executives for the gay hookup app Grindr had called the Republican National Convention “Grindr’s Super Bowl.”
“So Grindr executives are calling the RNC convention ‘Grindr’s Super Bowl,'” Santos said in the video. “Folks, look, I’m openly gay, no qualms about it, proud conservative Republican. I met my husband on Grindr, and we’ve been together for six years, going on seven, been married for almost three.
“Let me tell you something: Just come out of the closet, boys! Come on, it’s fun! You can be gay and conservative,” Santos continued, laughing while speaking to the camera. “But look, Grindr’s already outing you anyway, based on the hits. And guess who’s in town? It’s all you conservatives. Bye!”
👏🏼Come👏🏼out👏🏼the👏🏼closest👏🏼boys👏🏼! pic.twitter.com/3peFp8KOHh
— George Santos (@MrSantosNY) July 17, 2024
It’s always best to exercise caution regarding claims made by Santos, as his veracity has consistently been called into question.
But other online users claimed that there were a large number of Grindr outages reported in the Milwaukee area since the Republican National Convention began earlier this week. Online sleuths pointed to the website tracker Downdetector, which appeared to show a significant cluster of outages — based on user reports — near Milwaukee.
Another video on X appeared to show a Grindr user at the convention swiping through various profiles of potential matches.
Opening Grindr at the RNC. pic.twitter.com/BhxoOai7GT https://t.co/mRI7dUUOwq
— primordial soup kitchen (@fernbirg) July 16, 2024
Grindr did not respond to requests for comment.
In 2016, Broadly reported that there had been increased usage of Grindr’s app in Cleveland around the Quicken Loans Arena, where that year’s Republican National Convention had been held. There was also reportedly a notable increase in white users.
The trite joke about closeted gay and bisexual Republicans flooding hookup apps looking for potential matches does not seem like it’s going to die anytime soon.
As LGBTQ Nation reported this week, in 2017, the Human Rights Campaign purchased a geo-specific ad for men using Grindr while attending the Conservative Political Action Conference, which was held that year in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
“You can’t be with us in the hotel room and against us in the CPAC ballroom,” the ad read. It was intended to serve as a subtle reprimand of conservative users who have supported conservative politicians or organizations that have attacked LGBTQ rights.
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