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UPDATED: The President of Grindr Just Said He’s AGAINST Gay Marriage
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UPDATED: The President of Grindr Just Said He’s AGAINST Gay Marriage
UPDATE: Scott Chen, president of Grindr, has responded to the INTO report via a Facebook comment, calling the reporting "unbalanced and misleading." In the message, in addition to re-translating his comments "correctly," Chen goes on to explain their meaning.
"The reason I said marriage is a holy matrimony between a man and a woman is based on my own personal experience." Chen wrote in a message screencapped and posted onto Twitter by journalist Ken Schwencke. "I am a straight man married to a woman I love and have two beautiful daughters I love from the mariage. 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."
In another post when asked directly whether he believed in marriage equality he wrote: "Yes. Of course! I fight for this. That's why I am here [working] for Grindr!"
ORIGINAL STORY: Woof. Oh sorry, wrong app.
On Thursday, Grindr's news vertical INTO reported that the dating app's president and former CTO Scott Chen claimed marriage is a "holy matrimony between a man and a woman" in a deleted Facebook post, according to sources within Grindr.
INTO reports that Chen -- who became the app's CTO after it was purchased outright by Kunlun in 2017 -- shared a story about HTC president and CEO Cher Wang, who supported US-based anti-LGBTQ+ groups, hoping to influence Taiwan's decision on same-sex marriage through various non-profits. In response to comments on the article, Chen responded with his own views about the 'sanctity' of marriage.
"There are people who believe that marriage is a holy matrimony between a man and a woman. I agree but that's none of our business. There are also people who believe that the purpose of marriage is to create children that carry their DNA. That's also none of our business. There are people that are simply different from you, who desperately want to get married. They have their own reasons."
Chen later argued that marriage is a "personal issue," adding that money used to fund anti-queer causes would be better served combating hunger, poverty and war. "Why spend all that money to stop people who love each other from getting married? Aren't there more important stuff in life?"
"I'll never buy HTC products ever again, and I'll never donate a cent to any Christian groups in Taiwan," Chen concluded.
"Today we at INTO have learned that the current president of Grindr believes that same-sex marriage is a 'holy matrimony' between men and women," tweeted INTO's Editor-in-Chief, Zach Stafford. "We are reporting this as the media property owned by Grindr and will be updating this as the story develops."
This isn't the first time Grindr's been in hot water with the LGBTQ+ community it serves: Earlier this year, reports surfaced that the app's parent company was selling data on users' HIV status to medical insurance companies...That's is the kind of behavior that gets people blocked.
Long live queer media.
Related | Grindr Apologizes for Sharing Users' HIV Status With Third-Party Companies