As scholars such as Theo Green have unpacked elsewehere, people of color who identify as queer experience a great deal of marginalization. In practice, however, these technologies often only reproduce, if not heighten, the same problems and issues facing the LGBTQ community. Some scholars point to how these apps enable those living in rural areas to connect with one another, or how it gives those living in cities alternatives to LGBTQ spaces that are increasingly gentrified. While social media apps have dramatically altered the landscape of gay culture, the benefits from these technological tools can sometimes be difficult to see.
Responses like these reinforce the idea of Grindr as a space where social niceties don’t matter and carnal desire reigns. Since Grindr has a reputation as a hookup app, bluntness should be expected, according to users like this one – even when it veers into racism. These users would say things like, “This isn’t e-harmony, this is Grindr, get over it or block me.” The other way that I observed some gay men justifying their discrimination was by framing it in a way that put the emphasis back on the app. “My preference may offend others … I derive no satisfaction from being mean to others, unlike those who have problems with my preference.” “It was not my intent to cause distress,” another user explained. When confronted, they simply became defensive. In my study, many of the respondents seemed to have never really thought twice about the source of their preferences. Preferences may appear natural or inherent, but they’re actually shaped by larger structural forces – the media we consume, the people we know and the experiences we have. Sociologists have long been interested in the concept of preferences, whether they’re favorite foods or people we’re attracted to.
(During the 2020 #BLM protests in response to the murder of George Floyd, Grindr eliminated the ethnicity filter.) His image of his ideal partner was so fixed that he would rather – as he put it – “be celibate” than be with a Black or Latino man. That user went on to explain that he had even purchased a paid version of the app that allowed him to filter out Latinos and Black men. Now, when users log into Grindr from the Olympic Village, they receive a message welcoming them to the Olympics and alerting them of the new privacy update.A Grindr profile used in the study specifies interest in certain races. Jack Harrison-Quintan, director of the Grindr for Equality department, says, “We want Grindr to be a space where all queer athletes, regardless of where they’re from, feel confident connecting with one another while they’re in the Olympic Village.” In the past, people have used the app to reveal the profiles of LGBTQ athletes, which could potentially threaten the safety of closeted athletes from countries with anti-LGBTQ laws and practices. However, the app has modified its privacy settings to protect LGBTQ athletes competing at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and disabled the “Explore” feature within the Olympic Village, according to a Bloomberg report. Those familiar with Grindr, the popular and arguably infamous gay dating and hookup app, might know the “Explore” feature, which allows users to explores the profiles of users in locations around the world.