WORD ON THE STREET
Let’s Talk About Grindr’s Kindr Initiative
■ INTERVIEWS BY DOMINICK HILDEBRAND, DUANE QUINTANA & THOMAS SUH
Grindr, a major presence in online queer social spaces, recently launched its Kindr initiative to address online discrimination in the form of sexual racism, transphobia, pozphobia, fat shaming, and other alleged biases. Hopefully, more social dating apps and sites will explore inclusionary guidelines and best practices for app users via initiatives that promote culturally mindful behavior and positively impact LGBTQ POCs and other minorities. We’ve asked people in the streets of San Francisco to see if it’s working as intended.
“The type of sexual racism that occurs on Grindr and other LGBTQ apps is just a reflection of the issues that our community generally has, which is linked to White supremacy and serving White gay cis men. A lot of LGBTQ spaces tend to serve this portion of the community. We need to redirect our community engagement and dialogue to center around queer POCs, because our voices have always been put to the side.”
ALEX 20s QUEER LATINX FEMALE
“Grindr knows exactly what’s happening. Now all of a sudden, they want to be PC in the gay social media world?! We POCs can only help ourselves by empowering ourselves first.”
MATT 30s GAY ASIAN MALE
“Sexual racism exists. Body shaming exists. I’ve experienced it myself. I appreciate Grindr’s efforts. But I really don’t know if it’s enough.”
DJ 20s GAY BLACK MALE
“I do experience sexual racism online. Everyone has the choice to say whatever they want. But it’s our choice on how we want to act on it. I can choose to ignore it. I think what Grindr is doing with Kindr is good to make sure everyone is in a safe place online, especially for young POCs.”
MICHAEL 40s GAY PACIFIC ISLANDER MALE
“It’s important to express sexuality without putting people down. I think it’s really good for Grindr to monitor discriminatory remarks, because it should not be a place for negativity. We should have these kinds of conversations in spaces where discrimination is least discussed.”
JORRELL 20s GAY MIXED RACE MALE
“Online forms of discrimination have definitely been going on for years. Anyone who’s been on Grindr knows that. It’s never too late to make things better.”
EBER 20s GAY LATINX MALE