Róisín Murphy's stunning new album begins with a statement of intent: "I feel my story's still untold, but I'll make my own happy ending." Over the next 54 minutes, the Irish singer-songwriter and self-described "disco dolly" – one with a difference, which we'll get to later – earns that happy ending time and time again. Gliding from percolating electro ("Simulation") to sumptuous disco ("Something More"), and banging acid house ("We Got Together") to full-on Studio 54 glitz ("Narcissus"), Róisín Machine is surely the dance album of the year.

"The album is called that because I am a machine — I just keep creating”

Murphy says when I call her in Ibiza, where she’s taking a late-summer working vacation which yields an awesome lockdown performance. "And it rhymes a bit with Róisín, so hopefully people can really get their heads around saying my name correctly!" (For the record, it's pronounced "Ro-sheen.")

Murphy has often been branded “underrated” – a term she doesn’t much like – but it’s probably more accurate to call her “the connoisseur’s dance diva.” Since she broke through in the mid-’90s as one half of eccentric electronic duo Moloko, she’s become known for making fabulous, adventurous, and sometimes challenging music that makes you want to move. At times, that music has fully crossed over into the mainstream: an Ibiza-flavored remix of Moloko's "Sing It Back" topped the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in 1999, and remains one of the most recognizable club hits of its era.

Along the way, she’s also mastered the visual side of divadom.

The cover of her second solo album, 2007’s Overpowered, shows her wearing a conceptual runway outfit in a London “greasy spoon” café – the British equivalent of a diner. The album, one of the best dance-pop collections of its decade, sold respectably in the U.K. and Ireland but didn't make Murphy a household name. When I interviewed her for a British newspaper two years ago, Murphy recalled wryly: “I got reviews saying, ‘Why’s she not a pop star? Well, look at the sleeve, she’s a freak!’ Then six months later you’ve got Lady Gaga wearing exactly the same fucking outfit.”

Still, Murphy’s fanbase has remained loyal ever since Overpowered and quite rightly includes a large LGBTQ contingent. "To me, Róisín Murphy is an icon and a legend and just incredibly talented," RuPaul's Drag Race alum Detox told music magazine NME earlier this year. Indeed, in a recent interview with The Irish Times, Murphy acknowledged her deep-rooted queer appeal by saying quite brilliantly:

"If I want to be famous, I can just go to a gay club."

Of course, Murphy is no fame-seeking stage school kid. Her family moved from a small town in Ireland to Manchester – the U.K.'s third largest city, and buzziest next to London – when she was 12 years old. Three years later, her parents divorced and returned to Ireland, but Murphy decided to stay in the north of England by herself. Over the next few years, she found her calling in life – music – by frequenting nightclubs in Manchester and neighboring city Sheffield.

Today, she speaks almost evangelically about her first trip to Trade, a highly influential London gay club that opened in 1990. “I went to Trade when I was 16 – I made the journey down to London and queued three times round the block because I kept getting turned down. I couldn’t get in because I was too young,” she recalls. “Eventually they just gave up and let us in. I remember going up on the fucking balcony and looking down at all the lads in their Calvin Klein underpants just squashed into every bit of space. There were lasers pinging around everywhere, and I remember saying to my friend: ‘I’ve fucking come home here. This is Babylon. I love this wee place!”

On this magical-sounding night, Murphy says she and her friend were “looked after by drag queens” and ended up dancing “till nine in the morning without any drugs or anything – at the time, that wouldn’t have crossed my mind.” Back in Sheffield, Murphy immersed herself in a club scene that was “very mixed in terms of race and sexuality" and “had a real family feel to it.” A few years later, she met musician Mark Brydon, who would become her Moloko bandmate as well as her romantic partner. The chat-up line Murphy used on Brydon at a party – “Do you like my tight sweater? See how it fits my body!" – is preserved forever in the title of Moloko’s 1995 debut album, Do You Like My Tight Sweater?

During this formative period she also met her longtime collaborator Richard Barratt, a.k.a. DJ Parrot, who co-wrote and produced all of Róisín Machine.  

“I was always brought up in dance music to know that it came from gay culture,” she says today. “You know, it was not a big surprise to find that out because I knew it from the very beginning. That was where the best parties were, the best music, the best drugs, and the best craic. You know?”

Moloko's career trajectory spiked in 1999 when DJ Boris Duglosch's remix of "Sing It Back" gave them their first huge mainstream hit in the U.K. and Ireland. A year later, they scored another big hit with the glistening disco gem "The Time Is Now," which peaked at number two in the U.K. and helped its eclectic parent album Things to Make and Do to go platinum. After that, Moloko would only release one more album, 2003's Statues, which featured lyrics which seemingly documented the breakdown of Murphy and Brydon's personal relationship. "Some days I question the suggestion you might not exist at all," Murphy sings on the mournful title track. "Can we meet and talk it over? Would you be kind enough to call?"

Murphy then launched a fascinating solo career characterized by its unpredictability. She fused jazz with experimental electronica on her debut solo album, 2005's Ruby Blue, before embracing glossy dance-pop on 2007's Overpowered. Prime Murphybangers such as the title track and “Movie Star” still sound tremendous today. Then, having only dropped a few one-off singles during a quieter period where she became a mother, she returned in 2014 with Mi Senti, an EP of classic Italian pop covers. Murphy said at the time that she learned each song phonetically because she didn’t speak “a word of Italian." Soon after came a couple of acclaimed prog-disco albums, 2015’s Hairless Toys and 2016’s Take Her Up to Monto, which cemented her reputation as a true dance music auteur. Róisín Machine, her most immediate collection since Overpowered, feels like a new career peak from an artist who never stops flexing her creative muscles.

For the cover of Take Her Up to Monto, Murphy rocked a hi-vis jacket and hard hat to create a look that could legitimately be branded “construction worker drag.” It wasn't inspired by the Village People, but by Murphy's passion for post-modern architecture and her family background. “The Murphy construction gene is very much part of me,” she says. “I've got plenty of uncles who laid roads and tarmacked people's gardens and all that, you know.” Over the years she’s given us so many distinctive looks – from Overpowered’s offbeat fashionista to Róisín Machine’s punky disco queen – that it’s no surprise she’s often called a drag queen.

"I was told years ago by my gay friends: 'You are a drag queen.' And I remember thinking, ‘What do you mean by that? Am I a masculine woman?' And I was a bit put out by it," she recalls. "But now, I totally embrace it. I'm totally a drag queen and I was born that way. I mean, as a child, I was a total exhibitionist."

Murphy clearly appreciates that drag isn't just about changing the way the world perceives you. "I think the thing that's very misunderstood about exhibitionism is that people think you do it to be looked at," she says. "But you don’t. You do it because of the joy of putting the exhibition together. It's a creative pursuit like making a painting or a piece of music or a film."

When I ask what the most misunderstood thing about Róisín Murphy is, she gives an answer that kind of encapsulates her career to date.  "I learned everything in the real," she says. "I learned to dance on the dance floor – not in front of a mirror. I learned music from DJs and going clubbing from the age of 15. Everything I'm doing is coming from a super-real place, even though I am at the same time a disco dolly.”

By now, Murphy is on a roll. “And you can take me like that,” she continues. “You can put me in there with Kylie and all the other people who are 'saving 2020' and all that. But I'm not like them, and I'm not coming from that same place. I'm not trained – I'm self-made. I think it's because I'm a girl and a singer, but…

“Hopefully the next album will get the message across: that I'm as much like Radiohead as I am Kylie Minogue."

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As we saw in March and have seen repeatedly, Egypt is the single most dangerous country in the world for Grindr users, where the government engages in incomprehensible brutality against LGBTQ people. Thus we applaud Senate Foreign Relations Chair Ben Cardin’s stated intention to hold the Egyptian government accountable for its human rights record.

Although the danger to our community members in Egypt comes from many quarters, much of it is perpetrated by the police. Officers are trained at scale on how to use community spaces, including those online, to catfish; entrap; and ultimately arrest LGBTQ people, simply for being who we are and loving who we love.

We have spent nearly the past decade creating safety features and strategies to mitigate these challenges for users in Egypt and the more than 60 countries where being gay is illegal. In these parts of the world the app doesn’t tell other users a person’s exact distance, users receive a weekly safety reminder in local languages, more screenshot blocking has been put in place, and users have access to additional features like our discrete app icon and unlimited retractable messages. All of this has been developed in consultation with safety-focused technologists and LGBTQ activists working on the ground in these countries.

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We do this work and keep the app turned on in places like Egypt because we believe gay, bi, and trans people there deserve to be able to connect, and they deserve to have the best safety features we can offer while they’re doing so. 

We take our position in the global LGBTQ ecosystem extremely seriously, which is why we created Grindr for Equality over ten years ago–to promote queer safety, health, and human rights around the world. But the LGBTQ movement needs allies in order to achieve the vision of full equality, and the U.S. government should use its considerable influence, as it has before, to advance human rights in this area. We encourage U.S. officials to support Senator Cardin’s demand for “concrete, meaningful, and sustainable steps to improve the human rights conditions in [Egypt],” including to end the widespread police persecution of LGBTQ people.

As the leading social networking platform for anyone who wants to connect with the LGBTQ+ community, our app serves over 13 million monthly active users in almost every country in the world. In many of these countries, the Grindr app is the only safe way for our users to discover, share, and navigate their communities. Protecting our users’ interests and putting them in control of their personal data are top priorities for us and critical to the success of our business. 

Norway’s Privacy Appeals Board recently issued a decision regarding a legacy user consent process we used several years ago, before key regulatory developments interpreting the application of GDPR. We strongly disagree with the Board’s decision and are evaluating our options, including asking Norway’s courts to reverse the administrative agency. At the same time, we share the Norwegian Board’s commitment to privacy and want to provide an overview of how Grindr addresses this critical area.

Privacy could not be more important to our users. That’s why certain features, like giving users the choice to decide what information to include in their profile, including not requiring a profile photo, have been built into the app from day one. We’ve also built privacy and safety components directly into numerous parts of the product, such as our private albums that enable private sharing of photos between users. As we build new features, we continue to integrate privacy into every facet of the design to safeguard user information, which is what our users have come to expect. 

Since the period at issue in the decision, and under new ownership and new management, Grindr has invested heavily to adopt industry-leading privacy practices and tools to protect and empower our users by giving them more control over the data they publicly disclose.

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We have a dedicated Privacy team that works across the company to advance our commitment to privacy, and we use a leading privacy consent management platform, powered by One Trust, which enables users to decide whether and how their data can be shared with ad partners. 

Grindr has never allowed for targeted advertising by profiling our users or based on special categories of personal data such as ethnicity, political views, or sexual orientation. One of the most common pieces of feedback we hear from our users is a desire for more relevant advertising. Yet one of the reasons the advertising users see is not always relevant to them is because, contrary to standard industry practices, Grindr explicitly chooses not to share data on users’ age, gender, or location with advertisers even if the user opts in to get personalized ads.

Advertising on our platform, while a small portion of our total revenue, helps defray the costs of Grindr’s free offering, which includes many more features than the free products of our industry peers. Currently, more than 85% of Grindr’s revenue comes from purchases of subscriptions and add-on products from just 7% of our total users. 

Grindr is proud to support and connect the global LGBTQ+ community. We believe regulators should treat Grindr users the same way they treat users of other dating apps that cater largely to the straight community.

We look forward to continuing our commitment to privacy as we work to serve our users and create a world where our community is free, equal and included.

Today marks the first day back in the office for many Grindr employees, and the positive energy is palpable. As we return to working together IRL as part of our hybrid work model, I look forward to connecting with our Grindr colleagues and community in person. I strongly believe–and the research shows–that regularly working together in person will position us and our business for success, and from that success we can help change the world for the better.

We are at an inflection point where we can capitalize on Grindr's global potential and audaciously and passionately go after our mission to be the global gayborhood in your pocket. As part of that, our vision is to make the world and lives of our users freer and more just through our success as a business. 

We have a huge opportunity that’s ours to seize, and in order to do that, we need to be intentional about how we operate and continue to move the company forward.

Our drive and perseverance have always stemmed from our commitment to the LGBTQ+ community. We aim to influence positive change and leave an indelible mark, not just as a platform, but as a movement. Collaboration, innovation, and our unique Grindr synergy are essential for us to do this effectively.  It is critical for us to be better connected so we can collaborate more effectively, coach and mentor each other, and  achieve these goals as a team.  

Building our next chapter 

Over  the last 18 months, we've learned a thing or two about adapting to a post-pandemic world. While remote work brought its perks, it has also become clear that in-person collaboration is invaluable. And while a return to office might sound like a return to old times, let’s be clear: today does not mark a return to old ways, but rather an evolution into  something better. 

We’ve seen via our continued financial and business growth what works: having a very clear focus on the key initiatives that are most valuable to our users and pushing for significant productivity and stellar operational execution. This focus and taking advantage of our time together in person will take our business to the next level.

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That's the ethos behind our hybrid work model of two-days-a-week in office. It offers a balanced blend of office and remote days, designed with both productivity and flexibility in mind. Our hybrid work model isn’t an outlier. In fact, we're proud to say it offers more leeway than many of our peers’ in-office policies.  

Our decision to adopt a hybrid work model was in the works for quite some time. We did our research and charted our course. Beginning in the second quarter of this year we took the first steps toward a hybrid work model by starting to recruit engineers primarily in Chicago, one of the company’s two engineering hubs. 

As we welcome teams back to the office today, wherever that may be, our focus is clear: ensuring Grindr remains a valuable product and resource for the global LGBTQ+ community and an exceptional place to work.

Returning to work as a unified community

We're looking forward to further building our community of Grindr colleagues, spending more time together, and galvanizing our collective ambition. Together, we'll continue to set ambitious goals and deliver remarkable products that reflect the spirit of the LGBTQ+ community. 

I strongly believe that we need to be together in person on a regular basis in order to have  the most success as a business. And from that success we can help change the world for the better. This new chapter will allow us to attract talent that embraces collaboration, strengthen our identity by building strong working relationships, and establish  healthy productivity goals and mutual accountability that will make us truly unstoppable.

And we’re building an amazing team that will help us achieve these goals. For those interested in joining us, check out our open positions here.

#WorkItWednesday is Grindr's feature on employees and programs at the heart of the work we do to connect the LGBTQ community with each other and the world around them. In this edition, we chat with Trey Sands about his experience joining Grindr as an iOS Engineer.

Meet Trey Sands (he/him), iOS Engineer at Grindr on the Core Squad!

Trey graduated from Reed College with a bachelor’s in Economics-Mathematics. After graduation, Trey moved across the country to Washington DC where he worked at the Federal Reserve as a research assistant for three years before graduate school, until the Midwest called him back. After graduating from the University of Chicago with his Masters in Computational Analysis and Public Policy in 2016, he fell in love with the city and remained there. Trey spent a few years working with tech consulting firms before landing his role at Grindr in January 2022. Having spent some time working with various teams in the org, Trey now works as part of the Core Squad which supports Grindr’s mobile app and core functionality.

Check out Trey’s Grindr story below, and take a look at our careers page to learn more about our open job opportunities.

Have you always worked in the tech industry? What drew you to app development or the dating space specifically?

I first left college working in economic research, spending a few years in Washington, D.C. for the Federal Reserve. But as I went back for a graduate degree in machine learning and public policy, the software engineering classes I took fit perfectly with my knack for puzzles coupled with the opportunity to think through creative solutions for tech challenges. After graduation, I wanted to work in the tech space a bit to shore up that experience before potentially returning to the policy world. I’ve since worked on a wide variety of apps, from mobile shopping to credit servicing, to the Internet of Things. After consulting on these projects, I was looking to have a bigger stake in my work. Grindr is the first time that I’ve been able to contribute and work on an app that I’ve used and love - so every bug I’ve fixed hasn’t been just business as usual for me, it has been personal.

Tell us why you joined Grindr. What do you love most about our mission and our culture?

As a long-time user of the app, I have had the opportunity to meet so many different friends through Grindr. The app was incredibly useful when I (twice) moved across the country to a whole new city and had to find a new circle of people to connect with. Plus, having a major part of my identity and life in my work isn’t something I expected to get outside of public policy. Now I can help out my community from the tech side and have a genuine passion for what I do. I’m also a big fan of the advocacy work that we’ve managed to accomplish with Grindr for Equality. Beyond connecting the global queer community, we have been able to really make an impact on LGBTQ social issues from our Grind the Vote campaigns to our recent monkeypox information and coordination efforts. Grindr really is a place where you can have a big impact for the global queer community.

How have you grown professionally while on our team?

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Prior to working at Grindr, the closest I had come to functional programming was reading the Wikipedia article on the imperative programming paradigm. I’d worked a bit in unidirectional data flows, but mainly through one-way dependency injections. After some Zoom calls and long slack chats across all different squads as well as my immediate team leads, now, I’m able to think in a Reactive paradigm rather than purely in past objects and protocols. I can read a long strip of maps and filters and be able to decipher exactly what the app does given certain data states.

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Reading through code review comments has in itself made me a better engineer through the technical explanations to comments and questions my colleagues leave. One of my coworkers wrote a ReactiveX cheat sheet to help himself out when he was first learning RxSwift and later shared it with the rest of the team. I, inspired by him and a bit of the Emily Dickinson I had been reading before bed, decided to do something similar and wrote a cheat sheet but in rhyming quatrains. I would have never expected to be able to flex my poetry writing and computer science knowledge at the same time, but my Grindr coworkers encouraged me, and I don’t think I would have found that with other companies.

What interesting problems is your Grindr team solving for and what are you looking forward to for the future?

Grindr’s been around for 13 years now. While there are definitely parts of the app code that are newer than others, adding any additional features to older parts of the code presents interesting challenges for the team to work through. To continue reducing this tech debt, we’ve had some major refactors in just the short time that I have been here.

For instance, we completely redesigned the user’s profile using a more modular and composable service-driven architecture. This has in turn greatly decreased development time on some features we’ve added to the profile while increasing our unit and UI test coverage. At the same time as this refactor, Grindr released other major features like Albums and Boost. Being able to do this two-pronged approach of changing the past and updating our present keeps our app and our codebase agile and ready for the future.

Do you have a favorite memory of working at Grindr so far or a moment that stands out to you that really captures what it is like to work here?

I forgot to bring a hat with me when Grindr had its first post-2020 all-staff in-person meeting…in July…in LA. That’s far too much sun for a shaved head like mine. It was also the first time I was going to be meeting most of my coworkers in real life, as we’re a remote-first company, and I’d only been there for six months. I ended up buying a couple of hats, all bright, garish, and beautiful, which I definitely would not have worn at some of my past jobs. But here I wore them and was celebrated!

Being able to be my authentic self at work without worrying about how people might react to me has really been a transformative experience. Being able to do what I love, at a company I love, with people who celebrate me - - I couldn't ask for a better work experience.  

If you are looking for a company that is not only mission-driven but also shares a collaborative and supportive engineering culture, you should consider applying for roles today!

At Grindr, we believe all companies, including health insurance companies, should move to an informed consent model for all gender-affirming care. It’s the human thing to do.

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve partnered with Level, FOLX, and Included Health to provide more holistic and inclusive healthcare options for our employees, with specific focus on gender affirmation assistance for our trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming employees. We hope we can work with other companies to help them follow suit.

Members of the LGBTQ+ community have much lower participation in the healthcare system than straight people because it’s often hard to find medical providers who are both compassionate and competent in issues they typically face. Queer people are 3x more likely to avoid care; 50% less likely to get the prescriptions they need; and 29% of trans people surveyed by the Center for American Progress reported being refused medical care because of their actual or perceived gender identity.

We wanted to make sure that our employees have best-in-class healthcare and keep them from being one of these statistics, which is why we made some changes. But first, some more about the issue.

Tackling the healthcare issue for trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming employees

While some insurance companies say they offer gender affirmation assistance, access to that assistance often comes with so many hurdles that many people give up. Some pioneering companies created their own programs, which was a big step in the right direction. Many of those plans adopted the WPATH Standards of Care (last updated 2012), which are outlined in a 120-page document. While assuredly well-intended in their creation, the application of these standards can make it very difficult, and often harmful, for some trans employees to access care. At Grindr, we are strong supporters of the informed consent model for adults, and that is how we have set up our program.

For example, when following the WPATH standards, trans people seeking genital surgery are required to see two different and independent mental health providers. They usually have to complete multiple sessions with both providers before the providers will attest to their gender identity. No CisHet person has to go through such a process before accessing care.

In talking to employees about the process, one described it like this: “They ask you to tell them how you feel, and you tell them something like, ‘I feel I would be happier as the other gender’ and they write that down and charge you hundreds or thousands of dollars over multiple sessions before they will send that note to your doctor. Obtaining this note often requires you to conform to the provider’s idea of a 'man' or 'woman' to get them to believe you.” In this case, the patient is trying to placate their providers and ease the providers’ mind instead of the other way around. This role reversal can be actively harmful.

Being transgender, non-binary, or gender non-conforming does not affect people’s ability to make sound medical decisions. For people who are queer, there should be no more barriers to care than there are for CisHet people.

The good news is that there are providers coming into the space that want to help companies figure this out.

Our Plan

Our first step was to get our LGBTQIA+ employees and their dependents back into the healthcare system. Included Health provides, among other things, a concierge service to help employees and their dependents find providers who are both competent in their field and compassionate towards members of the queer community. People who feel confident in and comfortable with their providers are more likely to get the care they need.

Our second step was to address our employees’ reported difficulty getting hormone therapy. Most traditional insurance plans require monthly coordination between one’s doctor, pharmacist, and the insurance company to approve a prescription. Any lapse or delay in this coordination can cause a disruption to an employee’s hormone therapy, which can have a number of negative consequences. Our employees reported that these disruptions to care happened more often than not, so we partnered with FOLX to facilitate the delivery of hormone therapies without requiring monthly coordination between one’s doctor, pharmacist, and the insurance company.

We then worked to understand the broader scope of assistance people need on their gender affirmation journey. Through conversations with employees combined with research, we created a list of the assistance employees typically need. We found the types of affirming support fell into three buckets: social (e.g. vocal training, hair removal, wardrobe support), legal (e.g. changing names on government documents), and surgical.

We partnered with Level, who administers our perks, to determine how to construct and administer the gender affirmation offering. Level has been an incredibly helpful guide for us through these uncharted waters and we are so grateful for their commitment to helping us bring this offering to fruition. All three of our partners – Included Health, FOLX, and Level – were key to pulling this all together.

Grindr's program is funded to cover 90% of all of those costs. This money will be taxed as income. If an employee elects, we will "gross-up" the money to cover the taxes. The gross-up comes with a one-year retention agreement. If the employee does not opt for the gross-up, there is no retention requirement to access this assistance.

Again: we believe that all companies, including the insurance companies, should move to an informed consent model for gender-affirming care. If you’d like more information on how we created our plan, please reach out to [email protected]. The time is now to make healthcare inclusive for everyone.

-Heidi Schriefer, VP of People & Places | LinkedIn

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‍A collection of real-life Grindr experiences told by users in thrilling, sometimes-NSFW detail, to remind you of pre-COVID times. Readers are encouraged to submit their own to [email protected].

SHOOT YOUR SHOT

Since quar I’ve been video chatting a lot and it usually ends up leading to me and the other dude masturbating. It sort of reminds me of Chatroulette in college, which I loved. Anyway, I was talking to this guy and we agreed to video chat and he was super sexy: skinny tight body and big DSL. We talked dirty a bit, he stripped for me and started playing with his hole (impressively pink by the way). So, I whipped my dick out and started jacking it until I was hard, and the way he was fingering his hole, I was super hard. We kept at it a bit and then he brought the phone up to his face and started moaning, “Cum on my face.” And like, that’s hot but I wasn’t real sure if he was serious?

So I was like, “Uh, yeah, hot.”

But I don’t think he liked that because he started getting intense, “Cum on my face!” like woah.

I started getting kind of soft because I can’t cum on his face? And I didn’t know what he wanted so I just said, “I can’t cum on you? What do you want?”

And he told me he wanted me to cum on my iPhone so that it felt like he was getting a facial but this was a new iPhone and I really didn’t like the idea of dealing with Apple Care in a pandemic so I hung up and came all over my chest.

TASK RABBIT

I once broke my guest bedroom lamp and had my mom staying at my place later that night. I wanted to fix the lamp ASAP bc she’d be arriving in 2 hours and she’s particular. I changed my Grindr profile to "who knows how to fix a lamp" got a reply within 30 min asking me what was broken, and had it fixed within an hour. I also got offered to verify if my *electric tension* was working as well... LOL.

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GROUND CONTROL

I was on Grindr while my flight was pre-boarding to Italy and I noticed that one of the super hot jocks in my grid looked like one of the flight hosts. I sent him a tap, but nothing came of it and I fell asleep pretty quickly. Later on in the flight he came around and asked me if I wanted anything to drink and I ordered a ginger ale, when he gave it to me his hand lingered on mine and I felt his finger stroke my palm. I was immediately hard as a rock. I didn’t have Wi-Fi though so I couldn’t check my inbox to see if he’d messaged. I kept trying to get his attention the rest of the flight but it didn’t happen—I was beginning to think I made it up.

Cut to: I got off the flight and got a text from my uncle that he was going to be an hour late so I got on Grindr and check to see if the hot host had messaged me and he had. He’d sent over pics of his uncut cock and asked if I wanted to take it. Well, obviously. I messaged him to see if he had time to kill and he said he’d be wrapped up in a few minutes and that he knew a bathroom that was always empty.

He came around about 20 minutes later and led me to a private bathroom on the first floor. He locked the door and we immediately pounced on each other like fucking ravenous animals. He picked me up and threw me against the wall and I almost screamed because he was shorter than me and I was really surprised he could lift me. After a few minutes he set me down and unbuttoned my pants and started eating my ass, I was in heaven. Then he took his dick out and tried to stick it in, but I was not prepared at all so I got on my knees and started sucking him off, he came pretty quick, all over my face, and I came on the floor right after him—it was a glorious mess. I exited the terminal right as my uncle pulled up.

RUNNING ON EMPTY

I went running through Central Park last week and took a quick break in the ramble to take a call that I’d been waiting on. After the call I noticed this daddy type staring me down. He nodded to some foliage off the path and then grabbed my dick and walked past me into the thicket. I was not sure what to do. On one hand it would make for a great story but on the other hand I had never done anything like this before. But as I was considering it I noticed that I was getting harder and harder by the second. Guess he was deciding this one for us. I walked into the brush and followed the daddy to a small clearing where he proceeded to push me up against this tree and get on his knees and suck me. He was sucking my dick like it was providing oxygen, I’ve never had anyone do it better. I didn’t exchange numbers or anything but now I wish I had because that was the best BJ of my life.

‍SEX + DATINGBLOOP

An estimated 40,000 people took to the streets of SoMa in San Francisco this past Sunday for Folsom Street Fair’s Megahood2021. After last year’s virtual-only event, Folsom was back to in-person festivities—with added COVID safety protocols—and people were eager to make up for lost time. Wearing leather, whips, chains, pup masks, chastity belts, and everything in between (or, in many cases, nothing at all), attendees celebrated queer kink and fetish culture with creativity to spare. We captured some of the magic below—see you next year, Folsom.

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Grindr is a proud presenting sponsor of Folsom Street Fair. #GrindrxFolsom

Today we’re excited to announce the beta launch of Grindr Web, a new way for our community to stay connected right from their computer. Now you can browse and chat from the comfort of your own laptop or on the go via your mobile browser.

Now, you might be wondering: “Uh…why do I need a web version when I already have the app?” Well, we’re glad you asked. There are a ton of benefits to using Grindr Web:

Accessibility

Sometimes you don’t have your phone handy, or maybe you can’t tell if someone looks like the guy who works at your gym who you’ve always had a crush on. Grindr Web displays larger photos to match the often larger screens of desktop and laptop computers. Web experience also shows 6 profiles across as opposed to the 3 profiles displayed on the App. Grindr Web makes it easier to chat with potential connections, letting you chat while also browsing the grid (for the multitaskers among us) all from your keyboard and including shortcuts.

Ease of Use

Many people find it easier to navigate computer browsers than apps. With Grindr Web, you can chat with a possible hookup while you answer your boss’s email on your phone. By enabling both app and web options, we let users choose the experience that’s right for them whether they're at home, at work, or needing to log onto a friend’s laptop because their phone died in the middle of setting up a date.

Discretion

For people who aren’t yet out of the closet they may feel less comfortable downloading the Grindr App and keeping it on their phone. Grindr Web creates an easy way to reach the Grindr community without having to keep an app installed. Download once, set up your subscription, and you can connect with the community from any browser to chat with folks around you. Also, for discreet users, if you get caught browsing Grindr on your laptop, just press the ESC key three times fast and Grindr Web will close and open Google. Your boss won’t even notice that you haven’t been diligently googling vacation recs for him.

Grindr Web is exclusively available to our XTRA and Unlimited subscribers. If you’d like to try, make sure to upgrade your account on the app and then visit web.grindr.com on your computer or mobile browser to log in.

Don’t stare at your phone all day. Log on to Grindr Web and see how much more fun it is to type “Hey man, what’s up?” on your laptop.
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It's hard to believe that in 2009 a small, location-based queer social networking app would become a global phenomenon with millions of users and turn into a pop culture mainstay, featured in everything from the New York Times to SNL to the zeitgeistiest TV shows of the day.

Now, 13 years into that journey, with lots of lessons under our belt and millions more users, we want to celebrate this milestone with the people who were monumental in getting us to where we are today. We asked some of our most-tenured employees about their Grindr journey: the most surprising moments, what makes them proud, and what they’re looking forward to next. Cheers to another 13 years.

Monty Suwannukul, Product Design Director

What’s been the most surprising part of your journey at Grindr?

I think people imagine the Grindr office as a bunch of horny dudes with go-go dancers performing 24/7. While that might be an accurate description of our holiday parties, it is far from the reality of what makes Grindr run on a day to day basis. I’m continually surprised by the quality of people that I work with; Grindr employees are smart, passionate and a lot of fun. Many of my best friends are people I met while working here. Because of who we serve, open-mindedness is a prerequisite to success here and that builds a beautiful culture.

What are you most proud of from your time here?

I remember when we launched the full redesign of Grindr in 2016 and I got a glimpse of my designs in the hands of people in the wild. I was at Revolver in WeHo and I had a real proud mom moment when I saw someone open up that screen of blue and yellow chat bubbles. That was my first big launch with Grindr, but I’ve had my hands in hundreds of releases since then.

I’m proudest when I hear stories of how our app is used to find connection by people who would otherwise have no options. Many probably think of dangerous anti-gay countries we see on the news, but no matter where you are in the world, there are people opening the app and finding that they aren’t alone. I find that so inspiring.

What are you most excited about with where Grindr is now and where it’s headed?

When I talk to people about Grindr, there is this incredible pattern that I’ve seen emerge. People say Grindr is only good for hookups. Then, when I ask about their best experiences on the app, they talk about the friends they made, the love they found, and the adventures they had. There’s a tremendous amount of opportunity here to enrich the lives of the people who use Grindr, and I’m super excited to try to capture that.

Nick Penna, Engineering Manager

What’s been the most surprising part of your journey at Grindr?

On my second day of work I went to the annual summer party and at 11am was served endless champagne and vodka from backless speedo boys. It wasn’t clear to me on those first couple days, but I quickly found that Grindr was an amazing place for me to learn and grow professionally. I have learned so much here, and have had the pleasure of working with so many dedicated and smart coworkers who still inspire me every day.

What are you most proud of from your time here?

I’m proud that I lead a team that focuses on improving our user’s experience. I take it seriously that Grindr is a vital part of many people’s lives, and I’m proud of my part in its history. There are always challenges at work, and I am thankful and proud of my team for all the hard work they do to keep our Grindr users at the front of their minds.

What are you most excited about with where Grindr is now and where it’s headed?

I’m always looking forward to new Grindr feature releases or product updates and seeing them being used by people to express themselves. I am excited that the company is in a position to make 2022 an amazing year for introducing new and awesome Grindr experiences to the community.

Alice Hunsberger, CX Senior Director

What’s been the most surprising part of your journey at Grindr?

How often I get to talk about butts and nipples! I knew it would be a lot, but it's... a lot.

What are you most proud of from your time here?

Building a great team. When I started here, there was no CX team at all, and now we have a group of really user-obsessed folks who are making a big impact, both for our community and the business.

What are you most excited about with where Grindr is now and where it’s headed?

I love how laser-focused Grindr is on our community and what they want and need. We're really ramping up in our ability to deliver more ways for people to make genuine connections with each other, and there are so many exciting ideas in the works. This really feels like just the beginning!

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Matt Chang, Digital Marketing Specialist

What’s been the most surprising part of your journey at Grindr?

The most surprising part of my journey at Grindr is that when I started working here Grindr was just a small start-up. I could never have predicted at the time that in just a few years we’d be a major player in the dating app sphere and in the tech world.

What are you most proud of from your time here?

I’m proud to be part of one of the most iconic and influential dating apps in the world, and I’m more proud that we help the queer community connect on a daily basis.

‍What are you most excited about with where Grindr is now and where it’s headed?

I’m really excited to see where we are headed because we for sure aren’t slowing down.

Munir Estevane, API Engineering Director

What’s been the most surprising part of your journey at Grindr?

I can say something that still surprises me is how engaged and global our userbase is. Grindr has worldwide recognition. Few other apps can claim to have been prominently mentioned in two episodes of Silicon Valley, for example. And whenever something seems out of place, users make their voice heard on social media, newscasts, podcasts, what have you.

What are you most proud of from your time here?

I'm proud of having established software development processes that have withstood the test of time, with systems that are resilient, high quality code, and onboarding tools that make it simple for new engineers to come on board.

What are you most excited about with where Grindr is now and where it’s headed?

I'm most excited about our current growth, getting more engineers on the team so we can better help our users live their best lives.

Michelle Kelly, Brand Partnerships

What’s been the most surprising part of your journey at Grindr?

Learning that a lot of my friends met on Grindr and are now in happy relationships. It’s also impressive to see how many more daily active users there are since I started in 2016; I had no idea we were growing at such a rapid pace, and I’m excited to be a part of the journey.

What are you most proud of from your time here?

I am proud of my team and the people I work with - they truly are my family. I’ve met some of the most wonderful people working here over the past 5 ½ years.
As a member of the ad sales team, I am also proud to see the types of brands that have partnered with us and shown support for our community.

What are you most excited about with where Grindr is now and where it’s headed?

I’m excited to see Grindr grow and continue to make dating, culture, and the LGBTQ+ community instantly accessible to gay, bi, and trans people – everywhere.

Serge lamas, Senior QA Engineer

What’s been the most surprising part of your journey at Grindr?

During my tenure at Grindr I’ve experienced many varied roles: I’ve been an event planner, facilities coordinator, EA, personal trainer, and now I’m part of the QA team. The opportunities Grindr has given me to grow and evolve have been incredible, and shows how dedicated the company is to nurturing talent.

What are you most proud of from your time here?

So many, but I’d have to say the biggest is Grindr for Equality. It feels good to be part of a company that actually cares about the LGBTQ+ community.

What are you most excited about with where Grindr is now and where it’s headed?

I’m so excited to keep seeing the app grow into an even bigger global community.

A journey of a 1,000 loads begins with a single fleet. And in the highly competitive market of OnlyFans, DamagedBttm works hard to clean out the others. Upon first glance, the page offers up a pretty expected selection of offerings from the Chicago sub. A total bottom, DamagedBttm offers a selection for a specific market. So, if you’re looking for versatility, you could be disappointed...or you could appreciate those who focus on an expertise. In DamagedBttm’s world, versatility is propaganda.

The photo section of the menu offers you a garden variety of nudes. The standard collection of angles and photo types one could expect to receive in one very horny afternoon using Grindr. Over-the-shoulder butt pics and several stills from content posted in the video section make up the vast majority of the photos in the reel of over 100 images. They are simple, but still satisfying.                                                                             

A bottom of the people, some short stories (along with supporting images) of his work as a bathhouse community bottom really steal the show here, but don’t miss the full frontal and rear pics in the mirror of economy class airplane restrooms. Bottoms, they’re just like us!

The real star is the videos. Boasting over 100 videos, this bottom’s page goes deep and so do the tops. Content is filmed in a variety of locations (love a bottom who travels), but most are in a private bedroom or hotel setting, with the exception of a few excellent videos that were filmed in a local bathhouse. If you’re looking for a couch, kitchen counter or bathroom, try IKEA, because this pillow princess needs a mattress. The page seems generally risk averse, so no stairwells or public parks for viewers with an adventurous side.

There’s been a lot of growth here. Earlier videos are mostly just short clips with no faces featuring tops who may not know they’d just invested in a rapidly growing startup. Even with that swift growth from unknown bottom to collabing with well known names in the porn industry, DamagedBttm keeps it brief (or thong or jockstrap) with most films kept under 15 minutes. The perfect amount of time, because you can’t always make an afternoon out of it. The general video aesthetic can be described as...authentic. Which is a buzzword for restaurant reviews on Yelp, but doesn’t work for porn lighting. Minimally edited, the videos have some fun candid “behind the scenes” moments. Like, in a video with Derek Allen, when he pauses sex to get lube and tells an anecdote about giving the appearance of not using lube while actually using it. These moments are scarce and mildly entertaining but, if you’re horny, they can  take you out of it. Distracting as the random conversations may be, it is a great opportunity to get a sense of who the scene partners are before they turn on their “top voice.”

The scene partners come in a variety of ages, but not so many colors. There are some scenes with men of color, but, to be frank, this bottom has had more middle-aged white men inside him than the Republican National Convention. Largely muscular and masculine, the page delivers on the expectation set by its description of a “sub bottom” who “loves getting f**ked by guys 2-3 times” his age. They certainly do some damage.

In a jockstrap that has been very clearly stretched beyond its limits due to the grips of tops past, he both takes an impressive pounding (in a scene with someone he refers to as Viking) and decides to put on a blindfold at the 11 minute mark as if they hadn’t been face to face for all the minutes before. A choice. Some other exceptional highlights include a 2 part video with Parker Payne, the couple of scenes with Dillon Anderson and a Grindr hookup whose face you never get to see. He trots out a lot of these videos in parts divided over the course of a week, so you might have to wait a week to see the “money shot” of longer videos, which may prove difficult for those with commitment issues.

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The page is testament to the versatility that exists in being a total bottom. From fists to groups to double penetration, DamagedBttm explores the many ways he can be satisfied in 10-15 minutes. What he lacks in versatility, he makes up for in enthusiasm; he’s very verbal. Not annoyingly so, but he hasn’t met an opportunity to moan that he won’t take.

The experience is exactly what you would expect based on advertising: an all in all good time that doesn’t take itself too seriously. DamagedBttm serves up a simple and relatable hole that says “when you’re here, you’re family.”

And THAT’S the bottom line.

3.5/5 Fleets

Location: https://onlyfans.com/damagedbttm

Price: $$ (average)

Noise Level: Loud

Average video length: 10-15 minutes

Production value: Amateur with great professional adornments

Makes personalized videos/photos? Yes

Uploads regularly? Yes, about weekly

Top, Bottom or Vers? Strict bottom

What the Fleets mean: Ratings range from zero to five fleets. Zero, is poor, failure or scam. One fleet is satisfactory. Two fleets is good. Three fleets is very good. Four fleets is excellent. Five fleets is superb.

‍SEX + DATINGGrindr

LGBTQ+ adult entertainers explain the shifting nature of their work during the pandemic.

BY EVAN ROSS KATZ

The outlook, as has become a common refrain, looked dim. “The Coronavirus Is Shutting Down Porn Sets,” read a March 16 BuzzFeed News headline. That story came a day after the Free Speech Coalition (FSC), the adult industry lobbying group, called for an industry-wide “voluntary shut down” through the end of March. It didn’t take long before the adult expos, which can generate thousands of fans (which can then, in turn, generate millions in revenue) were postponed indefinitely. An industry crippled; an industry largely unprotected (pun not not intended). “Adult performers don't get sick days or government bailouts, and many crew members’ non-adult jobs are already being cancelled,” Mike Stabile, the Free Speech Coalition’s communications director, pointed out to the Daily Beast.

Luckily, there exist platforms like OnlyFans, which, as the New York Times noted in their 2019 story, have changed sex work forever. These sites allow anyone, from adult entertainers and sex workers, to people looking to monetize what they’re already doing recreationally,  a revenue stream that isn’t beholden to studio or government, only their fans.

And there’s been a tremendous boom in both content making and content makers in a time of great crisis for many. Kurt from Toronto, who runs an OnlyFans review site called myqueerfans.com, says he’s seen an uptick in traffic over the last few weeks which he attributes to people practicing social distancing by staying inside their homes. “There is one model I noticed who is making his OnlyFans free for the next week or so to support those who have been laid off,” He says. “Other models have started corona-themed promotional campaigns where they specifically mention ‘coronavirus’ and ‘quarantine’. One couple advertised that you could spend your 'quarantine with them' online and that they'd be posting lots of new material.”

Below, we talk to adult entertainers and veteran content makers as well as those inspired to kick-start an OnlyFans account due to their income being affected by an invisible virus that continues to petrify the world.

“Funny how people change their opinions on OnlyFans once there’s a recession,” Trop Daddy tweeted on Sunday. “Lately I’ve been using discounts because it’s been an easy way to get a lot of subscribers in a short amount of time,” he says, noting that for the past six months 95% of his income has come from OnlyFans. “The downside is when you put your price back to the standard full price, those subscribers are less prone to renew, having paid 25%-30% less last time.” Daddy, 24, says he’ll try a corona-related discount but will likely return to full price soon so that he doesn’t have drop off in future months.

For Tayte Hanson, an adult entertainer who earns 50% of his income from personal training, photography, and as a touring dancer, he’s definitely seen a corona-related spike in his adult content. “I have seen an influx in both views and DMs as it seems everyone is feeling lonely and wanting to be connected to their content creators,” he says. The 30-year-old says he offers discounts regularly, “however, this time I chose to do it on a large scale (200 subscriptions available) as I want people who are bored and stuck at home to be able to enjoy content while they don't have much work instead of going out and having a hookup.” Hanson says he plans to donate 25% of this months’ income from his OnlyFans and JustForFans (a similar content hub) to people who have lost their jobs as a result of the virus’s spread.

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Ricky Roman of CockyBoys fame created a promotion of 50% off subscriptions, which he’s grateful to say sold very quickly. But will he continue to make content amidst CDC guidelines which suggest six feet of social distance from others at all times, especially when asymptomatic carriers run rampant due to the lack of available testing? “Since the quarantine, as of the past few days I’m not sure that I do want to risk myself or others... so I’m not sure that I will be filming with anyone else at this time,” he says.

Veteran adult film star — and recent Favorite Fan Content Creator winner at January’s Str8UpGay Porn Awards — Austin Wolf, 39, feels similarly. Lucky for him, he’s prepared for a disaster situation. “I have enough unreleased material to continue to post at the same frequency for a few months and avoid making new content if at all possible until we clear this storm,” he says. This shouldn’t come as a surprise considering his resume includes an estimated 300-400 studio films and 2500 “fan content” videos.

“I do this because I enjoy it and have no regrets, but this world is not for everyone and that's okay, please make decisions that are best and healthiest for you,” Wolf says when asked about those who are starting to produce adult content as a result of dwindling finances due to lay-offs or unemployment. He does offer this tidbit up for newfound content makers: “Never take less than 80%. OnlyFans and 4myFans takes 20% whereas many other sites take 30-50% of the models subscription. Anything less than 80% is a ripoff because you are the product. If you don't know what your percentage is, you should look this up immediately.”

This is the kind of advice that will be critical in navigating this space for folks like Alex Jenny, who launched her OnlyFans during the quarantine after giving it a thought for some time. She posts a mix of nudes, homemade porn that includes masturbation and sex with her partners, as well as lip sync/strip teases to songs that get her into the mood.

“Content will include stuff with me both in and out of ‘drag,’” she says. “I put quotation marks around drag because I'm also a genderqueer trans woman. So I'll be playing with my gender presentation and androgyny. I would love to get creative and find ways to integrate my drag persona, mental health and healing perspective, and my love of being a slut on my OnlyFans.”

Jenny says she also plans on talking about healing and unlearning shame through posting content online, saying she’s done sex work before but up until now feared talking about it could hinder her career. “As I've transitioned however and started doing drag, I found more freedom in learning to love and value my body as well as be more unapologetic about sharing more of myself with the world,” she says. “This is mostly a way for me to have fun, unlearn shame, unapologetically chase pleasure, and heal from sexual trauma—because if I don't have any shame about posting this kind of explicit content online, then it helps me not feel shame for the things that happened to me without my consent.”

SEX + DATINGGrindr