Grindr for Equality Celebrates Mumbai Pride with Full-Volume Joy

Mumbai Pride has a particular kind of magic. It’s one of those spaces that holds a lot at once — celebration, protest, community, and that uniquely Mumbai ability to be joyful and unbothered even when the world is… not.

This year, Grindr for Equality is proud to support Mumbai Queer Pride — not just to show up, but to enable community-led work focused on priorities that are inseparable: sexual health, user safety, and community leadership.

Grindr for Equality’s work in India is grounded in long-term collaboration with trusted community-based organizations. Over time, we’ve partnered with groups supporting LGBTQ+ communities across PrEP awareness, HIV self-testing, community safety, and mental health, including The Humsafar Trust, Mist LGBTQ Foundation, PrEPARED, SAATHII, Safe Access, and YRG Care. These organizations bring deep local knowledge and credibility — and their leadership is what makes this work meaningful and effective.

Sexual health: Prevention that feels real, local, and empowering

Sexual health remains one of the most urgent and practical parts of LGBTQ+ wellbeing in India. This is where trusted community outreach matters, especially around HIV testing and PrEP. In-app messaging, when done in partnership with community leaders, can help normalize prevention information, reduce fear, and connect people to services without shame — bina judgment, bina lecture.

As Sourabh Bharadwaj, Communications Coordinator from PrEPARED, a Grindr for Equality partner, shared:

“For many queer people in India, especially younger folks, the first place they see PrEP discussed openly is on their phone. When we reach people directly through Grindr with culturally relevant, non-judgmental information, it shifts the conversation from fear to empowerment. And when people know their options, they make healthier decisions. Grindr’s in-app reach helps us meet people where they already are.”

That shift — from fear to empowerment — is not a small thing. It’s one of the most meaningful forms of prevention.

Community safety: Pride is celebration — safety is what makes it possible

Pride is celebratory, but safety remains a real concern in India. Across the nation, LGBTQ+ communities continue to face harassment, extortion and threats, fear of being outed, and misinformation that can escalate harm.

Safety work often happens behind the scenes. It can include digital safety training, strengthening community response systems, connecting people to legal aid, and supporting interventions designed by community organizations who understand local realities.

And while Grindr invests heavily in safety as a platform, we also know something important: the most effective safety solutions are often community-led.

In that spirit, Grindr for Equality is supporting the work of SAATHII, a respected non-governmental organization with deep experience in HIV, LGBTQIA+ rights, and community empowerment. From digital safety education and awareness, to strengthening response networks and referrals, these interventions help communities navigate real risks while preserving dignity and agency.

As SAATHII’s Senior Vice President, Dr. L. Ramakrishnan, explains:

“Safety interventions work best when they’re designed by the community — because we understand the risks on the ground. Grindr for Equality’s support helps us strengthen prevention, response, and awareness efforts without compromising our independence. When queer people feel safer, they show up more fully — in Pride spaces, in relationships, in public life. That’s not just safety. That’s liberation.”

And yes: that is exactly what Pride should make possible.

Community power: The real headline

Sexual health and safety are often discussed as services that communities receive. But in India, Pride reminds us of something deeper: LGBTQ+ communities are not passive recipients. They are leaders. For decades, LGBTQ+ communities in India have built networks of care — often without institutional support — creating trusted pathways to information, safety, and wellbeing through community organizations, peer networks, and grassroots leadership. 

Pride itself is part of that legacy — organizing it, sustaining it, protecting it, and keeping it alive year after year. So are the community organizations doing the daily work of outreach, education, navigation, crisis response, and harm reduction.

Grindr for Equality’s support for Mumbai Pride isn’t only about promoting initiatives alone — it’s also about recognizing and investing in leadership that already exists. Leadership that is local, credible, and accountable to community needs. 

Dil se Pride, Mumbai 🌈

Mumbai Pride has always been a space where the community shows what it looks like to be resilient and radiant at the same time. It’s where celebration meets courage — and where the community turns up with heart, with style, and with purpose. It’s aunties and chosen family. It’s protest and dance. It’s laughter and rage. It’s poetry and policy — all in a single day.

From all of us at Grindr: thank you to Mumbai Pride and to all the community leaders and organizers who keep India’s LGBTQ+ communities strong — not just for one march, but for the long road ahead.

See you on the streets, Mumbai!

For more information about Mumbai Pride on February 20, 2026 — including march details and post-parade events — click here.