‍In honor of African Pride Month we’re spotlighting LGBTQ+ members paving the way for the African queer community.

Words by: BRILLIANT KODIE
Artwork by: KIT BEUKES  

Every day as a queer person in Africa is a struggle. In spite massive gains for the LGBTQ+ community in some countries, just recently Botswana decriminalized homosexuality, there are just as many places on the continent that continue to embrace discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. Though these headlines often cause me to feel discouraged, it’s the amazing queer people I’ve connected with around the continent that leads me to believe change is coming.

In light of October being African Pride Month, I wanted to spotlight a few of the queer people in Africa making positive changes in the community and proving that a single voice carries a chorus of power.

Meet Matthew Blaise

Born and raised in Nigeria, an African country that criminalizes gay people, Matthew Blaise has always fought for equality. “I am fighting to be seen as a femme person without the negative connotations or being considered weak or abnormal or even a freak of nature. This stereotype has left in me a box and I hate boxes. So I began fighting for myself and other femme people around me,’’ he explains.

Matthew is currently marching alongside other young people in Nigeria in peaceful protests to end SARS.  Their greatest concern is the impact this injustice will have on young queer Nigerians. ‘’I hope my platform will be filled with these young people, seeking answers and finding them with our help. Let them see through me, a 21 year old gay Nigerian existing in a land sworn to incarcerate and kill gay people’’ says Matthew.

Meet Lelo Meslani

The Johannesburg based DJ explores their activism through creating spaces that cater to the visibility and safety of queer and trans bodies through artistic mediums. ‘’I have managed to create Vogue Nights Jozi, an inclusive movement for dance, music and fashion, while being involved in other spaces such as Death Drop Island, Le Grand Ball to name but a few. I started doing this cultural work 3 years ago as a DJ because I noticed the gap in the city for things to do as a queer person in nightlife,’’ says Lelo.

These social spaces give us an opportunity to re-create our queer culture and afford us a chance to actually change how we see and live our lives. There is a great need for these spaces to expand into other African countries, ‘’I would love for my platform to reach other parts of South Africa and Africa at large. I think we have an opportunity to do important work that not only seems fun, but is actually life changing as well,’’ Lelo adds.

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Meet Cassim Cassim

The editor of setabane, a digital queer magazine in Botswana, Cassim has always fancied the idea of using fine arts as a means of activism and awareness. ‘‘I have written two anthologies so far, one titled ‘19’ and another ‘THINGS I WANTED TO SAY BUT NEVER DID,’ and I would love to work on more to creatively express the beauty and euphoria of being queer,’’ says Cassim. Currently a student at the University of Botswana, Cassim draws their inspiration from people’s real stories. ‘’I can never look at a one-sided mirror and construct inspiration from just that, life is exhilarating and I hope over time, the more I mingle with different entities, the more I become aware, the more I evolve,” they added.

Cassim understands that being a part of different minorities means fighting for different rights but fighting the same demon. They expressed the need for non-binary exposure after they realized that there is an erasure of non-binary entities in both the cis-gendered heteronormative world and the queer community as well. “My pronouns seem to be a bitter taste in most people’s mouths and that is why I fight every day, to eradicate the stigmatism of queer people’’ shared Cassim.

Meet Ramah Mbuthia Amandla

Ramah is a non-binary Kenyan storyteller passionate about issues affecting LGBTQ+ people in Africa. ‘’I was often pushed to defend my existence, personhood and journey to other folks at 9 years old, just like 21. As I grew into a better understanding of myself I realized that I might as well commit to this life path,’’ shares Ramah. They are one of the co-founders of Queer African Network (QAN), a social app for LGBTQ+ people of African descent to socialize, read queer stories & find safe opportunities. This summer they focused on documenting stories of queer people in East and Southern Africa, and intend to expand into documenting more stories from West and Central Africa next year.

‘’I hope to find folks that understand this vision and are able to join us in pushing against violence and injustices we experience as queer folk on the continent,’’ says Mbuthia. They believe that the ability to educate LGBTQ Africans will empower their voices through representation. ‘’I hope that beyond sympathy, we can move non-LGBTQ folks to empathy by showing them that our struggle is a struggle for their freedom as well, and the responsibility is upon them as much as it upon us,’’ says Ramah.

Meet Letlhogonolo Mokgoroane

Letlhogonolo is easily one of South Africa’s brightest legal minds and while studying at Stellenbosch University, he was part of a group of students who created the First Generation Camp – a camp that focuses on ensuring that students who are the first of their families coming to university are equipped with skills to help them succeed at higher learning institutions. ‘’The work that I do as an activist is basically care work…I care a lot about queer people, black women and black people,’’ he says.

Letlhogonolo believes that visibility and representation of queer lives will enable queer people to be whatever they want and understand that their sexuality should not hinder them from being afforded the same opportunities as everyone. He also believes that building the spirit of community amongst queer people, that is rooted in love and care is really essential. ‘’We often think about queer lives and just think about how much hardships we share…but our lives are glorious and our lives have joy,’’ Letlhogonolo adds.

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Pioneering disco producer Patrick Cowley would have turned 69 last year. He died young, an early loss in the HIV/AIDS crisis. But the sound he left behind on the San Francisco gay dance floor leaves a legacy that still surges today.

Pushing the boundaries of what electronics could do for dance music in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, Cowley helped to create Hi NRG and also invented the sound of gay sex—no, really. Over the past decade, the soundtracks that Cowley created for early gay porn movies have become some of the most celebrated vinyl reissues out there. Taken along with his string of Dance Chart hits, Cowley’s soundtracking of gay desire provides an alluring glimpse into queer hedonism in the pre-AIDS era.

In honor of his 69th year, here are our top 5 Cowley moments.

Menergy

Cowley’s biggest solo hit was the dance floor sizzler, “MENERGY,” a hi NRG gay sex anthem careening with vocoder vocals and Cowley’s signature synth sound. After the success of its 12” single, MENERGY would also become the title of his debut album, which was later repackaged as Megatron Man. After Cowley passed away, disco diva Sylvester even recorded a version of the track.

Do you wanna funk?

Cowley met Sylvester in 1978 and became a member of the singer’s traveling band. And while Cowley did lend arrangements to the disco smash “(You Make Me Feel) Mighty Real,” “Do You Wanna Funk” was their enduring collaboration. Originally released under both artist’s names, the track would go on to become Sylvester’s biggest hit.

Somebody To Love Tonight

Featuring on Sylvester’s album Stars, this epic track merged the looser sound of Cowley’s gay porn soundtracks with Sylvester’s disco-funk approach. An even vibier instrumental demo popped up on the second posthumous Cowley reissue Muscle Up, and it stands well on its own two feet.

Deep Inside You

The sinewy slither of “Deep Inside You” is a groove that catches on and won’t let go for the track’s nine pulsating minutes. Also appearing on Muscle Up, its no surprise that the tune originally laid under X-rated scenes. Further reading into Cowley’s recently released sex diaries, Mechanical Fantasy Box, testifies to the salacious drive epitomized by this particular moment in SF cruising culture.  

Surfside Sex

Taken from the soundtrack for 1982 porno Afternooners, “Surfside Sex” is one of Cowley’s most irresistible grooves. Like a lot of his porn contributions, it’s as good for dancing as it is for fucking. Recorded the same year as his death from HIV/AIDS, it merely hints at what the rest of the decade might have had in store.

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Want more Cowley? Check out the treasure trove of reissues available via Dark Entries Records, and enjoy the Afternooners promo art below.

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What Type of Work From Home(osexual) Are You?

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With COVID spiking around the country and health experts calling on Americans to limit their Thanksgiving travel, plenty of people will be missing their usual gatherings with family and friends this year. To combat any holiday loneliness that might crop up, we’re giving our U.S. users a different Grindr premium feature each day over the long weekend. You may not be able to host or travel, but you’ll have more options to browse, chat, get into some virtual play, or just well-wish your Grindr neighbors from afar.

As we’ve been noting in our safety messaging since the spring, the best way to slow the spread of COVID and protect your community is to stay home and avoid meeting up in person. In some places, this is a requirement, but it’s a good idea for everyone. Being isolated, however, doesn’t mean being alone—here are some safe ways to connect during the outbreak:

• Meet up virtually with photos, audio, video chat, and group chat
• Flirt and get to know people on the app: discuss books, movies, careers, and kinks
• Reach out to another Grindr user for support if you’re feeling lonely or scared, or support someone who is
• ”Right Now” can wait—make plans to meet up in the future instead

It might not be the Thanksgiving we had all hoped for, but supporting each other and staying connected virtually during these times is a great way to preserve the spirit of the holiday without putting yourself and others at risk.

Check out the schedule of Happy Hour features below, and have a happy—and safe—Thanksgiving from Grindr.

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One of the best parts about being queer is getting together with your chosen family to weigh in on the latest in pop culture, sex, dating, politics, and whatever else is happening in the world at the moment. That’s why we created The RearView, a new podcast that brings together a diverse panel of LGBTQ+ personalities and beloved celeb guests to dish on weekly hot topics and burning queer questions. It’s kind of like The View…but gayer.

The idea to create a podcast came from a conversation about how Grindr acts as a hub for so many diverse members of a shared community, and how we wanted to create a space to amplify the conversations people were having on—and about—our app. When we reached out to Foreverdog—the home of popular podcasts like Race Chaser, Confronting Demons with Meg Stalter, and Midnight Snack—they immediately got our vision. A few months later, during Pride, The RearView was born.

At the heart of The Rearview is the heart of America, really, and an icon of the community herself, Monique Heart. She, along with pop star Chester Lockhart, comedian Jay Jurden, and Grindr expert Patrick Rogers, round out the panel of queer luminaries as they talk with Grindr users, spar over pop culture, and weigh in on the week’s tops and bottoms with the help of some very special guests. To date they’ve kiki’d with Alaska Thunderfuck, Gabriele Bertaccini, Monique Samuels, Michelle Collins, Julie Klausner, Matt Rogers, Miz Cracker and more.

The mission of The RearView—to foster a shared culture for Grindr users and create a space to listen to the community—has proved fruitful over the past six months. The show’s “Grindr Hotline” segment, where real Grindr users call in to ask questions about sex and dating, garnered enough responses to become a weekly installment. And the “Queer Legacy Question,” which is asked at the end of every episode and intended to cause a bit of a stir (Who’s the best Spice Girl? What’s the best poppers brand?), has been a lightning rod on social media and seen its share of celebs tweeting their opinions at us (@jansportnyc loved Chromatica, y’all).

Having a space outside the app to give voice to the Grindr experience and discuss queer life has been a rewarding endeavor, and we’re excited to see how the show grows further in its second six months. If you haven’t had the opportunity to check it out yet, The RearView is available on Spotify, iTunes, and everywhere else podcasts are available.

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Our fabulous hosts are counting down their personal Top-10 Queer Moments of 2020 - including Niecy Nash's gay wedding, the release of the Chromatica jockstrap, Trump getting Covid, and more!

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Back in early March, as we were planning Grindr’s involvement in what was to be the 50th anniversary of LA Pride—taking place just a few blocks from our West Hollywood headquarters—the WHO officially declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Within days, countries around the world had imposed various states of lockdown to curb the spread, and within weeks it was clear that all plans were off—2020 was going to look a lot different than any of us could have ever anticipated.

Our attention quickly shifted away from the typical hallmarks of Pride—parades, parties, and protests—to figuring out how we could help people celebrate safely from home while also supporting queer artists, activists and entertainers whose livelihoods were being impacted by the pandemic. We created Pride Perseveres, a month-long virtual festival that would bring all the best of Pride into the Grindr app, but we faced a challenge: the unexpected onset of the pandemic made developing a new calendar UI in time for Pride month unfeasible. So we decided to power it with something we already had implemented: Braze Content Cards. Without getting too deep into the tech nitty gritty, Braze’s tools allowed us to power a dynamic UI that could accommodate live performances, panels, feature giveaways and more in the app without having to build and test a custom backend solution (for more, see Braze’s excellent Pride Perseveres case study)

Pride Perseveres launched in June and ultimately featured more than 25 daily events that were free and accessible to all Grindr users globally. Pride in 2020 came not only amid a global pandemic, but also as the United States was seeing nationwide protests against racism and police brutality, and much of our Pride Perseveres programming facilitated further dialogue around those issues—including a Black & Queer State of the Union led by activist Dana Vivian White, a conversation on The New Queer Consciousness featuring a panel of queer Black activists, and a Black Gay Pride event organized in collaboration with Global Black Gay Men Connect.

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Pride Perseveres was also an opportunity to bring awareness to an another vital part of our community: Black trans folks, who continue to face epidemic levels of violence in the U.S. and abroad. Transgender Law Center’s Ash Stevens raised funds for TLC with a conversation on policies affecting Black trans folks, and Black Excellence Collective founder Joshua Allen moderated a session on Grassroots Black Trans & Non-Binary Activism that raised funds for For the Gworls. Throughout the month, 100% of proceeds from Grindr’s limited edition Pride tee, released in June as part of the Grindr Merch Shop, benefitted The Okra Project, which provides resources and meals to Black trans people around the world.

Additional Pride Perseveres programming ran the gamut, from cooking shows, DJ sets, and live speed dating with famous drag queens (Monet X Change is single, y’all) to performances by a range of multi-talented queer artists and musicians, many of whom you can catch a glimpse of below in our Pride Perseveres recap video.

By the time we wrapped in July, we had shared our platform with dozens of artists and activists whose work is the very embodiment of Pride, and millions of our users had engaged with Pride Perseveres from home as a safe alternative to in-person Pride events. Post-event surveying showed that 65% of our users liked the festival, with more than half wanting to see similar events and content in the future. To be able to support so much talent within the community while also providing our users with a safe and rewarding way to celebrate showed us that Pride truly does persevere, no matter what.

At Grindr, the security and safety of our users and products is a top priority. As reported in many places, there are multiple large scale vulnerabilities across the internet that surfaced from a software library called Log4j. In December, when this issue was disclosed by the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA, we quickly activated our incident response teams and processes to assess the impact of this vulnerability on our products and customers.

Our initial assessment has found minimal usage of the affected log4j library. The small usage that was found has been reviewed by our team and successfully patched. At this time we have found no evidence of exploitation of this vulnerability observed within Grindr's environment.

Our threat mitigation team will continue to stay vigilant in monitoring this vulnerability, and as always will continue to keep the safety and security of our users at the forefront of our efforts.

-Joel Keating, Chief Information Security Officer | LinkedIn

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Now you might be thinking, “Grindr already had tags,” and you’re right—we did. But while those tags were an easy way to self-identify and express yourself on your profile, they weren’t searchable, and so they weren’t a great way to find other people into the same things as you.

My Tags, on the other hand, exist to help you express yourself and to help you find others who share your interests. So if you’re into cuddling—or carplay, or cruising—you can now quickly and easily search for and find others who are into those things too.

Here’s how it works:

To add tags just navigate to your profile, click “Edit Profile,” and select up to 8 tags from the My Tags section. Once you’ve added tags, you can click on a tag on your profile or another user’s profile to bring up a search of users near you who’ve also added that tag.

You can also search for tags by clicking on the magnifying glass icon at the top of the main grid. This will open a new page where you can search for tags either by typing them in or by tapping on a word that appears in your search suggestions. Either way, you can pull up a selection of nearby profiles that have added the tag you’re searching for.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Even though we’ll show you the closest people to your location when you search a tag, it’s possible that they could still be pretty far away depending on how densely populated your area is and how popular the tag is.
• We plan to add more tags in the near future, and are excited to hear what additional tags would resonate with our community. If you’re not seeing a tag you’d like added, just tap “Suggest a Tag” and let us know what you’d like to see.
• Lastly, the more people add tags to their profiles, the more useful searching for tags becomes—so go add some My Tags to your profile!

My Tags was born out of a desire to help our users find one another via shared interests—kinks, hobbies, personality and more—because it’s so much easier to start a conversation when you already know you’re into the same things as a potential connection. Stay tuned as we add new tags to the library and continue to roll out My Tags to additional countries and languages in the coming weeks.

-Bronwyn Lundberg, Associate Product Manager | LinkedIn

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First up: Access and Portability. All Grindr users now have automated access to the information stored by Grindr about them (with some limitations) both on our servers and on their device. AND the information is portable—meaning we will email you a copy of your information if you so desire. We’ve provided this option through our Customer Service team for years, but now it’s automated and self-serve.  The data you’ll receive spans the things you’d most likely expect, like your public profile information and chat history, along with some other interesting data, like your sign-in history and what ads we’ve shown you to promote other Grindr features.  

Make sure to read the Data Dictionary that comes with your data to see what the information means and how it is structured in the file.  And since this file could contain a lot of sensitive information, we’ve built some serious security into the process to verify ownership of your Grindr account and your ownership of the destination email address. You’ll find Download My Data (and most other privacy features) by accessing the sidebar menu (swipe from the left), clicking “Settings,” and scrolling to the “Security and Privacy” section.

Next up: Ad Targeting Opt-Out, which allows people to opt out of having their use of Grindr remembered by our Ad Partners—meaning they won’t receive LGBTQ+ ads outside their use of the Grindr app based on the fact that they have used the Grindr app. Grindr and our partners already honor the device-wide opt-out features in iOS and Android, but this new setting is for those users who want to receive targeted ads for most of their activities but not targeted ads based on their use of the Grindr app.  As with Download My Data, you’ll find this setting by accessing the sidebar menu (swipe from the left), clicking “Settings,” and scrolling to the “Security and Privacy” section (please note that if you use other LGBTQ+ apps or sites and have not triggered an opt-out there, you may still receive LGBTQ-focused ads outside of those apps and sites).

And last up for this round of privacy announcements: Viewed Me Opt-Out.  This privacy control allows users to remove themselves from the Viewed Me feature altogether. Users who activate the opt-out won't be added to the Viewed Me list of other users, but also won't be able to access their own Viewed Me list. You’ll see this feature show up in the Privacy section of the sidebar menu in the next few weeks.

A sincere thanks to our Product and Engineering teams for making these features a reality. I’m equally thankful to our Leadership team for keeping our privacy goals a top priority and to everyone else at Grindr that helped deliver these features for our users.

We’re not done! Much more to come on the privacy front so stay tuned.

-Shane Wiley, Chief Privacy Officer | LinkedIn

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At Grindr, you not only get to work on creating a best-in-class experience for the LGBTQ+ community, but you also work for a company where creativity and innovation flourish. Ideas that you develop have a real impact for users of the largest LGBTQ+ dating app in the market. Recently, Grindr hosted our annual Hackathon (AKA HackDay, Datathon, or Codefest) which brought together teams throughout the organization in the spirit of collaboration and innovation as they set out to solve challenges, introduce new ideas, and reimagine what Grindr is capable of in support of the LGBTQ+ community.

We sat down with some folks involved in the Hackathon and here is what they had to say about the impact of the event:

Alice Hunsberger, Senior Director & Global Head of Customer Experience, judged our “For Love” category, which centered on ideas around user safety, health, accessibility, or connection. We asked Alice to explain hackathons and what was the goal for them. Here is how she thinks about it:

“If you haven’t worked for a tech company before then you may be confused! During a hackathon, teams have to come up with a technical idea for their company and then build it as best they can, over a day or a long weekend. It’s called a “hackathon” because developers will just hack together code super-fast to build the thing, but not everything has to be code-based. The goal is to generate innovative ideas for the company, encourage cross-functional teamwork, and just have fun.”

At Grindr, the safety and security of the community we serve is always top-of-mind in the work we do, and this Hackathon reflects that same ethos. Teams competed in two categories: The first centered around business growth and impact while the second category focused on ideas that improved user safety, health, accessibility, or connection. All of the presentations showcased exceptional ideas around ways that Grindr can continue to support the global LQBTQ+ community.

Jack Harrison-Quintana, Director of Grindr for Equality, also served as one of the judges for the Hackathon and provided deeper insight into what makes Hackathons so impactful for companies:

“One of the things that I love about Hackathons is that it creates a space where people’s creativity is not restricted by existing priorities. It allows teams to incubate and build on ideas that could potentially go on to become future features of the actual app. I have been able to judge Hackathon presentations where we have gone on to implement all or parts of a project that were presented or even sparked ideas that we were not even considering yet.”

It is truly rewarding to work for a place that allows people to innovate in their fields while uplifting the queer community. This year’s Hackathon showcased the collaborative spirit of Grindr’s employees and their diverse talents. If you are looking for a culture that allows you to work at the intersection of technology and supporting the LGBTQ+ community, consider applying for a role with Grindr here. Hope to see you at the next Hackathon!

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