“Pray Away The Gay” Ads Are Popping Up On Grindr

What a charming Easter surprise: international Grindr users are reporting that ads for GodLife have been appearing on the social app.

Contrary to some reports, GodLife avoids recommending users to a “pray-away-the-gay” camp. In fact, the words “homosexuality” or “gay” don’t appear on the site even once. But GodLife does have some awkward advice for general sexual behavior: “God will remove His hand from your service to Him if you allow lust to lead you to actual sexual immorality,” says one article, adding that you should “monitor your fantasizing and daydreaming when your mind is idle.”

In another article, an author writes: “The next time you are tempted to give in to your desires (‘the flesh’), call out to God for the will to resist. He is always faithful to answer that prayer and help you on the spot.”

Well, it’s not exactly ex-gay abuse, but it’s also not quite in keeping with the spirit of Grindr. And now the company is working on getting it removed. A spokesperson writes, “While we do have safeguards in place to monitor for ads on third-party networks, we do serve billions of ads on our network, so there is the occasional chance that an inappropriate ad may appear. In this instance, we’ve reached out to the third-party networks to have the ad removed. While we are pleased to learn that Godlife.com seems to be an inclusionary organization, we are working to remove this ad from Grindr.”

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Yikes, that’s kind of harsh. First they came for the sluts, now they’re coming for the prudes. It’s kind of a shame that in this case, religious folks and sexy-time apps can’t reach an understanding. After all, there’s no reason you couldn’t have a nice little message from a gay-affirming organization like the Metropolitan Community Church. Then again, that might still be kind of a killjoy when you’re cruising for sexy torsos.

After all, Grindr’s ads tend to be fairly targeted to the sexually eager. We just switched the app on, and got the following popups:

• Freezing therapy to erase love handles
• Gift cards for HIV tests
• Gay cruise to South America

Sorry, churches! No time to get all spiritual, we’ve got to get our love handles blasted and our blood tested before we dance our way to Buenos Aires! These ads paint a totally accurate and complete portrait of the gay community.