Burger pawpaw

This guy invited his whole town to his “BBQ not n Orgy” on Grindr and everyone had a great time

All Chris Bowman of Apex, North Carolina wanted was to have a nice summer barbecue with friendly people. So he posted an invite on Grindr: “BBQ not n ORGY.”

“It’s open to all,” the invitation read. “Men, women, gay, bi, str8, trans doesn’t matter to me.”

61-year-old Bowman also reached out to several people with personal messages, letting them know there would be plenty of delicious food and plus-ones were totally welcome:

Word of the barbecue quickly spread beyond Apex and pretty soon people around the country were posting about it:

23-year-old Matthew Setzer, who lives nearby, received a personal invite from Bowman on Grindr. He tells BuzzFeed News that he hadn’t thought about going until he saw it went viral on social media.

“You get a lot of spam and odd messages on Grindr, so initially I just glossed over it and didn’t think much of it,” Setzer says. “But everyone was really supportive on Twitter so I thought, hey, I got the message! I might as well go to this thing.”

He and his friend Mark attended and had a great time.

“Everyone was super sweet, really engaging, and it was actually a really diverse group of people,” he says.

Afterwards, he shared photos on Twitter:

Bowman, who is bisexual, tells BuzzFeed News the annual barbecue is his “way of giving back.”

“As an alcoholic, I haven’t spoken to or seen my kids since 2004. I haven’t talked to my mother since ’99,” he says. “There’s things that go on in life that you make choices about, and I chose wrongly. I chose the drink.”

“I’ve been sober for 8 and a half years now, and I just kind of feel the need, instead of being the asshole that I was, to be a softer, kinder, gentler, let’s-get-together kinda guy.”

He adds, “I’m a people-person, and I enjoy people, so what better way than to have strangers over and invite people and just have fun? It probably sounds really weird, but you can get away with it in North Carolina.”

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