This just in: There’s a new gay hookup, er, dating app on the market and it claims to be far superior to all the others.
Taimi was developed by a group of anonymous tech guys from Silicon Valley who set out to create “the safest gay dating & social media” after allegedly facing “unspeakable discrimination at the workplace because of their sexual orientation.”
“Their careers slackened off because of the sexual orientation,” the company says in a statement. “Thus, they decided to create Taimi as a tool to strengthen the LGBT+ community.”
Taimi is a play on the words “tame me”. The company says it wanted to create a tamer dating app catered to gay men looking for more than just a meaningless one-night flings.
In addition to offering “bank level security” and popup reminders about taking PrEp pills, the app also boasts other “health-related filters.”
What kind of filters, you ask?
HIV status filters, of course!
That’s right, folks. In its efforts to “strengthen the LGBT+ community”, the developers have still managed to find a way to keep people divided by stigmatizing HIV.
Sigh.
Related: Coming Soon: An HIV Filter On Grindr???
Of course, the idea of including an HIV filter on gay dating apps is nothing new. Grindr floated the idea back in 2016 and received a ton of backlash for it. And last year, the app DaddyBear faced a wave of criticism for flat out discriminating against poz guys.
Many have argued that such filters not only continue to stigmatize HIV by creating a digital quarantine of sorts, but the filters provide a false sense of security.
In a HuffPost op-ed published last year, blogger Alex Garner went so far as to call filtering men by HIV status “an act of ignorance and fear” and is a “bad strategy for staying negative.”
“It’s bad science and simply doesn’t work to eschew poz guys while taking risk with guys who might think they are negative,” he wrote. “Someone may believe they are HIV-negative but actually be undiagnosed as HIV-positive and have a very high viral load.”
He continued, “We can avoid the facts or we can choose to educate ourselves about the latest science. We can filter poz guys or we can engage in meaningful conversations with one another about HIV.”
“We can create more and more barriers to keep us apart or we can choose to bring people together to improve our health and strengthen our community.”
Word.
Related: New dating app aims to connect ‘wealthy gay daddies’ with ‘healthy gay bears’
LABrad
The writer of this article thinks this is dividing people by stigmatizing HIV? That’s not the problem because that’s not even what’s happening.
They’re selling the FANTASY that it’s POSSIBLE to block HIV poz guys. The sad thing is … there are people naive enough to believe it.
CastleSF
Most people are not naive or gullible but when someone reassures you that they are not HIV+, it does add another layer of peace of mind.
JK 1984
CastleSF, currently (hopefully permanently) I am off the market, but if I was dating/hooking up no amount of reassurance would make me believe a guy is HIV- (as well as the other STIs) until we have been tested together and in a monogamous relationship.
I would rather they were upfront about about anything, complete brutal honesty is my policy.
DHT
Considering 15% of gay men with HIV don’t even know that they have it this is especially true.
ChrisK
Oh look. Another shitty Chinese company.
If you go by a stupid app to make your desisions then you deserve whatever comes your way.
Jake321
Good point
CastleSF
Nobody deserves this awful infection, no matter what they do. You sound cold hearted and unfeeling.
Vince
Well, since it’s coming from you I’ll take that as a compliment then 😉
James
I am surprised that did not add a button to block democrats.
djmcgamester
Wait, how does this app “strengthen out community”? By creating division? It’s downright ridiculous. There are a lot of ways opposite statuses can have good, healthy and safe relationships. I’ve been in relationships with two separate HIV+ guys. Guess what? Still negative. It’s not that hard, especially given that PrEP makes it even safer (which still doesn’t mean condoms shouldn’t be use but the risk is greatly reduced). Hope this app is a fail.
CastleSF
I am neutral on the HIV thing but what’s wrong with someone not wanting to date or hook up with a poz guy? It’ not judgmental. A simple preference perhaps.
Aromaeus
Then guys will just join and lie about their status therein making the problem worse. Great job!
CastleSF
Why would they lie about their HIV status? It doesn’t do them any good.
LABrad
CastleSF – Maybe you should ask them if they’re lying … just to be on the safe side. lol
CastleSF
I sense someone’s sarcasm. Seriously? When do so many gays become so jaded these day?
Heywood Jablowme
It wouldn’t usually be the problem of lying. It would much more likely be the problem of someone who hasn’t been tested recently (or ever), but who is in reality HIV+ and highly infectious.
Plausible deniability = supposedly “not poz,” “DDF” etc. = highly infectious.
Aromaeus
On a side note I don’t see articles about apps that already let you use filters based on race but ya know…that’s different…
batesmotel
If you were HIV positive, would you want to waste your time chatting with someone who is not comfortable with that? Like it or not, it would save people a lot of time and effort in communicating with you if they have a list of requirements. Most of them do. They want that hot, young, white, hardbodied jock stud. That’s the reality. Unfortunate as it may be, it is the truth. Of course those that just want that are limited and who wants to know them anyway.
Stefano
That’s exactly what i was thinking.
PinkoOfTheGange
when most of my friends seroconverted that is exactly how they would of been described, and it was months or even years before they had test available or took them.
Kieran
How do you block people who lie about their status?
PinkoOfTheGange
And Kieren shoots from the 3 point line…all net…and the crowd goes wild.
PinkoOfTheGange
sorry about the misspell of you handle.
Paco
Because horny men NEVER lie.
surreal33
The mere fact that in 2018, we are still having this debate about HIV is extremely problematic. It is truly sad, disheartening, and monumentally selfish the narrative that sexual gratification is more important health and well being. Reading between the lines the message that facilitating the insatiable sex drive of gay men is paramount to protecting yourself from a myriad of diseases is insane. Please change the narrative your health and well being is more important than offending some random online trick who may or may not have any number of diseases.
Me2
Yeah, and a button on an app is going do that! It’s time to climb down off of your soap box and snap back into reality.
TaimiApp
Hi, guys! We are glad that Queerty is writing about Taimi, but we actually do not have search filters based on HIV-status. So, there is no way we could block HIV-positive users. If users want, they can state their HIV status in their profiles and look at this information in other people’s profiles. Thanks for your comments, engagement and interest in the topic!
NateOcean
On one site a guy lists himself as:
“HIV+, undectable”
then also
“PrEP as a preventatvie”
Does that even make sense?
Me2
It’s not up to an app to protect you. Anyone who puts their trust in what people post online is asking for trouble. There is absolutely NO WAY to filter out people who may be HIV positive, even if the app did offer that “feature”.
CastleSF
It’s not about blindly believing what people tell you. It’s just that you feel more reassured when someone says that they are HIV-. Most people will still practice safe sex I suppose but psychologically you just feel that there is less risk involved than doing it with someone who is upfront with their status.
Me2
It’s still an irrational false sense of security.