Ugh, it’s unpleasant enough that Nico Hines pulled a “let’s out the gay athletes” trick in Rio, but a new op-ed points out another unpleasant aspect of the stunt: “Media coverage of Grindr reduces it to a sex-on-demand service,” says a new Salon op-ed. “Here’s why it’s so much more.”
Related: Everyone’s Pissed At This Straight Journalist Who Used Grindr To Out Gay Athletes In Rio
In the his op-ed, Peter Kispert writes that Grindr is not the “meat market” that Hines seems to think it is. He also explains how the app has changed his life beyond just hookups, and what it would have meant for him as an 18-year-old to have access to such an easy connection to gay community.
One of the best things about Grindr, he writes, is that it proves “gay people are everywhere.” (We really are!) And if there’s anything most humans have in common, it’s that we’re wired for sex. And many of us are open to having sex between matching genitals.
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Related: People Are Still Really, Really Mad At That Straight Reporter Who Outed Gay Athletes In Rio
In Peter’s piece, he talks about all the friends he’s made on the app, and his first love. It’s not just for trashy hookups (though it’s that, too), and Hines missed that sense of connection and community in his desperate pursuit of lurid clickbait.
“What made you think you know what Grindr even is?” Peter asks Hines.
We eagerly await an answer.
BTW, he still hasn’t apologized.
Bayonetto
Why have you not actually linked back to the Salon article you’re citing? You link back to two of your own previous articles, but not the one that inspired you to even write up this summary of the full piece?
http://www.salon.com/2016/09/04/not-just-a-meat-market-on-grindr-nico-hines-and-rejecting-shame/
ed_burns
Maybe Mr. Hines isn’t sorry for what he did. And if that’s the case, he shouldn’t apologize.
Chris
Any apology he issues will allow him to skate away with something no more meaningful than Ryan Lochte’s apology. But putting the lives of these athletes at risk is way worse than anything Lochte may have done.
What he should do is to visit the countries (and others) where the men he outed live and contribute to efforts to end homophobia in those places. Then, I’ll believe that he’s genuinely sorry. Until then, no apology he issues will ever be good enough in my book.
Xzamilio
@Chris: What could he undo that centuries of religion and culture has done to those places? If he’s not sorry, he shouldn’t apologize… no amount of smoke blowing will appease those who are mad, and to be honest, who is really still thinking about this dude, save a few?
KM201
The ravaging lynch mob that went after Nico Hines last month is going to have to learn that he’s not really sorry about the article and that he’ll be back to writing more articles in a month’s time. Remember the uproar a number of years ago when that writer Caleb Hannan outed a deceased trans woman and the whole internet was ready to off his head for it? Well, the media publicity died down and a number of months later, he went back to work and no one has said anything about it since. That’s exactly what’s going to happen in this case and the lynch mob is eventually going to get over it like they always do.
Mykaels
It is hilarious/stupid on how the gay press likes to pretend that it has occurred to absolutely NO ONE to use Grindr to lure, trap, attack, and even kill gay men UNTIL this writer highlighted Grindr on an article about the Olympics. No straight bigot had ever HEARD of Grindr before this article.
I mean seriously folks. He did not out anyone. He just showed a way to out people to folks who had no intention of gay bashing. The folks that DO gay bash already knew of Grindr and had already used it to do so. Anti gay governments have been using gay hook up aps to imprison/kill their gays. Gay bashers have used it to find victims. We read about it all the time.
Can we stop with the faux outrage just to be outraged by something because we feel like we must be outraged for the sake of outrage. Seriously.