Gay

New Grindr boss supported Trump and backed anti-LGBTQ+ politician: ‘This is messed up’

Grinder CEO

Grindr’s chief executive officer, George Arison, has announced the app’s strong second quarter revenue growth. (Getty)

Grindr’s newly appointed CEO has been being called out for publicly showing support for an anti-trans politician.

George Arison was announced as the dating app’s newest CEO in September 2022, with his role set to come into effect from 19 October.

But his arrival has now come under scrutiny on social media by the LGBTQ+ community after tweets resurfaced showing support for Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin, who ran in opposition to LGBTQ+ rights in his 2021 race. 

In the tweet, dated 24 February, Arison said Youngkin “should totally run for President”. 

https://twitter.com/georgearison/status/1496906681858486274?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1496906681858486274%7Ctwgr%5Ed50bce8d55ad408f89f1e3db625bc08dc0fb9040%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.them.us%2Fstory%2Fgrindr-incoming-ceo-conservative-political-tweets

Since Youngkin assumed office in January 2022 he has attempted to roll back protections for trans children by releasing model policies intended to defer almost all of trans students’ rights to their parents.

Youngkin has also said he’s against same-sex marriage. When asked if he supports marriage equality in an interview with Associated Press he responded “no”, but that it is “legally acceptable”.

One response to Arison’s comment reads: “This is messed up.

Another questions how a man who “openly supports homophobes for office and their homophobic policies” can become the CEO of a gay dating app.

https://twitter.com/samita365/status/1580229468181778432

In 2020 new Grindr boss Arison also tweeted to say that he supports “some” of former President Donald Trump’s policies – but didn’t specify which.

It was in response to former New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, who’s previously been accused of homophobia on social media.

https://twitter.com/georgearison/status/1233469085725396993?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1233469085725396993%7Ctwgr%5Eeb4f586062b3eca52787b442c0b4f7d49d48bfa4%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.them.us%2Fstory%2Fgrindr-incoming-ceo-conservative-political-tweets

He also wrote to say he views Trump as “everything our founders feared the most”.

https://twitter.com/georgearison/status/1233459109342531587

 

Activist Diana Adams urged Grindr users to delete the app, asking if users “feel safe sharing personal data on that app with someone who clearly doesn’t care much about LGBTQ rights/sexual freedom?”

Press secretary of NARAL Pro-Choice America, Riley Lopez, responded:  “Could it finally be time for queer people to reject the toxic and exploitative Grindr, now that the company’s incoming CEO is a pro-Trump conservative?”

Concern over Arison’s support for Bloomberg follows the former New York mayor being slammed for “homophobic” tweets stating Bernie Sanders has the hots for Vladimir Putin.

At a business conference in Manhattan in 2019, Bloomberg described trans people as “he, she, or it” and said “some guy in a dress” who enters girls locker rooms as he argued that trans rights were “not a winning formula” for Democrats. 

According to Grindr, Arison is one of the “few openly gay public company CEOs in the United States”.

“George is an out gay man, proudly married to his husband and the father of two children. George is passionate about fighting for the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ people around the world,” a Grindr spokesperson told PinkNews. 

 

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