President of gay dating app Grindr Scott Chen, has been called out by members of the gay community for saying he agrees that ‘marriage is a holy matrimony between a man and woman.’
The President of gay dating app Grindr who made this known in a now-deleted Facebook post, had accused HTC president and CEO Cher Wang of supporting anti-LGBTQ causes through two nonprofit organizations and attempting to influence Taiwan’s same-sex marriage decision.
Chen who further disclosed that he will be boycotting smartphones and accessories from her Taiwan-based company for a lifetime, wrote;
‘There are people who believe that marriage is a holy matrimony between a man and a woman. I agree but that’s none of our business,’ Chen wrote in Chinese, which was translated by an independent translator for INTO.
‘There are also people who believe that the purpose of marriage is to create children that carry their DNA. That’s also none of our business. There are people that are simply different from you, who desperately want to get married. They have their own reasons,’ he added
He continued by taking a jab at HTC’s Wang: ‘Getting married is a personal thing, rich can’t donate to the real poor hungry war disaster that needs help? Why spend money to stop people in love from getting married? Is nothing important in life?’
‘Right, I won’t buy HTC Products for a lifetime, and I won’t donate any money to Taiwan’s Christian groups for a lifetime!’
Reacting to this, Zach Stafford, the Editor-in-Chief of INTO a digital magazine owned by Grindr, wrote;
‘Today we at INTO have learned that the current president of Grindr believes that same-sex marriage is a ”holy matrimony between men and women.”’
‘We are reporting this as the media property owned by Grindr and will be updating this as the story develops,’ he wrote.
However Chen who reacted to this alleged that the article was ‘unbalanced and misleading,’ and further called out a staff writer Matthew Rodriguez.
‘Matthew, I wish you asked my comments before you publish this. This article is unbalanced and misleading. It hurts my feelings and it also hurts INTO’s and Grindr’s reputation,’ Chen replied.
‘The reason I said marriage is a holy matrimony between a man and a woman is based on my own personal experience. I am a straight man married to a woman I love and I have two beautiful daughters I love from the marriage. This is how I feel about my marriage,’ he explained.
Chen, whose 60-year-old conservative aunt got into a ‘heated discussion’ after the controversy sparked by his Facebook post, further wrote:
‘I am a huge advocate for LGBTQ+ rights since I was young. I support gay marriage and I am proud that I can work for Grindr,’ he concluded.
His comments came after voters in Taiwan rejected a referendum this month to legalise same-sex marriage in what would have been the first country in Asia to do so, after a constitutional court declared it legal in May.
