[LINK] "Straight People Are Going on Grindr to Make Gay Best Friends"

[rfmcdonald]

Shawn Binder's Mic article is perplexing. As someone who finds Grindr barely useful at all, the idea of using it as a conventional social networking platform--of heterosexuals using it as said, of heterosexual men--using it is honestly shocking.

"This is embarrassing," Elizabeth*, 26, told Mic over the phone, her voice shaking. She was talking about how she discovered her boyfriend was cheating on her after she found a dick pic on his phone.

To hear Elizabeth tell it, her boyfriend had never expressed interest in men before, so she couldn't believe he might be interested in having sex with them. "I knew something was up," she said. She needed answers but wasn't sure where to begin, so she pulled out her smartphone and downloaded Grindr for reconnaissance.

At first, Elizabeth pretended to be a man on her profile, asking around to see if any of the men in her area were sleeping with her boyfriend. "None admitted to it," Elizabeth told Mic. But even though she didn't find out whether her boyfriend was cheating on her on Grindr, something surprising happened after she ultimately broke up with him: "I actually started making connections."

Over time, Elizabeth started regularly hanging out with a few of the men she met on Grindr. "Once I told them I wasn't a guy, a lot of them blocked me. But after I explained [my situation] to the few who would listen, they were all really accepting of me," she told Mic.

While it might seem strange for a heterosexual woman to use one of the largest gay dating apps out there, Elizabeth is not alone. She is one of a number of people who have turned to the app for something other than sex: platonic friendship.