It Could Happen Here - My RNC Grindr Adventure

Episode Date: August 2, 2024

Gare investigates the alleged increase in Grindr activity at the 2024 Republican National Convention.     See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and

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This is It Could Happen Here, where today the it is gay flirting and or harassment, and the here is Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the 2024 Republican National Convention. I'm Gare, also known by my undercover alias, Garrison Davis, and I was lucky enough to be one of our on-the-ground RNC correspondents. A few weeks ago, we provided daily coverage of the GOP Coronation Festival based on our conversations with delegates, lobbyists, and think tank ghouls, and reported on the general trends in rhetoric used by popular speakers at the event. We'll have some more in-depth episodes about those topics in the weeks to come, using more of our recorded interviews we collected at the convention. But on top of our regular coverage, I also had a special

assignment that I more or less assigned to myself. On this show, we often talk about right-wing extremism and issues facing gay and trans people, including the various ways conservatives and Christian nationalists are trying to make life harder for queer people, whether through legislation, online harassment, and physical violence. As these are two of our most frequently covered topics, being at the Republican National Convention provided me with the perfect opportunity to investigate the intersection between conservatism and homosexuality. flocking to the gay hookup app Grindr to get laid during the RNC. Whether they be 20-year-old Republican twinks from Miami, or 53-year-old self-hating closeted gay men from Idaho trapped in loveless marriages. Curiosity has often gotten the better of me, and I needed to know how many homosexual Republicans were actually logging on to Grindr. In case you're unfamiliar, Grindr is technically a dating app that serves the LGBTQ community,

but in actuality, it is a mediocre hookup app that mostly serves as a way for strangers in their 40s to completely unprompted send you unflattering pictures of their penis. Grindr was launched in 2009 and is arguably the largest and most popular gay dating app, especially among men. Grindr has only been around for two in-person RNCs prior to this point, 2012 and 2016, since all convention activities moved online during 2020 for the pandemic. So this July, for the first time in eight years, Republicans from all around the country could gather in one city, and once their wives fell asleep, log on to Grindr. In this episode, I'm going to tell you about my RNC Grindr experience. Before traveling to the city that was about to be invaded by all of the weirdest Republicans in the country, I needed to do some prep to help ensure safety and success in my

investigative endeavor. I hope you queers liked that terrible pun. Based on the massive increase in violent anti-trans rhetoric coming from the GOP, I already knew that I would be dusting off my old boy motor skills and going undercover as a cisgender male. Although my ability to pass as a straight male is debatable, I can at least easily pass as a not-quite-straight male. My trans-feminine fashion taste has been skewing more masc-lesbian in recent years, so clothing wasn't really an issue. I packed up basically all my button-up collared shirts, three ties, two black suits, and a beige London Fog trench coat. Basically, the vibe I was going for was half young Republican, half Roman towel boy dressed as a 1950s FBI agent. I refer to this as

Dale Cooper moding. I was unwilling to cut my hair to match most of the young Republican frat boys, so I settled on styling my wavy blonde locks like Bar Baron Trump meets Tilda Swinton in Constantine. I was kinda Gabriel Maxing for most of the convention. And though most attendees were unable to pick up on my dykish undertones, the one day I wasn't wearing a tie, I did get she heard by the Secret Service when entering the convention through a security checkpoint. They're going woke! So that was my general look for the convention. I also completely remade my Grindr profile for the RNC. For simplicity's sake, I thought to emphasize my twinkish past and removed the explicitly non-binary transgender aspects of

my profile, replacing some of my more trans-coded photos with pictures of my Light Yagami and Dale Cooper cosplay. Perhaps next RNC, I can experiment with discovering how many of the RNC attendees are chasers, but for safety's sake, I went to more stealth both online and in person at RNC-related events. For my main profile picture, I chose a pretty basic photo of me with disheveled hair, wearing a light gray shirt and thin black tie, looking just frankly exhausted. I chose the simple yet elegant username Twink, and for my bio wrote Gen Z in town for convention, which I thought was pretty funny and signals to people that yes, I am here for the RNC, but leaves the exact reason why still a bit mysterious.

So this was my bait. On my way to the airport, I was already dressed for the part, as I suspected the flight from Atlanta to Milwaukee would be part of the whole RNC experience. I arrived at the gate, and the vibe shift was immediate. Older white men with even whiter hair, wearing a mix of poorly tailored suits, and country club polo shirts fit for the driving range. They all kinda looked like my Republican grandfather. The women, meanwhile, regardless of age, were all cosplaying their favorite female Fox News anchor with bleached blonde hair. There were a handful of delegates, as well as Republican superfans wearing Trump buttons and mega hats, just really excited to be going to the convention,

the way a nerd would be excited to go to San Diego Comic-Con. Others at the gate were more subdued, perhaps not wanting to attract too much attention in the Atlanta airport. But I could still overhear them getting into quiet small talk about their RNC expectations, and in hushed tones asking others at the gate if they were going to the convention. And that's what everyone called it. Not the Republican convention, not the GOP convention or the RNC. The convention. As I was boarding the plane, an older woman with straw-like blonde hair, sitting a few rows in front of me, waved to me and asked, young man, are you going to the convention?

I gave my best, yes ma'am, took my seat, and then heard her remark to her friend about how happy she was that more young people are attending the convention, and I would suspect she would be quite disappointed to learn why I was attending the convention and what I was doing there, mainly trying to collect as much information about these weird RNC grinder Republicans as I can. And you will hear more about those weird grinder RNC Republicans after the break. This episode is brought to you in part by the Top Gun soundtrack, which I was listening to as I was coming out from Adderall while writing the second half of this episode, as well as these products and sponsors. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series,

The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout?

Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jacqueline Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you to join me and a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audio books while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture.

Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories of the brilliant writers behind them. Blacklit is here to amplify the voices of black writers and to bring their words to life. Listen to Blacklit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel-winning economists to leading journalists in the field, and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough, so join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better.

Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. Okay, back to the grind. Most convention activities took place in the Pfizer Forum, which it took about four days to learn how to pronounce. This venue is usually home to the NBA team, the Milwaukee Bucks, and this is where I would do most of my grinder cruising,

so I could see other profiles within the radius of the convention area. Every time I walked into the Pfizer forum, which was multiple times a day for four days in a row, I would find a little corner or a place to sit and discreetly boot up Grindr and refresh my feed to see what profiles were in my proximity. Now, if you're unfamiliar with Grindr, one of its more terrifying features is the proximity detector telling you what users are near you, whether that be five miles away or five feet away. Every night when I got back to the hotel, after recording with Robert and Sophie, I would once again check Grindr to see if any unlucky delegates were put

up in the hotels by the airport. The hotel we were staying at was also home to the Idaho and North Dakota delegates, and though I don't believe anyone from our hotel was on Grindr, save for maybe an anonymous profile or two, there definitely were RNC attendees at some of the nearby hotels, roughly 1,500 feet away from my bed. The Grindr proximity detector was quite useful to me in locating profiles active around the footprint of the RNC, as well as when sorting through all my messages back home to confirm who attended the RNC from out of state. Because Milwaukee is about 650 miles away from Atlanta, if someone's distance marker

was substantially different from that, I could assume that they were in Milwaukee for the RNC from out of state, even if I wasn't able to confirm through any brief text exchange. I've also done my best to follow up with certain profiles to rule out possibilities of secondary traveling or other random reasons for why their distance markers might not line up exactly, and I think I have it narrowed down pretty well. Okay, you've been very patient, and now I think it's time to read through the highlights from my grinder inbox. And I got to say, I think I started off pretty strong. While attending the RNC kickoff party the night before the convention officially started, I got one of the very first messages I received from a 21 year old Republican with the profile picture that's just a close up picture

of a dark suit with a dark blue shirt and magenta tie. Already horrendous vibes. He asked me if I was quote-unquote with the GOP. And I said I was attending with friends, and then I got no further response. I saw this guy online throughout the convention, and then after the convention was over, he moved like 300 miles away. So, I'm pretty sure he was there for the RNC. I got a message from someone who identified himself as a local conservative, quote, but not a hardcore Republican, unquote. And he was excited the convention was in town,

hopeful that he would, quote, meet my future husband, unquote. The first chaser I encountered with the bio looking for some lady dick to feel in my ass saw through my cisgender disguise and messaged me, cock? Question mark. I got one other message from a chaser who was pretending to be T for T who asked me if I was in town for Kitsu-Kan, an anime convention in Green Bay. A nice local messaged me, quote, hope you're finding what you're looking for, smiley face, which was very nice and just kind of amusing if you consider that he thought I was just a gay Republican looking for some other gay Republican. Another local with the name Older4Young sent me the message, quote, Boomer, who will talk politics with you, or we can just fuck. I asked him if the, quote unquote, talk politics pickup line works very often.

And he replied, quote, less often than I would hope for. On here, zero, unquote. He mentioned that he had noticed some convention attendees on the app telling me that they have infiltrated Grindr. He then asked me what exact hotel I was staying at, so that was the end of that conversation. A minority of the Milwaukee locals who messaged me identified themselves as conservatives, and were largely excited that the RNC was in town. They vicariously questioned me about how the convention was going, as most were

disappointed that they themselves could not attend. One such fellow, who described Trump's first RNC entrance as electric, and a very emotional moment for him and the entire crowd, unquote, would have liked to attend, but he was busy working at the hospital because they needed, quote, extra staffing just in case, unquote. Now, the worst profile picture I found was an older guy wearing a baseball cap and one of those half-face skull masks like Adam often used to wear. He said he was from Florida and claimed to be in town not for the RNC, but to visit family, and mentioned that Vance had completely sold out his morals for the VP spot. This guy's politics were impenetrable. Maybe this was just like your average Florida independent. Very baffling fella. A younger guy messaged me asking,

you're a Republican? And I said, not really, putting it lightly, and he never got back to me. I did find a 31-year-old chaser named Greg, who I do believe was attending the convention, and his bio read, quote, Anon, come drain me. Trans CD, that's crossdresser. Sissy, femme, to the front of the line. I asked, you like trans? And he responded, yes. We had no further conversation. I did talk with two other people who happened to be covering the convention, including one guy who thought I was with CNN because the Grindr proximity sensor put me near the CNN area when I was actually using Grindr at the Heritage Foundation party.

And lastly, really the only guy I saw who openly claimed to be attending the RNC in his public bio was a 32-year-old from Shreveport, Louisiana, with the username SuckMeOff. One word. He described the convention as exhausting but awesome, and told me he was, quote, proud to support President Trump, unquote, and called Trump's speech on the final day amazing. A lot of the RNC speakers, including Trump, talked about Cory Comperator, the man who was killed at the Trump rally during the attempted assassination. So after Mr. Suck-Me-Off talked about how awesome Trump's speech was, I just replied to him, poor Corey. And he messaged me back, Corey who? And he told me what exact hotel he was staying at. Now, part of the danger of trying to use Grindr

directly in the middle of the RNC, even discreetly, is that even if I'm hunched over on my phone, there is a non-zero chance that some passerby or person sitting right above me might catch a glimpse of an unsolicited dick pic that fills my phone screen as I try to check my messages. This is simply a non-negotiable part of the Grindr experience. Whatever you do, grainy, unflattering, bizarrely angled photos of some balding 43-year-old married man will appear in your inbox. Ordinarily, I would check the profile first to see whom might be sending me a photo to weed out the undesirable prospects before even considering to open up a DM. Unfortunately, multiple factors

prevented me from doing this. For one, this was research, so I needed to collect the most amount of data possible. But moreover, even if I still wanted to vet for applicable profiles in my DMs, this was impossible without opening up each DM individually and clicking through to their profile from the chat log due to one of the many glitches I experienced using Grindr at the RNC. About halfway through the week, the app started crashing pretty frequently, but the main glitch I had to deal with, which has since been fixed, is that I could not access anyone's profile from the DMs page. I had to click into each individual chat log to open up a user profile,

which meant I had to look at a lot more unsolicited dick pics before even being able to check anyone's profile. So there I was watching Ted Cruz's speech, sitting underneath about 50 Republicans, and right next to both of my bosses, scrolling through an endless stream of dick pics to see who was local and who was here for the RNC, hoping that whatever Republican voter from Alabama

wasn't looking over my shoulder at the plethora of dimly lit hog. But I was far from the only one reporting issues with the app during the RNC. Around midday on Tuesday, the second day of the convention, over a thousand users reported a Grindr outage in the Milwaukee area on the website DownDetector. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote on the final day of the RNC that, quote, reports of the Grindr app crashing increased by more than 90% in the past 48 hours across the country, unquote. The down detector heat map showed Grindr outages in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, as well as a hotspot of outages in Milwaukee near the end of the convention, indicating users were experiencing

issues with the app, possibly due to an increase in activity. And you will hear more about that activity after this ad break. This episode of It Could Happen Here is brought to you in part by the Challengers soundtrack remix by Boyz Noise, which I was listening to as I wrote most of this episode while on the plane back to Atlanta. This episode is also brought to you by these products and services. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs,

and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all.

It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jack Peace Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of black literature. I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you to join me and a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audio books while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories of the brilliant writers behind them.

Black Lit is here to amplify the voices of black writers and to bring their words to life. Listen to Blacklit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how Tex Elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, better offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season I'm going to be joined by everyone

from Nobel winning economists to leading journalists in the field and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com.

We once again return to the grind. We got to keep on grinding. We're almost done, but we got to grind a little more. Just one more grind. Bro, I swear I'm not addicted. Just one more grind, bro. Just one more grind. During the influx of reports about the Grindr app breaking during the RNC, a post from the Twitter account for the Halfway Post went extremely viral, bolstering claims of a massive increase in activity. Quote, Breaking, an executive of the gay dating app Grindr,

says the Republican National Convention is, quote, basically Grindr's Super Bowl, unquote. This quote from a Grindr executive went super viral, prompting discussions all over the internet about five different articles, and even disgraced former New York Congressman George Santos commented on the phenomenon. Content warning, gay Republican. So Grindr executives are calling the RNC convention the Grindr Super Bowl. Folks, look, I'm openly gay. No qualms about it. Proud conservative Republican. I met my husband on Grindr and we've been together for six years going on seven. Married for almost three. Let me tell you something. Just come out the closet, boys. Come on. It's fun. You can be gay and conservative. But look, Grindr's already

out of you anyway, based on the hits. And guess who's in town? It's all you conservatives. Bye. Now, I certainly did observe a lot of blank or anonymous profiles, at least more than I'm used to. I also received messages containing variations of HeySexy from at least five accounts that have since been deactivated. And this does line up with a report from a Milwaukee area Grindr user who spoke with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, saying that he noticed a major bump in anonymous users. Quote, On any given day, you'll go on there and see a headless torso or a blank profile, said the source, who did not want to be named. The Grindr user said on a normal day, you'll encounter maybe 10 users with no public profile. But Thursday, when he checked the app, he said he stopped

counting at 50 blank profile photos, unquote. Now, we don't have any official data yet on Grindr usage near the 2024 RNC, only the down detector reports which our users submitted. But we do, at least, have data from the last in-person convention in Cleveland, Ohio, all the way back in 2016. A Vice article by Candace Bryan spoke with sources from Grindr and wrote that, quote, Grindr usage near the Quicken Loans arena showed a 66% increase during the RNC. Other active destinations, including Times Square, Capitol Hill, Disneyland, South Beach, and Trump Tower, showed no comparable increase in active users, unquote.

Many of the local twinks and trans folks certainly were concerned about possible RNC freaks hiding on the app. People would often first ask me if I was a Republican or why I was in town before trying to hit on me. One such twink told me, quote, I would be surprised if you were a delegate or something, but I had to check, unquote. As the week progressed, more locals told me, quote, I would be surprised if you were a delegate or something, but I had to check, unquote. As the week progressed, more locals told me that they had found a handful of out and proud patriots online, but really not many. In fact, multiple Milwaukee locals I chatted with on Grindr did claim to notice an uptick in users, but mostly recognizable local users who were online for the same reason I was,

to see if there was an influx of closeted Republicans. Someone told me, quote, for the record, it's like three times busier here than normal. Everyone is out to see what the Republicans are up to, and the chasers have come out of the woodwork, unquote. Far from being the app's Super Bowl, according to Vice, the 2016 RNC's 66% bump in activity is less than one half of the increase in Grindr activity that was seen at the last in-person DNC, an event which was also a whole day shorter. I'll read from Sunday to Monday, the week of the Democratic National Convention, there was an even higher, 148% increase in activity around the Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia. It's also worth noting that, of that 66% increase in activity around the 2016 RNC, only about 40% of those users were visiting Cleveland. Most were locals. Meanwhile, 60% of Grindr users active near the DNC in Philadelphia were visiting the city.

Oh, and that quote from a Grindr executive calling the RNC Grindr's Super Bowl, as well as George Santos' other claim about Grindr purposely outing gay conservatives, both of those claims originate from Twitter satire accounts. It's an urban legend that never happened. So no, the RNC is not Grindr's Super Bowl. I got messages from over 150 different people. Over 90% of the messages I received and profiles visible online, even while inside the Pfizer forum, were from locals completely unaffiliated with the RNC. And any boost in activity that can be attributed to people visiting for the RNC is a minuscule drop in the bucket compared to the proverbial orgy festival of out-of-town gay Democrats who travel to the DNC. And, like, if you think about this logically, this shouldn't at all be surprising. The Republican Party has

spent the past two years screaming about how all drag queens are child groomers, and though this was the first year the GOP has removed opposition to gay marriage from their party platform, they have massively increased their opposition to and attacks against trans people and really any display of visible queerness. Like, come on, this is the Republican Party. There's this kind of fucked up cultural conception that homophobic politicians must be so because they are secretly gay. And while there is the occasional like Lindsey Graham or repressed homosexual preacher, this is not the norm. And all Republicans being secretly gay is not the driving force of legislative homophobia. It is

an ideological drive, largely in furtherance of hegemonic Christian nationalism. And now for people like Elon Musk and more young Republicans, a fascistic notion of reproductive futurism built on fears that young people, white people, aren't having enough white babies, which they partially attribute to society becoming more accepting of gay and trans people, resulting in people having less reproductive or heterosexual sex. Never mind the fact that queer and trans people oftentimes can and do have children, which still doesn't seem to please these conservatives, as it doesn't align with their traditionalist view of the family unit. So no, Grindr wasn't flooded with closeted

Republicans because there simply isn't that many closeted Republicans that are going to be attending the RNC. And while there may not be as many Republicans as I thought there might be, I do believe that I have the bump in activity, albeit a smaller bump than rumored, basically figured out. Based on my anecdotal experience and the reports of a handful of local Grindr users and journalists I talked with who were online during the 2024 RNC, and considering the 2016 Grindr data, I can report that merely a small minority of activity was due to ordinary RNC attendees. The majority of activity was from locals who either regularly used Grindr or were specifically curious about who might be online during the RNC. I observed two more groups that would contribute to any noticeable increase in activity. Not everyone who attends the RNC are guests or delegates. A lot of people work at the convention

center or work tech, and a sizable chunk of people are like myself, researchers, pollsters, or journalists who attend conventions like this for work. And lastly, the final group that fills out the bump in grinder activity, one that I for some reason didn't really expect to see upon arrival, but in retrospect, makes total sense, are cops. So many cops. There were so many cops online at the RNC. Just like delegates or reporters, they are coming into town from all around the country. There was cops or state troopers from Texas, Ohio, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, California, Indiana, and many more states, as well as U.S. Capitol Police, Secret Service, TSA, DHS, and FBI. They were all in town as a part of the security detail.

DHS, and FBI. They were all in town as a part of the security detail. A few of the guys that messaged me, I can absolutely confirm, are 100% police or some kind of military police. A 33-year-old cop or military guy, quote, looking for sexy bottoms with the tags jock, military, discreet, and weightlifting, as well as many pictures of him in the gym, said in his bio that he was, quote, really into slim, skinny, toned, and muscular people. He messaged me saying, hey. Now, I got a lot of hey's in my inbox, which is not unusual for Grindr. You will probably mostly get hey as a message, as well as just a picture of someone's penis. But between a penis and hey, those are probably the two most received messages you will get on Grindr. There was another guy with a username DL Military who said in his bio he was working security for the week and that Grindr messages had completely broke for him and to instead message

him on Snapchat. The DL in DL Military stands for down low. It's a tag that only the worst people on Grindr will use, mainly like self-hating gay men who are closeted, and it's down low because they don't want to be like publicly seen being gay. Just absolutely the worst. We do not fuck with DL, both literally and figuratively. There were a bunch of other non-locals who I would describe as cop types. I can't 100% say for sure that they are cops, but they have like the look, you know, like

the look, the cop look. I don't know. They could also be like a bodyguard or working private security. But one of these cop looking guys messaged me asking if I was a trans guy, which I always love to see. It means I'm doing gender very well. And a few other cop types sent relatively boring messages. So yeah, a lot of cops, which is not completely surprising considering the fact that basically half the cops in the country were at the Republican National Convention in some form or another. A few final

notes. Now, this didn't really make up a sizable chunk of the Grindr population, but after saying I was just covering the RNC, a couple people on Grindr just completely unprompted told me that they were attending the protests against the RNC. Please do not do this. That's a horrible idea for multiple reasons. You gotta stop talking about your political activities on dating apps, especially Grindr, especially at the RNC. Horrible idea. Do not do this. And despite my lazy attempt at a young Republican disguised online profile, a few too many people did recognize me from Twitter or the pod, but they were very nice. They gave me some recommendations for what gay bars to check out after convention

hours. And one person told me this interesting anecdote that I'd like to share. Quote, I don't think Trump is going to win. I canvassed for Hillary in 2016, and at least here, it doesn't feel the same. Unquote. I thought that was a little interesting tidbit that I received at probably around 3am on Grindr. So there you go. Anyway, that was my RNC Grindr experience. I'm sorry to report it is not the hotbed of closeted Republicans that we meme it to be. It's mostly local gays, a few reporters, and a few more cops. I do not think I'll be reporting on the DNC grinder, but I am curious to see if there is a sizable increase in activity as compared to the RNC grinder. So I guess I will maybe post about that on Twitter, at Hungry Bowtie, if you want updates on that. Anyway, stay

safe out there. Be careful if you're ever on Grindr, please. Especially don't tell someone covering the RNC that you're attending any protests. But in general, be careful on these types of dating apps. And I will see you on the other side. Message from Quickie. Grindr said you were super close yesterday. Wasn't stalking, I promise. Message from Birthday Present Emoji. I't stalking, I promise. Message from birthday present emoji. I almost thought you were Josh Thomas. Message from anonymous. Wait, are you pro or anti-Republican?

I'm not gonna lie, I mainly asked your politics because I thought you were cute, but I didn't want to hit on a Trumper. Message from older for young. Aren't all the delegates propositioning you? You're cute. Message from Older4Young. Aren't all the delegates propositioning you? You're cute. Message from Anonymous. Why establish a totalitarian state if I can't breed its dictator?

Message from SuckMeOff. I'm down for anything. LOL, are you supporting Trump? Haha. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here updated monthly at coolzonemedia.com slash

sources. Thanks for listening. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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