Scott Chen, the president of gay dating app, Grindr, has been slammed by
the gay community for saying he agrees that 'marriage is a holy
matrimony between a man and woman.' The father of two who has a wife
made the remarks Monday in a now-deleted Facebook post.Screenshot of the
controversial post was shared by Grindr's news vertical INTO. The site
reports that the California-based CTO had shared an article on Facebook
about HTC president and CEO Cher Wang supporting anti-LGBTQ causes
through two nonprofit organizations and her attempt to influence
Taiwan's same-sex marriage decision. Responding to this, Chen shared his
views including criticizing Wang for funding organizations against gay
marriage. He also revealed that he would be boycotting any of her
smartphones and accessories from her Taiwan-based company for a
lifetime. '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!'
INTO's
Editor-in-Chief Zach Stafford wrote on Twitter Thursday: '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. Chen later dismissed
INTO's article, calling it 'unbalanced and misleading,' in a comment
directed to 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. The father of two who later deleted the
controversial post after his 60-year-old conservative aunt got involved
in the 'heated discussion' added: '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.
