For once, we’re happy to have a gay app story that isn’t about crime, arguments, or the Chinese government. Instead, we’ve got a story about how one happy couple is inspiring many more.
Hinge is a dating app like many others except in one vein, it markets itself as being designed for deletion. At the end of the day, the app’s company wants users to actually meet people and get off the program. And now, the program has gotten the ultimate promotion from one of the most unlikely places. The presidential election.
Pete Buttigieg is one of the most talked about politicians currently running for President in the 2020 election. While that’s primarily because of his bi-partisan persona as the mayor of a democratic city in the red state of Indiana, there is also the factor of him being openly gay.
Last year, we shared with you the news that Pete Buttigieg had gotten married to his comedian then-boyfriend Chasten Glezman. And, it turns out that the married couple met through Hinge.
Hinge has come forward to say that profiles made by gay men have shot up by 30% since April (when news outlets shared how the couple met on the app). It seems that many gay men are looking to go beyond the hookup culture surrounding other apps, such as Grindr, Jack’d, Scruff, like the Buttigiegs did.
“I wanted a platform where you’re not necessarily inundated with hookup culture and sex,” said Chasten while talking to the New York Times.
After talking over the app, the two went to a minor league baseball game in 2015. By the end of 2016, they were living together before getting married in mid-2018.
Again, this is the perfect example of what “designed to be deleted” Hinge tries to do with its program.
“We’re proud of all of the relationships we’ve helped set up—including Mayor Pete and Chasten!” Hinge founder and CEO Justin McLeod told Fortune. “We’re happy to see that their love story has inspired even more members of the LGBTQ community to find their person on Hinge.”
