Out LGBTQ Olympians, and possibly closeted ones, are being exposed online in a new social media trend.
The Tokyo Olympics are currently underway in Japan. This is a historic year for LGBTQ sports fans, as at least 186 openly LGBTQ athletes are taking part in this year’s games. And, most likely, several closeted athletes are doing the same.
As they stay in Tokyo, Japan, athletes are regulated to staying within Tokyo’s Olympic Village. Interest in the sexual activity going on within the Olympic Village is nothing new. After all, we already knew that the Tokyo Olympics would be handing out 160,000 condoms to athletes. Plus, there’s been plenty of talk about the “anti-sex” beds. But now new TikTok and Twitter posts are showing the Grindr profiles of participating athletes.
According to the Insider, at least four TikTok posts and 10 posts on Twitter have revealed dating app profiles of Olympic athletes. Some screenshots have gone so far as to include faces and names.
As one TikTok video stated, “I used Grindr’s explore feature to find myself an Olympian boyfriend.” The video showed the user scrolling through the Olympic Village and revealing over 30 full faces. One profile even noted that he was from a country with anti-LGBTQ policies. After being posted, that video received more than 140,000 views.
By using the explore feature on Grindr, users can see what Grindr profiles are currently online anywhere around the globe. That includes ones within the Olympic Village. But by posting screenshots and videos of these profiles, social media users are not only outing closeted players but potentially putting them at harm. Homosexuality remains a crime in several countries, many of which are represented at the Olympic Games.
Thankfully, these posts have received pushback from other users and from tech companies. The comments section of the before mentioned video was filled with criticism such as, “Gay culture in Japan still isn’t supported. Don’t put these peeps in jeopardy just to get off on the other side of the world.” TikTok then deleted the video earlier today, July 28.
A spokesperson for Twitter noted that the tweets exposing Grindr users in the Olympic Village “violated the Twitter Rules against hateful conduct and will need to be removed before the account owners can continue to use Twitter.”
A Grindr spokesperson also shared, to Insider, “these individuals are in breach of Grindr’s Terms and Conditions of Service which prohibit them from publicly displaying, publishing, or otherwise distributing any content or information that are part of the Grindr services. Out of respect for our users’ privacy, and out of respect for the contractual commitments these individuals made, Grindr demands that these individuals remove their social media posts that include images from the Grindr platform.”
Despite deleting the before-mentioned TikTok video, the social media platform has yet to comment on the situation.
Source: The Insider,
Seriously? Practically every Olympic athlete is gay, so no big news here.