Is your dating app inbox feeling a little lonely? Are you swiping endlessly but still searching for something real? If love has felt just out of reach lately, let this couple restore your faith in the digital romance.
Pierre (originally from Michigan) and Kerry (from Trinidad and Tobago) have a story that began with a simple match on the Jack’d app, blossomed into a beautiful love story, and led to a 2024 wedding. Now, as a married couple, they’re not only building a life together but also making a meaningful impact in their/our community.
Here’s an abbreviated account of Instinct’s time together with Kerry and Pierre at their home.
Meeting on Jack’d
Instinct: What made you go on Jack’d?
Pierre: It was 11 years ago. I had messaged a friend, I knew that this friend had a brother that was gay, and I asked where do guys meet each other here in Fort Lauderdale. He said to download Jack’d. It’s a predominantly black app and it was a good place for me as I was still learning about myself, not fully out. I liked that I could be discrete as I wanted to be discrete at that time in my life.
Kerry: I liked what options the Jack’d app gave me, and the demographic of the people on the app was important.
Instinct: What was your first conversation like? Did you know right away there was chemistry?
Pierre: I was in my car, driving, I was doing Uber on the side. I decided to reload the app. I ran into his page, no face pic. But there was a business suit picture and body picture. His profile said he was looking for something different.
Kerry: We started chatting and then took it to Instagram. But before we did that, we used one of the features I like a lot on the Jack’d app, the feature of real live verification, a video call, which is very nice too to see who the person really is, cuts down on the catfishing. Audio is important too for that connection, that attraction.
Pierre: and when we used the Jack’d video call feature, that voice, I liked the pictures and his voice, and he was real. That was reassuring to have and use that feature.
They had met, and then had gone their own way, both had their own things going on.
They both had left and came back to the Jack’d app when they were not seeing each other. But the initial and positive connection they made on Jack’d started it all, leading them to share Instagrams and stay in visual touch there.
One Halloween, Pierre saw one of Kerry’s Instagram posts when he was Deadpool. And there might have been a pic of Kerry in a Speedo in the pool that made things reignite. Those pics were catalysts for them to get back together and eventually put a ring on it.
Instinct: What is your favorite thing to love about each other?
Pierre about Kerry: My favorite thing? We are just back from Trinidad, so I would say how easy he makes traveling for me. He cuts out the anxiety, I’ll do the room, but all the other arrangements, he does, he makes it all easier, a good mesh, a complimentary person. We’ve been to nine countries together.
Kerry about Pierre: Favorite quality, his smile. He also has this almost perfect outlook on life, we are doing that together. He helps me have good mornings and good nights. Our disagreements are conversations, not arguments.
LGBTQ+ & Black Identity in Dating
Instinct: How has being a Black gay couple shaped your dating experiences before and after meeting each other?
They stated they’ve always dated black men, never had an issue finding someone to be with.
We discussed how they present to other people. Not to put a label on it, they said, but they are those masculine guys, the masculine gays. But that is also what people see.
They also state that they are living their lives, yes, social media is there, bu8t they are not living their lives to be on social media.
Relationship & Future
Instinct: How do you keep your relationship strong and thriving?
Pierre: Waking up and have the intention of having a good day, having a good time with each other, wanting to be better than the day before.
Instinct: What was COVID like for the two of you? Did it bring you closer together?
Kerry: People were going through it, we did not have problems. We got together in 2019, married on April 19, 2024, and went to Rio and Sao Palo Brazil for our honeymoon.
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(@kerryandpierre)Instinct: Many gay relationships and marriages are not closed, but open.
Pierre: We are closed, not a hard decision to make and we’ve said that on our YouTube. You define it yourself, not everyone is cut out for monogamy.
Instinct: What is the best advice you would give to anyone who is looking for love out there but hasn’t found it?
Kerry: Keep looking for it, and a little luck has to come with it.
Pierre: Be mindful when you are dating, notice red flags. Be intentional with what you want.
And be safe in general. That’s also a big thing with the Jack’d app that we both understood and why we like to recommend it to others. Not only is it a great place to meet people, we know it is a safe space for people to connect. Knowing the app, we know its commitment to privacy, specifically, that Jack’d doesn’t sell or shares user information. We are out and open and honest, so we’re not being worried about being outed. But there are those that need that privacy and security, but we all need that privacy with our personal information, so that the app has that, it helps.
Instinct: What is the best advice you would give to a gay youth that is living, trying to be their authentic self? We’ve all heard the phrase “It gets better”, but is that the right thing to say?
Kerry and Pierre’s answer to this question was moving, powerful, and from a perspective of black men that lived through this when they were younger. I had to pause and soak the honesty, power, and truth they shared. The following is a compilation of their answers as their response was as one, feeding off each other’s words.
What I would tell him, just be patient, everything you want and that you get will come to you, just be patient. Don’t be too quick to put yourself out there. If you are still dependent on your family, build your money, yourself, your education, just in case they don’t like it when you come out. At the end of the day, especially in the black household, you are under their roof, you have to abide by their rules, you will be off on your own eventually, but just chill. Sounds bad, to suppress feelings, but if you are living under a dependent roof, you have to abide by their rules, until you’re grown.
Instinct: Tell us about this Fit Safe Space
Pierre: It’s a passion project that we thought of right before COVID and even more during the pandemic. We did not see a lot of black gay spaces where black men were working out together, no work out events. We wanted to gather together to get in a good work out, high intensity training.
Kerry: We enjoy working out, riding bikes, rock climbing, and we were bring friends along and creating some of those safe spaces.
Pierre: Can’t be popping your booty at the gym, you don’t want to get clocked.\
Kerry: Our events are to get in a great work out, dance, twerk, not feel bad about being yourself, there’s a fun group of us.
We can be at the club, super dark environment, just standing around. Why not see us out in the world, in the light, and how we interact within a group activity. We’re out in the sun in the daytime, doing positive things, being positive, meet to connect, building friendships. It’s even a networking event. A lot of the guys are single and some have made dates from the encounters at the events.
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Pierre: It’s also a place where you don’t have to worry about attracting someone else. There’s different attention. We are creating the space.
We also change where it is at. We’re bringing a sense of community into the community and out in public.
Kerry: People take note, too. If you see us at an event, there are people are pulling out phones and taking pictures.
Pierre: Currently, we have events twice a month and we would love to increase to 8 times a month. We accept everyone, everybody is welcome
When I went to see their event, it was in Tamarac, Florida, just 2 miles from my house. Kerry and Pierre partner with municipalities as well to promote well-being in their communities. I even met a Tamarac commissioner at the event in the park. He spoke of the great opportunity that Kerry and Pierre present to his and surrounding communities, creating not only a safe space, but a healthy safe space.
They have a good core of participants. The events are free, but they do take donations or tips, but the money from participants is not the focus, it is the community they are trying to build, those safe spaces, outdoors safe spaces, different opportunities for the gay male community.
Kerry and Pierre had a float in the April 6th Miami Beach Pride Parade with an corresponding HIIT event. For future events, you can follow them @Fitsafespace on Instagram or over on EventBrite.
Our chat with Kerry and Pierre was such a wonderful experience. They not only make a great couple, but they are also great ambassadors of happiness, positivity, and how we all wish a dating app would work for us, to find that person that you can mesh with and build something rewarding. We will definitely keep an eye on the great things that Kerry and Pierre are doing, we’ll go to some of their Fit Safe Space activities, and we’ll sign on to Jack’d to see if we can find our own Kerry or our own Pierre.
@kerryandpierre on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
@Fitsafespace is the bootcamp Instagram account.
