Grindr just lost one of its upper staff because of its leader’s bad Facebook post.
Last week, Grindr was trending after its President and CTO Scott Chen posted to Facebook that he thinks “marriage is a holy matrimony between a man and a woman.”
Now in reaction to that, Grindr’s communications director Landon Rafe Zumwalt, who is openly gay, has quit his job.
Zumwalt released a statement this past Friday stating his opinion on the Scott Chen situation.
“As an out and proud gay man madly in love with a man I don’t deserve, I refused to compromise my own values or professional integrity to defend a statement that goes against everything I am and everything I believe,” Zumwalt wrote through medium.com. “While that resulted in my time at Grindr being cut short, I have absolutely no regrets. And neither should you.”
Zumwalt later wrote, “It has been a privilege to come to work every day to fight for our community. I am—and will continue to be—immensely proud of the work we were allowed to do during my time at Grindr.”
“I will never forget the heart-tugging messages, emails and more that we received from the queer community as a result of our Kindr initiative. Nor will I forget being a witness firsthand to the amazing activism work Grindr for Equality is doing globally or working alongside the award-winning reporting team at INTO.”
This controversy began when Scott Chen posted the following message on Facebook:
“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. 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.”
After the post spread across the internet through news headlines, and pushback from family/friends, Chen later clarified that he’s pro-gay marriage. He just thinks that everyone has the right to define marriage their own way without obstructing others or being obstructed, and Chen defines marriage based on his own relationship.
“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. Different people have their different feelings about their marriages. You can’t deny my feelings about my marriage.”
“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.”
In addition, the story broke from Grindr owned news source INTO. Chen later messaged the article's author saying that he wishes the writer had asked for comment before misconstruing his stance on gay marriage.
Chen should resign
Chen should resign