The newly appointed CEO of Grindr, the popular dating app used primarily by gay, bisexual and queer men, has come under fire over unearthed tweets that seem to express support for anti-LGBTQ politicians.
George Arison, a 44-year-old businessman who has been on the board of directors of Grindr since May, was named its new CEO last month.
“Our community is deserving of amazing business services, and we intend to meet and exceed their expectations,” Arison said when the company’s board of directors made the announcement on Sept. 13, calling him “one of the few openly gay public company CEOs in the U.S.”
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On Tuesday, eight days before he officially takes over as boss of the networking app, cultural historian and author Aaron Lecklider compiled a series of tweets shared by Arison in which he shows support to politicians who have actively worked to erode the rights of LGBTQ people.
“Your new Grindr CEO, folks,” Lecklider, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, captioned retweets of several instances in which Arison expressed his right-wing views.
In a tweet from earlier this year, Arison wrote that Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin “should totally run for president.”
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Youngkin — a staunch conservative who has “repeatedly used his platform to promote anti-equality and anti-choice policies,” according to a Human Rights Campaign spokesperson — angered LGBTQ rights advocates last month over his administration’s recently released set of proposed policies that would stop transgender students from accessing restrooms or locker room facilities consistent with their gender identity.
In another tweet, shared in January, Arison appeared to show support for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — who championed the state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law — writing that even though he was “not ideal,” he is “largely right,” he wrote in a tweet quoting conservative author Rich Lowry.
In a tweet from Feb. 28 2020, Arison said that “FYI I am a conservative & agree with some Trump policies” — though he appeared to distance himself from the former president writing that he viewed him “as everything our Founders feared the most.”
A Grindr spokesperson told the Daily News that Arison remains committed to fighting for LGBTQ equality in the U.S. and abroad.
“George is an out gay man, proudly married to his husband and the father of two children,” the spokesperson said, adding that he is also “passionate about fighting for the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ people around the world.”
Arison joined the 13-year-old location-based social network after nine years at Shift Technologies, an online used car marketplace, where he was the founder and CEO.
His move to Grindr comes as the company, which has roughly 11 million monthly active users, is expected to go public by the end of the year.
