August 27, 2012
Gay Military Men Can Get Serviced With New App
Jason St. Amand READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Military men looking to hook up or meet other out-gay service members can do so with a new location-based mobile app, On Top Magazine reported.
OutMilitary.com has launched the Grindr-like app called OutMilitary, which allows "gay and lesbian service members to connect with each other," according to a statement by OutMilitary.com spokesperson (and regular EDGE contributor) Shaun Knittel.
"We began to notice that members were finding love on OutMilitary.com because the website's primary function is to serve as a resource for gay and lesbian service members, but we saw a need for a same-sex dating or hookup site based around the military," Knittel said.
He also said gay men are using phone apps for gay dating, like Grindr and Jack'd, but "OutMilitary.com is just giving them one that is military-specific."
The application comes in 16 different languages and also has news updates and other postings. OutMilitary comes after the military ended the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy nearly a year ago. The measure prohibited military members from openly serving in the military.
"While gay service members no longer have to violate their oath of honesty and integrity in order to serve, knowing who is gay on base or aboard ship can be nearly impossible," John McKinnon, OutMilitary's founder, said. "Now the app gives them a powerful tool to find and connect with one another right on their smartphone. They can literally 'see' other gay service members on their base, ship, wherever."
Grindr has become a recent phenomenon in the gay community. The app, which launched in 2009, has 4 million users in 192 countries with 1.1 million users online on a daily basis. There are about 1,558,031 U.S. users and London has 350,446 users.
During the 2012 Olympic Games, media outlets reported that Grindr had a meltdown and crashed when athletes arrived in East London for the games, EDGE reported.
"It happened almost as soon as the teams got here," a Grindr user told the British tabloid, the Sun. "Either loads of athletes were logging on to meet fellow Olympians or were looking to bag a local."
