New Date Set For Terry Bean Trial

The Oregonian reports:

A Lane County judge agreed Friday to reschedule the trial of prominent gay activist Terry Bean to allow the state more time to find its elusive star witness. Bean, 66, and his former boyfriend, Kiah Loy Lawson, 25, are accused of having sex with the boy at a Eugene hotel in 2013. Each is charged with two counts of third-degree sodomy, a felony, and third-degree sexual abuse, a misdemeanor. The trial was scheduled to start Tuesday in Lane County Circuit Court, but the boy, now 17, is nowhere to be found and the trial cannot proceed without him. Circuit Judge Jay McAlpin ruled Friday that there was good reason for a delay and reset the trial to Sept. 1 over the opposition of attorneys representing Bean and the boy.

Last week prosecutors accused the alleged victim and his mother of engaging in an elaborate series of ruses in order to avoid being served with a subpoena before the trial deadline. The state says it may now take the teen into custody as a material witness and hold him until the new trial date. If they ever find him.

OREGON: Alleged Victim In Terry Bean Case Accused Of Evading Subpoena

Earlier this week I reported that the teenage alleged victim in the Terry Bean sexual abuse case had vanished and that the trial might be called off without him. Yesterday prosecutors accused the unnamed youth and his mother of engaging in an elaborate series of ruses to avoid being served with a subpoena which orders him to appear for next week's trial.

Oregon law enforcement, along with investigators in California, attempted to serve the teen in San Diego County on July 26 after a judge in Lane County rejected a defense plan to dismiss the case. Once in California, however, detectives learned that the teen had quit both of his jobs in the days that followed the judge’s decision and had disappeared with his mother, who had flown from her home in Oregon to meet the youth in California on July 18 as the trial date approached. The pair then took an Amtrak train back to Eugene with tickets purchased by a friend of the boy’s mother, the document states. Officers returned to Oregon, determined who had bought the tickets and interviewed that person. That individual told police she bought the tickets, picked the two up from the train station when they arrived in Eugene and allowed them to stay in her home in Cottage Grove. The boy’s mother paid her friend in cash for the train tickets and later asked her to rent a car for them. During this time, the teen and his mother had turned off both of their cellphones and were using a “burner,” or untraceable prepaid phone, to communicate to avoid police detection. They also avoided using any credit cards to keep their activities secret from police, prosecutors said.

The now 17 year-old, who reportedly hooked up with HRC co-founder Bean and his then-boyfriend on Grindr in 2013, has said that the sex was consensual and that he doesn't want to press charges. Last month an Oregon judge rejected Bean's attempt to settle the case with a payment to the alleged victim. The amount of the proposed settlement was not disclosed. Citing the alleged victim's evasion tactics, yesterday the lead prosecutor requested a continuance in the case. Earlier this week the judge had warned him that trial schedule was to be strictly adhered to. Should the alleged victim be served with the subpoena in time, he faces contempt of court charges if he fails to appear.

OREGON: Alleged Victim In Terry Bean Case Vanishes, Trial May Not Proceed

Oregon Live reports:

The prosecutor handling the sex crimes case against Terry Bean, a prominent gay activist, told a judge Friday that his investigators have been unable to find the alleged victim in the case. Without the teenager's testimony, the case will have to be dismissed or the trial rescheduled, the prosecutor acknowledged. The boy, now 17, doesn't want to testify at the trial, his attorney said at an earlier hearing. Meanwhile, the search for the boy goes on. "We continue to put all available resources toward that issue," prosecutor Scott Healy said after a hearing before Lane County Circuit Judge Jay McAlpin. Bean, 66, and his former boyfriend, Kiah Loy Lawson, 25, are accused of having sex with the then-15-year-old boy at a Eugene hotel in 2013. They each are charged with two counts of third-degree sodomy, a felony, and third-degree sexual abuse, a misdemeanor. They pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Bean, a co-founder of the Human Rights Campaign, allegedly met the teen on Grindr. Last month Judge McAplin rejected Bean's attempt to settle the case with a payment to the alleged victim. The amount of the settlement offer was not disclosed. After Friday's development, the lead prosecutor in the case said he might request a continuance, but the judge smacked him down, saying that in his court "we set dates and we expect them to be met." The trial is scheduled to begin next week.

OREGON: Judge Denies Settlement Offer To Alleged Victim Of Activist Terry Bean

An Oregon county judge has refused to allow HRC co-founder Terry Bean to make a financial settlement with the underage boy Bean and his former boyfriend are alleged to have hooked-up with on Grindr in 2013.

Bean, who lives in Portland and is a prominent political fundraiser, proposed a civil compromise that could result in the dismissal of the criminal charges. Had the request been granted, the criminal charges against Bean would have been dismissed. Circuit Judge Charles Zennaché said he was unaware of another child sex abuse case that has been settled by civil compromise. In Oregon, judges have discretion to accept or deny a civil compromise. In the Bean case, the alleged victim, now 17, supports the settlement and does not want to testify, said attorney Lori Deveny, who represents the boy. "He has been as vocal as he can be and his voice still isn't being heard," Deveny said. "There are certain social mores that we, as a society say, 'We are not going to let this happen,'" Zennaché said. "I think it's bad public policy ... (and bad) from a public safety perspective," Zennaché said.

The terms of the settlement offer were not disclosed.

RELATED: Ex-boyfriend Kiah Lawson was sentenced yesterday in an unrelated drug case.

Junction City resident Kiah Loy Lawson was placed on probation and issued a 20-day jail sentence after being convicted in Lane County Circuit Court of methamphetamine possession and supplying contraband, in connection with an arrest last year in Eugene. Lawson, 26, was given credit for time he has already served in jail and was expected to be promptly transported from Eugene to Washington County, where he faces sexual abuse allegations. That case is scheduled to be resolved before the Aug. 11 trial in Lane County set for both Lawson and Bean. They are charged with sexual abuse and sodomy for an alleged encounter with a 15-year-old boy in a Eugene hotel room in September 2013.

Grindr, The Musical

"Come get fisted...right in the heart."

OREGON: Prosecutors Reveal Additional Sex Abuse Allegations Against Terry Bean

Via Williamette Week:

Prosecutors say Portland real-estate developer and Democratic Party activist Terry Bean engaged in sex with an underaged boy in 1979, providing the 16-year-old with alcohol and drugs. The teenager later tried to kill himself after Bean broke off the relationship, court records say. The records were filed by prosecutors late Thursday in Lane County Circuit Court as part of an ongoing criminal case against Bean. Bean in November 2014 was charged with two counts of third-degree sodomy, a felony, and one count of sexual abuse in the third degree, a misdemeanor, allegedly involving a 15-year-old boy. Prosecutors say they wanted to introduce evidence of Bean's "prior bad acts" dating back to 1979 into the current case to establish a pattern of sexual abuse by Bean. The events described in the filing are beyond the statue of limitations.

Bean is a co-founder of the Human Rights Campaign and was the largest Oregon fundraiser for both Obama presidential campaigns. Last week the attorney for Bean requested the dismissal of the original charges after Bean reportedly reached a civil settlement with the alleged victim, whom he met on Grindr. Prosecutors are opposing the dismissal motion. From Bean's attorney:

A civil compromise was filed on July 2 with a statement by the “alleged victim” that he has no interest in prosecuting this case and never did. A civil compromise represents a resolution of criminal charges that satisfies both parties. There is a hearing on this compromise on Thursday, July 16. The law allows a civil compromise in this case. However, the special prosecutor is objecting for dubious reasons. For almost two years, Terry Bean has been the victim of Kiah Lawson’s schemes and lies which have led law enforcement to harass Mr. Bean’s friends, seek out old acquaintances and threaten him with further prosecution unless he admits to events that did not occur.

World Net Daily is thrilled with the latest developments:

The Eugene paper noted Bean was first recognized for his activism in the 1970s when he helped persuade the Eugene City Council to pass an ordinance barring discrimination based on sexual orientation. Scott Lively, known for his opposition to the “gay” rights agenda, was communications director for an activist group that proposed ballot measures in the early 1990s to defend against the homosexual movement. He told WND in an interview the Bean case fits a pattern. “This is very common,” he said. “We see gay-activist leaders, one after another, being accused, sometimes charged, with pederasty – adult male homosexuality with teenage boys.” Oregon voters, Lively said, could have “stopped the LGBT agenda dead in its tracks” in 1992 by supporting the ballot measures he promoted. He pointed out that prosecutors allege regarding the 2013 charge that Bean paid the victim $40 after the encounter and encouraged the boy to join a support group for “gay” youths. “I have alleged for many years that these LGBT youth groups are really not much more than grooming center for predators, and this supports that allegation,” Lively told WND.

Regarding the original charges, Bean contends that he is the victim of an "extortion ring" that included ex-boyfriend Kiah Lawson, who claims to have discovered that Bean secretly videotaped sexual encounters with Lawson and other men in Bean's bedroom. It was Bean who first went to police in June 2014 to charge that Lawson and others were demanding money in exchange for remaining silent about the videotaping. In March 2014, Bean filed for a restraining order against Lawson, claiming domestic physical abuse. In that petition, Bean claimed that Lawson is a crystal meth addict who had burglarizing his home and charged $15K on stolen credit cards. He also accused Lawson of dealing meth out of Bean's second home, a condo where Lawson lived at that time. Bean claims that police characterized his accusations as a civil dispute between landlord and tenant.

RELATED:  In August 2014, a New Jersey man filed a federal lawsuit against Grindr, alleging that the hook-up app's "lax age verification standards" led him to be arrested for having sex with a 13 year-old boy who had been allowed to be a paying member of the site. Grindr's motion to dismiss cited the Communications Decency Act, which they claim immunizes companies from bad acts resulting from misinformation provided by other parties. They additionally claimed that the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that it is "not feasible" for web publishers to verify the age of users. The lawsuit was dismissed in March of this year.

Scruff Hook-Up App Creates Traveler Alert: Gay Sex Is Illegal In This Country

The New York Times reports that the hook-up app Scruff has created a warning for users in countries where homosexuality remains illegal

To help keep users safer, Scruff is adding a new traveler alert feature this week. Now, when a user arrives in one of the nearly 100 countries where homosexual acts are criminalized, an alert will pop up when they open Scruff. Headed to Sudan? You might want to be aware that sexual acts between consenting adult males are illegal there, and can lead to corporal punishment or even the death penalty.

The app’s users do not always avoid hostile regions. In fact, more than 100,000 users with Scruff accounts that are registered in the United States, Britain or Australia were traveling in places where homosexuality is illegal over a recent 30-day period, according to a study Mr. Silverberg made available. (He said Scruff users overall number around eight million.)

Scruff has used a similar alert before, in the case of the report last year from the user in Saudi Arabia. At the time, Mr. Silverberg said, Scruff sent out a one-time in-app alert, notifying members in that area about what they had heard, and cautioning them to be careful. Grindr sent a similar alert to users last fall, based on similar stories coming out of Egypt.

Scruff has also limited the GPS function with "location obfuscation" - other users will be able to see that users that are relatively near to them, but without being able to identify the exact location. Critics of GPS-based hook-up apps have previously warned that the users are vulnerable to location triangulation by police or criminals. They claim that the triangulation can be so precise that a user's presence in specific rooms of a building can be identified.

MICHIGAN: Mother Says Outed "Grindr Pastor" Told Her Gay Son To Kill Himself UPDATE: The Son Speaks Out Himself

Via the CBS affiliate in Flint, Michigan:

A mother came forward with new accusations against the local pastor who resigned after being outed as gay. She said what that pastor told her son nearly drove him to suicide. Jennifer Kish is angered over the recent revelation that Matthew Makela might be gay, not because of his alleged sexual preference, but because of how he treated her son while they were parishioners at his church. Makela is a Midland pastor who resigned after being outed by a website. The website said it outed Makela because of his outspoken stance in recent years against homosexuality, a stance one woman said was particularly harmful to her family. Kish said her then 17-year-old son Tyler suffered from serious depression and was considering suicide because he was told by Makela he was going to hell because he was gay. "If he's going to hell for being gay then he might as well commit suicide," Kish said. Makela is the subject of scrutiny because of the alleged hypocrisy. The website Queerty posted a conversation it claims shows Makela soliciting sex with another man on the app Grindr, an app geared toward gay and bisexual men.

UPDATE: Some readers have noted that the mother in the above story may be putting words into the mouth of the so-called Grindr Pastor, who may have "only" told her son that being gay was as bad a sin as committing suicide. In the clip below, the teenager tells the story himself.

Queerty Outs Closeted Anti-Gay Pastor

Queerty reports:

Until 2 p.m. on Monday, the ‘Our Church Staff’ section of St. John’s Lutheran Church and School’s website described Reverend Matthew Makela as an associate pastor who enjoys, “family, music, home improvement, gardening and landscaping, and sports.” Screenshots obtained by Queerty from a source who asked that his name be withheld shed light on some of the Reverend’s other favorite past times — namely nude make out sessions and sex with other men. Of course, how someone behaves between the sheets is really nobody’s business but his own, except when he’s actively doing damage to others. We’ve seen it time and time again. The lawmaker who spends his days fighting against gay rights and his nights cruising for bottoms, or the ex-gay activist who isn’t quite as ex-gay as he’d like everyone to believe. Which brings us back to Makela. The married father of five from Midland, Michigan doesn’t just preach Jesus’ love and help with bake sales. He also uses his position of authority and respect in his community to broadcast his self-loathing view on same-sex attraction.

Hit the link for much more, including anti-gay and anti-trans statements from this totally gay pastor.

Grindr Is For Sale

Via Bloomberg:

Grindr LLC is looking for more than just a hookup: The application for gay men is seeking a buyer. Grindr, based in Los Angeles, has hired Raine Group LLC to advise it on a possible sale, people familiar with the matter said. The sale process is early and no deal is assured, said the people, who asked not to be named because the process is still private. The people didn’t know what valuation Grindr might fetch in a sale. The service helps gay men connect online by using location-based software. Joel Simkhai founded Grindr in 2009 with $5,000. Four years later, the company is still self-funded with no outside investors, and charges about $12 a month, Simkhai said in a Bloomberg TV interview April 17.

(Tipped by JMG reader James)

NORTH DAKOTA: GOP Lawmaker Outed, Claims Retaliation For Anti-Gay Voting

Via Fargo's ABC affiliate:

A North Dakota lawmaker who sent an explicit photo of himself to another man says the exchange being made public is retaliation for a recent vote against expanding gay rights. Rep. Randy Boehning, a 52-year-old Republican legislator from Fargo, says a Capitol employee told him a fellow lawmaker vowed to out him as gay if he continued to vote against bills granting gays legal protections against discrimination. Boehning refused to identify at this point who he believes is behind the purported political payback for his vote against Senate Bill 2279, the third such bill defeated in the past six years by North Dakota legislators.

The exchange came to light when Dustin Smith, a 21-year-old Bismarck man with no known connections to the Capitol, contacted The Forum earlier this month, saying he recognized Boehning from a gay dating smartphone app called Grindr. Chatting under the user name Top Man!, Boehning sent Smith sexually suggestive messages and, in the early morning hours of March 12, an unsolicited photo of his penis, according to exchanges reviewed by The Forum. "How can you discriminate against the person you're trying to pick up?" Smith said in a recent interview. When first questioned about the messages two weeks ago, Boehning declined to comment on whether he sent the explicit photo and messages. But on Saturday he confirmed he was Top Man! and said he doesn't think sending a graphic photo of himself to a stranger is a lapse in judgment, as Grindr is an adult site where users often exchange such images.

Boehning defends his anti-gay voting record, saying he is merely following the wishes of his constituents. He also says that he's now glad the have the "1000-lb gorilla" of the closet off his back. (Tipped by JMG reader Mark)

GEORGIA: School Superintendent Comes Out After Grindr Photos Sent To Press

The superintendent of schools in Monroe County, Georgia has come out in a public statement after an unknown person sent explicit photos from his Grindr profile to the local press. Project Q Atlanta reports:

The statement comes as the Monroe County School District and the county sheriff launched investigations to see if Monroe County School Superintendent Anthony Pack improperly used a school system-issued phone or computer equipment as he cruised the gay sex app. In a public statement issued to media outlets, Pack denied any wrongdoing and criticized the anonymous tips that led to the public revelations about using a gay sex site. "Deep personal contemplation, prayer, and a desire to see my spouse as happy as she can be in her personal life, led me to realize that I am gay," Pack said in the statement. "I have tried to privately cope with accepting my sexual orientation as not definitive of my identity, but rather a small part of who I am as a father, a person, and a public figure." The married father of two children said he has and his wife separated four months ago and are seeking an uncontested divorce.

A local television station has a video report here.

Court Rejects Lawsuit Against Grindr Filed By Man Busted In Underage Hook-Up

A New Jersey federal court has rejected a lawsuit filed against Grindr by a man who claims the hook-up app should have prevented a 13 year-old boy from accessing the service.

William Saponaro Jr. was arrested in 2012 after an encounter involving him, the 13-year-old boy and another man who knew Saponaro and had met the boy on the Grindr app. Saponaro, who owns a construction company in Cape May, sued Grindr for negligence and infliction of emotional distress, saying it allowed the boy to subscribe to it and present himself as being over the age of consent. A federal judge in Camden, in an opinion published on Friday, dismissed Saponaro's lawsuit. The judge cited federal law that protects online service providers from being held liable for content that users post on their sites. "If social network hosts are faced with liability every time third-party communications on their networks result in harm, they are left with two extreme courses of action if they wish to ensure insulation from liability," U.S. District Judge Jerome Simandle wrote. "Either over-police their networks, taking down communications that might ultimately be harmless; or, strip users of the ability to post communications altogether."

In my first post on the case last summer, I reported that Saponaro claims that it was the other adult who actually met the boy on Grindr and that Saponaro believed that having a Grindr account meant one must be at least 18 years old. At that time Grindr had filed a motion to dismiss, citing the Communications Decency Act, which they claim immunizes companies from bad acts resulting from misinformation provided by other parties. Charges of sexual assault and child endangerment remain pending against Saponaro.

REPORT: Homocons On Grindr At CPAC

There were also the usual ads on Craigslist.

(Tipped by JMG reader Daniel)

Conan O'Brien Joins Grindr

This is pretty good. Language!

HomoQuotable - Matt Moore

"Our gay, 'married' neighbors are in sin and alienated from God, but they are still His image bearers and because of that they possess a dignity that is worthy of our love and respect. They are fatally sick, dead in their sins, hostile to God and willfully serving a master (Satan) that hates and violently opposes us (the church), but we are called to love and embrace them – not as believers, but as fellow image bearers – in the very state they’re in. We aren’t called by God to curl our lips at them, teach our children to hate them, or relentlessly blame them for the disintegration of our society. We are called by God to invite them into our lives, into our social circles, and even into our living rooms. Christians, while possessing the greatest love of all within them, have so often been superseded by other non-Christian communities in attitudes of kindness and hospitality, and that’s a horrible shame." - Ex-gay activist Matt Moore, conceding that the marriage battle is lost and asking Christians to be be nicer about it. This he does by writing for a website which two days ago published a call for his execution.

UPDATE: Freedom Outpost has now deleted its July 2014 post calling for the "lawful execution of homosexuals." The column was authored by Philip Stallings, who also wrote a now-deleted October 2014 post for Matt Barber's BarbWire. The Freedom Outpost article was approvingly linked to on Sunday by BarbWire columnist Tim Brown. Yesterday that post was also deleted. The original Freedom Outpost column remains viewable via the Wayback Machine.

Madonna To Chat With Grindr Users

As a promotion for the coming release of Rebel Heart, Madonna has teamed up with Grindr for a contest in which five winning users will get to chat with the Material Girl over the app. In order to enter, Grindr users must recreate the album's artwork with their own photo and include the first single's hashtag in their profile headline.

Matt Moore: Christians Don't Hate Gays, Real Hate Is Throwing You Off A Roof

"Intolerance. Hatred. Bigotry. Oppression. Violation of human rights. Religious extremism. Evil. These are words that I see used by Americans, both gay and straight, to describe the Church’s stance on sexuality, everyday. These are words that I see fill my email inbox describing my character because of my biblical stance on sexuality, everyday. These are words that I see the Western LGBT community hang like a banner over all things associated with the person and teaching of Jesus Christ, every day. Disagree with us if you wish – that’s your prerogative. We’re not going to throw you off a roof for it. But please, stop thinking that we hate you. Step back and look at the world and re-evaluate your definitions of love and hate. What ISIS is doing is what real hatred looks like. We love you, and we want you to know the true God and His Son, Jesus Christ. We will still be your friends if you refuse. We will still love you and serve you and walk through life with you if you keep plugging your ears when we talk about Jesus. Because, at the end of the day, we don’t hate you." - Matt Moore, writing for Matt Barber's BarbWire.

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: In August 2014 Moore claimed to have no idea that BarbWire columnists have called for imprisoning and executing gay Americans. In June 2014 Moore declared that transgender kids are possessed by demons. In February 2013 Moore was spotted on Grindr in New Orleans at the same time he was writing vicious "ex-gay" screeds for the Christian Post. After being confronted, Moore confessed that it was a "major disobedience to Christ" to have been cruising for huge uncut cocks on Grindr. He then declared that he had sold his computer and "put a lock on my phone" so that he wouldn't succumb to the delicious temptations of huge uncut cocks. The following week he posted a now-deleted YouTube video in which he declared that he rejects the term "ex-gay" because he's just as attracted to huge uncut cocks as when he found Jesus.

REPORT: Accused HRC Co-Founder Terry Bean Met Teenaged Boy On Grindr

Portland police yesterday reported that accused HRC co-founder Terry Bean, 66, met the teenaged boy he is charged with molesting on Grindr. The boy was identified after police were given his phone number by Bean's former partner, Kiah Lawson, 25, who has also been charged with sexual abuse of a minor. Via the Oregonian:

Bean and Lawson are accused of setting up an encounter with the teen through the iPhone app Grindr, a mobile social network that helps men find "local gay, bi and curious guys for dating.'' The app advertises, "Meet the men nearest you with GPS.'' Bean, 66, and Lawson, 25, are accused of having sex with the boy at a Eugene hotel on Sept. 27, 2013. A Lane County grand jury indicted both on two counts of third-degree sodomy and one count of third-degree sexual abuse. On Friday afternoon, Lawson pleaded not guilty to the three-count indictment in Lane County Circuit Court. Bean, who posted bail, is set to appear in court Dec. 3. "The surprising thing to me is Kiah was indicted in this case because it was Kiah who helped authorities find this kid,'' said Jeffrey Dickey, Lawson's attorney at the time. "If someone is going to cooperate and be helpful for the police there should be some kind of reward for that. It could have a chilling effect on others coming forward.''

Bean contends that he is the victim of an "extortion ring" that included Lawson, who claims to have discovered that Bean secretly videotaped sexual encounters with Lawson and other men in Bean's bedroom. It was Bean who first went to police in June to charge that Lawson and others were demanding money in exchange for remaining silent about the videotaping.

In March of this year, Bean filed for a restraining order against Lawson, claiming domestic physical abuse. In that petition, Bean claimed that Lawson is a crystal meth addict who had burglarizing his home and charged $15K on stolen credit cards. He also accused Lawson of dealing meth out of  Bean's second home, a condo where Lawson lived at that time. Bean claims that police characterized his accusations as a civil dispute between landlord and tenant.

UPDATE: Lawson's mother has weighed in.

Lawson’s mother, Tim Nouanemany, told KOIN 6 News after the hearing her son never had contact with the teen, and that Terry Bean arranged the encounter. She also said Lawson is himself the victim, a pawn used by Bean to “get young kids.” She called it “grooming,” and claimed several times Bean gave her son alcohol and Viagra as part of the grooming process to entice the teen. Nouanemany is sticking by her son and said she just wants the truth to come out. She also hopes he gets to take a lie detector test. Lawson, she said, went from being a happy young man last year after first meeting Bean to someone who is not himself lately.

And there's this from the 15 year-old's lawyer: "He’s been traumatized and he’ll be living with that trauma. It’s important that the two adults involved he held to account for that. Something like this can follow a victim for their life. As we go to electronic court records, everything becomes searchable."

RELATED: In August of this year, a New Jersey man filed a federal lawsuit against Grindr, alleging that the hook-up app's "lax age verification standards" led him to be arrested for having sex with a 13 year-old boy, who had been allowed to be a paying member of the site. Grindr's motion to dismiss cites the Communications Decency Act, which they claim immunizes companies from bad acts resulting from misinformation provided by other parties. They additionally claim that the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that it is "not feasible" for web publishers to verify the age of users. 

SAUDI ARABIA: Gay Man Sentenced To Three Years For Hook-Up Profile

Via Gulf News:

A court in eastern Saudi Arabia has sentenced a homosexual man to three years in jail for engaging in “immoral acts”. The man, in his 30s, was also ordered to pay a SR100,000 fine by the court in the port city Dammam in the Eastern Province. According to a report in local news site Sabq, the man was apprehended by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice after he posted pictures of himself naked on social media and offered to have sex for free with other men. “Offensive” pictures and chats with other people were found on his confiscated mobile, Sabq said on Tuesday. Homosexuality and cross-dressing are social and legal offences in Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the UAE.

Some major US-based hook-up apps have warned their foreign users that it might be possible to pinpoint their location via the apps' geolocation function. The above-linked story does not say how the arrested man was identified.