Calvin Klein Campaign Gets Homo Sexty

Via WWD:

Calvin Klein is betting on sexting and Tinder to help fuel the next iteration of its #mycalvins campaign. The predominantly digital program will span 27 markets that will include nontraditional outdoor media, such as large-format static LED screens and street furniture in key global cities like Bangkok, Thailand and São Paulo. The lead image – a same-sex embrace featuring male models Reid Rohling and Ethan James Green – will replace eyewear on the brand’s signature billboard on Houston Street in SoHo here Aug. 3. In-book advertising is slated to run in September books starting in early August and an advertising rollout with Vice Media will begin in the fall in 10 markets. An integrated digital partnership with Tinder will go live in the fall, as well, featuring an in-app campaign giving users the choice to swipe right or left. Paid social media advertising is part of marketing spend, including promoted content on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube to reach the brand’s collective 20 million social followers.

(Tipped by JMG reader Alan)

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.

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)

SURVEY: 30% Of Tinder Users Are Married

Via Business Insider:

Tinder shot to fame as a dating app for tech-savvy single people. Except, as it turns out, a big chunk of its users may not be single after all. That's according to the research firm GlobalWebIndex (GWI), which released some figures on Tinder from its latest survey of more than 47,000 internet users around the world that suggest the app has a wider demographic. In fact, the research claims that 30% of Tinder users surveyed are married, while another 12% are in a relationship. Fifty-four percent classed themselves as single, while 3% were divorced or widowed. Tinder may also be a digital stomping ground for married men, judging by GWI's claim that 62% of its users are male and 38% female. The research also shows, unsurprisingly, that Tinder's users are a relatively young crowd, with 38% aged between 16 and 24, and 45% between 25 and 34. Thirteen percent are aged 35 to 44, 3% are 45 to 54, and 1% are 55 to 64 — though if reports in late 2014 that Tinder had 50 million active users were true, that would still indicate half a million people in that oldest age category surveyed.

What percentage of Grindr users are not single?

Hook-Up Apps Users Survey

There's lots of hook-up app news in my in-box this morning. Less grim than robberies and lawsuits is this independent survey of 4000 users of various apps. One of the more interesting tidbits:

45% of Guys Who Actually Meet Don’t Hook Up. In other words, almost half the time two guys meet, one of them says, “Thanks but no thanks.” The high number of bail-outs might surprise some, given that two strangers who’ve spent a fair amount of time trading pictures (including their penises!), texting, and one assumes, sometimes talking on the phone or Skyping, would NOT end up in each other’s arms. On the other hand, it might be understandable given the amount of lying about age, height and weight (see above). If you thought you were meeting a young hottie and the guy that shows up is so old he owes Jesus ten bucks for the lumber, you’re probably going to bail.

Hit the link for more analysis.

MIAMI: Three Teens Commit Home Invasion Robbery In Gay App Hook-Up

Miami's NBC affiliate reports:

According to police, the victim set up a first-time meeting with a man through a smart phone dating app. When the man showed up Monday night, the victim let him into his home on Northwest 21st Avenue. But once inside, the suspect pulled out a gun and told the victim to lay face-down on his bed while he let his accomplice into the home, police said. The robbers ransacked the home and fled the scene to a waiting vehicle. A neighbor had called 911 and officers arrived at the scene as the suspects got to the car. The teens fled on foot but were caught and taken into custody. A third suspect is still at large, authorities said.

The two apprehended teens have been charged with multiple felonies. The app used to set up the encounter has not been named. (Tipped by JMG reader Michael)

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.

NEW YORK: Teen Confesses To Murdering Gay Man In Apparent Craigslist Hook-Up

An upstate New York teenager has confessed to brutally murdering a 62 year-old gay man during an apparent Craigslist hook-up. 

Kyle A. Box, 18 [photo], a junior at Carthage Academy, faces second-degree murder charges in the death of Randy J. Bent, 62, of 821 Morrison St. Police began investigating the case as a murder when firefighters reported to them the victim had multiple stab wounds. Box was arrested on Monday after admitting to police he stabbed Mr. Bent several times then set him on fire Sunday night, police said. An autopsy was conducted Monday afternoon, but the results have not been released. Police continue to withhold information about how Box and Mr. Bent knew each other, saying that information is evidentiary. Two of Mr. Bent’s friends, Dorothy “Dottie” M. Miller and John G. Miller, said Mr. Bent — who was openly gay — often went on Craigslist to meet men. They said they warned him to stay away from the online personal classified ads because they feared for his safety. On Tuesday afternoon, the Times found a listing in the casual encounters section of the website under the heading “18-year-old in need of help — m4m (carthage).” The personal went on to say “Hello my name is Kyle and I’ve had trouble looking for a job so if anyone out their needs someone to give them a good time and call or text me i’ll gladly give you something you wont forget. :)”

(Tipped by JMG reader Kent)

REPORT: Homocons On Grindr At CPAC

There were also the usual ads on Craigslist.

(Tipped by JMG reader Daniel)

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.

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.

Feds Fine Online Dating Company For Scamming Money Via Fake Profiles

Via The Hill:

England-based company JDI Dating and its owner, Mark Thomas, were the target of the $616,165 fines. The settlement forbids the company from misrepresenting facts about the service or its cancellation policy in the future. "JDI Dating used fake profiles to make people think they were hearing from real love interests and to trick them into upgrading to paid memberships,” said the FTC's Jessica Rich, who directs consumer protection at the agency. The company, which operates 18 websites, was accused of using computer generated profiles to send messages to users who had created free profiles. The FTC found that messages sent to users who created these free profiles were "almost always fake." Customers could not respond to other members unless they signed up for a subscription fee, usually $10 to $30 a month. The company boasts 12 million members on its website. "The fake profiles and messages caused many users to upgrade to paid subscriptions," the FTC said in a release.

Among JDI Dating's websites are Get Flirting, Flirt Crowd, and Naughty Over Forty. The FTC rejected the company's claim that its posted disclaimer about "virtual cupids" (embiggen the image above) was adequate notice that some messages are fake. The company claims to have 12 million members across its 18 sites.

NCAVP On Spree Of Hook-Up Murders

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs has issued a statement on yesterday's news that yet another gay man has been murdered by someone he met online.

This is the sixth hook-up related homicide that NCAVP has recorded nationally since last year at this time, and the third in Pennsylvania. Hook-up related violence is violence that occurs within the context of a “hook-up” for casual sex. Hook-up related violence can occur through hook-up websites, apps, cruising, sex parties, bars, and clubs, and can be connected to overlapping forms of violence, including hate violence, intimate partner violence, and sexual violence.

“Stigma often prevents us from talking about hook-up related violence, that’s why at NCAVP we are working hard to raise awareness about this critical issue in our communities,” said Osman Ahmed, NCAVP Research and Education Coordinator at the New York City Anti-Violence Project. “Far too often we see LGBTQ people targeted for robbery and violence via online dating and hook-up platforms. It is imperative that more resources and programs are made available that seek to prevent such violence and promote safety online.”

NCAVP is reaching out to local organizations in Philadelphia and around Pennsylvania to raise awareness of this homicide and to support the local communities affected by this violence. NCAVP is a resource for anyone who experiences violence. For more information, or to locate an anti-violence program in your area, please contact us at info@ncavp.org or visit us online. Join NCAVP in our efforts to prevent and respond to LGBTQ and HIV-affected violence.

This Is An Ad For Something

Via press release:

People from all around the world took part in the gay selfie project released by the global gay social network Moovz. This project was meant to show the faces of the global gay community, with people from different cultures, with different colors, appearance and races and that speaks different languages. From South to North America and from Europe to as far as Asia - people uploaded their pictures and agreed to be exposed in order to send a message to the world and prove how united is the global gay community. This is probably the first time that gays from all around the world did something together to send a message that empowers their whole community. Many gay influencers also took part in this project, such as Amanda Lepore, Davey Wavey, Chris Salvatore, Colby Melvin, Matthew Lush, Willam Belli and many other global and local gay leaders from different regions who are following this initiative that gathered the entire gay community into one place.

PENNSYLVANIA: Murder Charge For Man Who Met His Victim On Craigslist

A Pennsylvania man has been charged with robbing and murdering a local man he met via a hook-up ad that the killer had posted on Craigslist. Police had already been seeking the suspect for failing to show up for his September trial on child rape charges. Via the Associated Press:

Chad Marshall Wilcox, 28, of Williamsport, was arraigned Friday on charges of first-degree murder, robbery and related offenses in the Sept. 21 death of Manuel Hakimian, 36, of Norristown. He is being held without bail and has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Nov. 7. Online court records do not list an attorney for him. "This is a very vicious murder," said Montgomery County Deputy District Attorney Thomas W. McGoldrick. "The evidence suggests that the victim was tied up when he was killed. We allege that the defendant actually cut the victim's throat."

Hakimian's body was discovered by family members who went to his apartment Sept. 21 when he failed to show up for a family function, and police found that his cellphone, computer, wallet and car were missing, according to a criminal complaint. Wilcox told detectives that, on the day the trial was supposed to begin, he traveled to the Philadelphia area and posted an advertisement on Craigslist seeking sex with men, intending to rob them of money to feed his heroin addition, according to court documents. He said Hakimian picked him up on Sept. 20 and drove him back to Hakimian's Norristown home, according to a criminal complaint. He also claimed he plotted with three other men to rob Hakimian.

Wilcox claims that it was his accomplices that committed the murder. (Tipped by JMG reader David)

BRITAIN: Royal Security Worried About Staffers Inviting Over Grindr Hook-Ups

Via the Daily Mail:

Buckingham Palace staff have sparked internal security fears by bringing casual partners met over dating apps back to their living quarters. Police guarding the royal residences are said to be ‘deeply concerned’ at the number of unvetted overnight guests, many of whom appear to be casual acquaintances met online. Apps such as Tinder and Grindr allow smartphone users to find potential love matches nearby using GPS locators. They have proved phenomenally popular and have millions of users around the world – however they have also been criticised for promoting casual sex. And according to well-placed sources, a number of the Queen’s 800-plus staff are said to use such online dating tools. While most live-in servants –including butlers, maids and kitchen staff – are not allowed to bring guests into Buckingham Palace itself, they are permitted to sign in visitors to their living quarters at St James’s Palace and the Royal Mews. This situation is not new, but the rise of dating apps has sparked concerns among the Metropolitan Police that servants are bringing back guests whom they know nothing about.

(Tipped by JMG reader Ed)

BERLIN: Grindr "Art Project" Roils Locals

A Dutch artist is sitting in a Berlin gayborhood storefront where he is live-streaming photos and chats with unsuspecting local Grindr users to giant video screens in the window. Some of these men, perhaps unsurprisingly, are furious. Via Gay Star News:

The project is called Wanna Play? But many Grindr users don't consider the art playful, some consider it to be a gross invasion of their privacy. Others say they have felt manipulated into acting oddly or writing messages that they would never have done if it was being broadcast for the world to see. Parker Tilghman is one of the men furious over the art show. When he started chatting to Verhoeven, they traded pictures and chatted for awhile before he was asked whether he was interested in shaving the artist's beard. "Given the odd nature of our conversation I comically asked, 'Are you going to murder me?' to which he responded, 'No, but I'm afraid you might be the one to murder me.' When Tilghman went to the address the artist gave him, standing on the corner of Marienenstrasse, he saw his Grindr chat out there for everyone to see. "Someone involved in the project confronted me and I shouted at him louder than I have ever shouted in my life. The entire block stopped, at one point they started clapping. I screamed, 'How dare you? You are violating peoples lives, you are publicly mocking people and projecting the pictures and words onto a screen that an entire city block in one of the busiest parts of Kreuzberg for everyone to see.'"

The two-week installation is in its third day and is live-streaming here. At this writing it appears that the screen is turned off.

NYC Takes PrEP Campaign To Grindr

The New York City Department of Health has launched a PrEP campaign on Grindr, Scruff, and social media sites. And of course, the ever combative AIDS Healthcare Foundation is furious.

A stigma persists that Truvada is a "party pill" -- an attitude shared by some doctors who scold patients about their sexual practices and won't prescribe it, said Anthony Hayes, a spokesman for the Gay Men's Health Crisis, which backs PrEP. The journal Clinical Infectious Diseases found that 74 percent of surveyed clinicians back PrEP, yet only 9 percent had prescribed it. Enter Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the health department's new assistant commissioner for HIV/AIDS control and prevention. Previously a top AIDS doctor at Mount Sinai Hospital, he is a self-described "gay health warrior." "There's not a lot of doctors who can say, 'I've done thousands of HIV [blood] tests with my hands in dark sex clubs,' " he said. "I have done that."

The city is spending about $500,000 to encourage PrEP, with outreach to doctors and ads on Facebook, Twitter and hookup apps like Grindr and Scruff. Says one ad: "Share the Night, Not HIV." Among those in Daskalakis' focus: young black and Latino men, who studies find at higher risk because of the amount of the virus in the population and health care disparities. The city's PrEP push is misguided, said Michael Weinstein, head of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which serves 200,000 patients globally. "The first order of business in medical ethics is 'do no harm,' and what the New York City Health Department's doing is doing harm, because there are people who are going to take this drug intermittently, who are going to think they're protected, who are going to not be protected," Weinstein said.

Fairly strict adherence to daily dosing is critical to maintaining Truvada's effectiveness as a preventive.

REPORT: Egyptian Police Are Using Dating Apps To Hunt Down Gay Men

According to a report published by France 24, Egyptian authorities are using smartphone dating apps such as Grindr to hunt down gay men. Such tactics were predicted last month when an anonymous Grindr member contacted thousands of overseas users to warn them that their exact locations could be triangulated. The France 24 report does not mention triangulation.

Homosexuality is not illegal in Egypt. Despite this, numerous people have been arrested while taking part in festivities celebrating gay unions and accused of “debauchery.” In May, for example, four men were arrested during a party organised in Nasr City, located east of Cairo. One of them was sentenced to 12 years of prison, the heaviest sentence ever given to an LGBT person in Egypt. According to accounts given by numerous witnesses, police are using gay online dating sites, such as Grindr, to hunt down LGBT people. Egyptian gay rights activists have published numerous messages warning members of the community to refrain from using these applications. According to several gay rights activists, at least 77 LGBT people have been arrested since October 2013.

RELATED: Earlier this week Scruff announced that a coming version of their app will hide the user's location by default in countries where being gay is illegal or simply dangerous.

When a user elects to hide his distance on SCRUFF, we not only remove the information from his profile data, but we also randomize his location on our servers. This means that, if he lives in the West Village in NYC, he could potentially appear in between two people in SoHo. However, if he uses SCRUFF in the countryside, randomizing his location by a few blocks might still not be enough. That's why we take density into account, so if you live in the city, your location will be randomized by a few blocks, but in the country it could be a few miles or more. This issue is even more critical for people who live in regions that criminalize homosexuality or male/female interaction, such as Russia and the Middle East. Hiding distance may be a smart option for people in these places to enable in all location-based apps that provide this feature. SCRUFF wants to ensure our members both who live in these countries and who travel to these countries stay informed, and in an upcoming release we will be enabling "hide distance" by default for people in these regions.