Stephen Port: Slipping Through My Fingers

Cause they  is incompetent and homophobic, mebbe?

On BBC 3 from tomorrow.

Grindr: The Hours

Guardian.

Could have stopped that after the first four words.

AMIRIGHT!!???

I don't, though.

Cause I don't have a smart phone.

Or a sex drive tbh.

Nothing's piqued my interest or ire today so I'm going to the beach.
x

PS Queerty are doing a poll asking readers' how many hours a day they spend on 'hook-up apps'. Where do they get their ideas from? Oh, and their re-design really is quite awful.

Grindr Killer: Denies Murder

The Sun.

Where do we start?

One: It doesn't make it okay if you put it in inverted commas...

Tim Cook: New iPhone Launch

'And if you want to bone him you just swipe right, like this.'

Tube Fuck: Fuck Off

Pink News: It's Not Unusual

Gay @C4Naked contestant takes the unusual step of previewing the penis of his date https://t.co/wxXon0DoVI

— PinkNews (@PinkNews) August 24, 2016

Oh bless, Pink News have never heard of Grindr etc etc.

Catholic Church: Confession

Trainee Roman Catholic priests in Ireland could face curbs on their internet access and are to be encouraged to mix more with women after claims over the use of the gay dating app Grindr at the country’s main seminary.

Ireland’s Catholic hierarchy voiced concerns about what it called an “unhealthy atmosphere” at St Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Co Kildare, and ordered a review of the “appropriate use of the internet and social media”.

It follows remarks earlier this month by the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, about “strange goings-on” at the 221-year-old s

Dr Martin, the most senior Catholic cleric south of the border, disclosed that he had decided to send students from Dublin – the largest diocese in Ireland – to Rome for priestly formation, rather than to Maynooth just a short drive from the capital.

The Archbishop spoke of an “atmosphere” at the college following a string of allegations about a “gay culture” made in letters and blogs and concerns about “promiscuous sexuality”.

Pressed on what his concerns were he told RTE Radio: “One is that there is a homosexual, a gay culture; that students have been using an app called Grindr, which is a gay dating app. 

“[That] would be inappropriate for seminarians, not just because they are trained to be celibate priests but because an app like that is something which would be fostering promiscuous sexuality, which is certainly not in any way the mature vision of sexuality one would expect a priest to understand.”

His remarks prompted the college trustees, including senior clerics, to hold crisis talks.
Now in a statement issued by the Catholic Church in Ireland, they promise a review of whistleblowing procedures and internet and social media use policies.

They said they would ask bishops to set up a group to look at the “pastoral needs” of seminarians, including ways to temper the all-male, clerical training environment by introducing more contact with women, families and lay people.“Acknowledging the recent and extensive media coverage regarding the college, and the disquiet that it has caused amongst the faithful, the trustees emphasise that the Church has clear instructions on the formation of seminarians,” they said.

“It is essential that these are observed in order to form priests ‘after the heart of the Good Shepherd’.

“There is no place in a seminary community for any sort of behaviour or attitude which contradicts the teaching and example of Jesus Christ." ...

Telegraph.

Well, at least they're not raping altar boys...

Grindr: Fashion

Someone's getting a bit over-excited at The Times.

Olympics: Beast

On Thursday morning, the Daily Beast published an exceedingly gross and bizarre article by a straight, married male writer who lured in gay Olympians through hookup apps for no particular purpose. The entire piece is an astoundingly creepy exercise in Grindr-baiting, which involves a journalist accessing Grindr in an unlikely setting and … seeing what happens. But the Daily Beast piece, penned by Nico Hines, is a uniquely disgusting and irresponsible entry into the tired genre. Hines entices his (often closeted) subjects under false pretenses; effectively outs several closeted athletes who live in repressive countries; then writes about the whole thing in a tone of mocking yet lurid condescension. By 10:30 a.m. ET, the Daily Beast had, in response to criticism, edited out the most identifying details about closeted athletes—but that’s too little, too late. (Update, 9:15 p.m.: On Thursday evening, the Daily Beast took down the piece entirely. Later, it also published an apology.)...

Slate.

No, you got just three replies in a city of 6 and a half milllion, maybe cause you is fugly.

Church: Grindr

The Archbishop of Dublin has signalled that he wants to permanently remove all clerical students from the seminary system following anonymous allegations of gay sex and misconduct at St Patrick’s College in Maynooth.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin criticised the full-time training process yesterday and said that students studying for the priesthood were better off “outside the closed, strange world of seminaries”.

He said that while St Patrick’s had a proud tradition “we probably need a different way in the long run.”

He also criticised the “too comfortable” culture of the Co Kildare-based national seminary, in which “breakfast, lunch and dinner” are served to seminarians who have limited contact with other people...

He told RTE’s News At One that he would prefer clerical students to live “in the reality of Dublin life” while travelling to “Maynooth or elsewhere” to learn theology.

“I think a lot more structural reform would be needed,” he added, adding that he was concerned about allegations that some seminarians were using Grindr, a gay dating app. This was inappropriate for anyone preparing for celibate life, he said.

In May The Irish Catholic reported that allegations of a gay culture in the seminary were made in an anonymous letter to Irish bishops. The letter allegedly urged members of the Irish hierarchy to intervene as a matter of urgency to address the complaints made..

The Times. 

The reporting on this story is just a bunch of ex-public school boys sniggering - now on repeat on BBC Radio 4 - it fucking stinks of posh gay dread.

Men going on Grindr hah hah hah! etc.

Stephen Port: Free The Barking One!

A man accused of murdering four men in east London has also been charged with poisoning, rape and sexual assault.

Stephen Port was charged with four counts of murder last year but the new allegations relate to eight living complainants.

The 41-year-old from Barking denied the charges during a pre trial hearing at the Old Bailey.

He allegedly met the four murder victims on the internet between June 2014 and September 2015.

It is alleged he then invited them to his flat on Cooke Street where he is said to have poisoned them with the psychoactive drug GHB.

Mr Port faces 29 charges in total and is set to stand trial on 4 October.

He was originally charged with four counts of murder and four of administering a poison, but at the Old Bailey on Monday prosecutors added six more counts of administering a poison, seven charges of rape and four of sexual assault.

Mr Port now also faces four alternative charges of manslaughter.

These are alleged to have occurred between 2011 and 2015. 

BBC News.

Quite clearly a stitch-up.

PS Even though the media has now pronounced him the 'Grindr killer' (alleged), it seems he met his victims on ye olde Gaydar.

Grindr: The Case For The Defence

Like there's anything wrong with that.

A study published recently in the Archives of Sexual Behavior seems to corroborate this. Taking in data from 1973–2014, it found that Americans are experimenting sexually more than ever before.

The study also found that the midwest and the south, in particular, have experienced a rapid increase in same-sex behavior. It suggests that one possible reason for this is the emergence of sexual and social networking sites, or “the apps” as we would call them.

“In other words, while those in the East and West may have long had access to potential sexual partners via urban centers with strong LGB communities and venues, those in the South and Midwest may have benefited more from the emergence of sexual networking technologies in terms of access to potential partners,” the paper said...
Gay men slut-shaming other gay men is nothing new. I see it every day. I see gay men lamenting that romance is dead (when was it alive for us – during the 80s?) and that dating apps are turning us all into sluts.

Personally, I don’t think having a lot of sex makes you a bad person, nor that anyone should have to justify using an app for hookups. But I am especially happy that these apps exist for men who live in often-overlooked parts of the country. I don’t see it as a negative thing. I see it as the continuation of a legacy of survival against societal shame. Be it an earring or a strategically placed handkerchief, gay men have always invented clever ways to find each other. And recently, they’ve just got a whole lot better at it. 

John Paul Brammer, Guardian Comment is free.

Headline Of The Month: The Sun

The Sun.

Peter Allott taught at top public school, St Benedict's.

Noted alumni: Peter Ackroyd, Julian Clary, Matthew Todd.

Grindr: Daily Grind

Funny or patronising?

It's certainly not very funny.

Anthony Gilét: Lost In Translation

Grindr: Outrage

Lol!

Queerty: Reddit And Wept

Worst Nightmare and Pouch Problems

Queerty has lifted both these stories from Reddit; a site where anyone can post any old nonsense.

Though possible, neither sounds remotely plausible - for reasons, once again, it is left to their less gullible readers to point out.

Gay journalism?  

Beats workin'!

Tweet Of The Day: The Guyliner

"Grindr is killing romance." Yes, cottaging was a famously beautiful and romantic experience.

— The Guyliner (@theguyliner) January 24, 2016

Please read comments for some gay dating do's and don'ts...

Tom Daley: Health & Efficiency

Hope you've all been supporting our Tom by watching his weekly video guides for living a healthy lifestyle.

This week it's sleep!

Last week was coffee - maybe that's why she's having trouble sleeping?

The first was about the importance of drinking lemon juice.

Yes, really - perhaps there's a lemon juice marketing board?

Let's hope this gets Tommy his long longed-for TV presenting gig.

PS Tom is now using this 'Come fuck me' pic as his Grindr profile.

Grindr: China

US-based gay dating app Grindr has sold a 60 per cent stake to a Chinese gaming company, highlighting the increasing role China is playing in investing in the technology sector both at home and abroad.

Gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech paid $155m for the stake in the first capital raising by the group which operates in 196 countries.

Grindr called the investment “a huge vote of confidence in our vision to connect gay men to even more of the world around them”. The app says it has 2m regular visitors per day, who spend an average of 54 minutes on the site...

Financial Times.

54 minutes a day?

Blimey.