A solemn event turned unintentionally saucy this weekend when reports of Grindr outages coincided, perhaps a little too conveniently, with the Charlie Kirk memorial service in Phoenix, Arizona.
The Sunday event, attended by tens of thousands of conservative mourners, honored Charlie Kirk, the controversial right-wing commentator and founder of Turning Point USA, who was fatally shot during a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University earlier this month. The memorial, held at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, quickly became the subject of LGBTQ+ internet humor when Grindr and other hookup apps began experiencing reported outages across the Phoenix area, just miles from the stadium.
While Grindr itself has not issued any statements acknowledging technical issues, crowdsourced outage tracker Downdetector showed a dramatic spike in reports during the hours surrounding the event. The timing has proven irresistible to internet sleuths and social media users, many of whom have been quick to speculate: Was the server strain simply a coincidence, or was something a little more closeted happening beneath the surface?
A Rally in Everything But Name
The memorial was anything but a subdued affair. According to the BBC, the event felt more like “a raucous political rally or megachurch service” than a traditional moment of remembrance. American flags were abundant, MAGA hats dotted the crowd, and Christian worship bands set the tone with group prayer and music before the formal proceedings began.
For LGBTQ+ observers, the visual of tens of thousands of conservatives, many of whom have supported policies targeting queer rights, all gathering in one place was already a surreal moment. But the sudden reports of Grindr outages from users within a 10-mile radius of the venue added a new, unexpected layer of irony.
On TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), queer users began sharing screenshots, memes, and conspiratorial giggles about the outage, some joking that the spirit of Kirk himself had possessed the local Grindr grid. Others pointed to screenshots allegedly from Sniffies, a more niche (but increasingly popular) cruising app, showing a surge of anonymous users clustering around the stadium during the memorial.
Data or Drama?
It’s important to note that Downdetector operates on user-submitted reports, meaning that a sudden influx of false flags or intentional trolling could skew the data. However, the site does account for such behavior by calculating a “baseline volume” of typical reports at any given hour, using historical averages.
So while a few pranksters might have enjoyed stirring the pot, the spike appeared to be statistically significant enough to catch the eye of those familiar with app behavior during large events.
Phoenix wasn’t alone, either. Downdetector also reported similar, though smaller, spikes in major cities including Chicago, Los Angeles and New York during the same time frame. While correlation doesn’t imply causation, the pattern mirrors previous conservative gatherings where Grindr use quietly surged.
Not the First Time
This isn’t new behavior, either. LGBTQ+ community members and journalists have long noted the phenomenon of increased Grindr activity during conservative events, many of which promote anti-LGBTQ+ policies.
During the 2020 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, local users reported an influx of anonymous profiles and an unusual amount of crashes on Grindr. Anecdotes began to pile up: gym selfies tagged with “just visiting,” or profile bios that read “here for a good time, not a long time,” often paired with no face pic—classic indicators of discreet users.
In fact, the trend goes back at least as far as the 2016 RNC in Cleveland. At the time, Grindr confirmed to Vice that more than 1,000 people were using the app in and around the Quicken Loans Arena during the convention, a 66% increase from the baseline.
“White men comprise only 40 percent of the Grindr community,” the company said in a statement, “but represent 75 percent of the visitors [at the RNC].” If you’ve ever wondered what cognitive dissonance looks like in real time, there you have it.
Kirk’s Legacy and the Irony at Play
Charlie Kirk was a vocal opponent of LGBTQ+ rights throughout his career. He repeatedly argued against gay marriage, railed against what he called the “LGBTQ agenda,” and insisted that there are “only two genders.” His Turning Point USA events often featured speakers who promoted anti-trans and anti-queer rhetoric, and he frequently criticized the presence of LGBTQ+ content in schools and media.
The potential irony of those mourning him lighting up Grindr servers hasn’t been lost on the internet, or the queer community.
“Kirk would be proud,” one TikTok commenter quipped. “His legacy lives on in anonymous torsos seeking ‘straight-acting bros’ on a Sunday.”
The juxtaposition between conservative ideology and the private behaviors of some of its followers isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but it continues to provide fertile ground for queer humor, critique, and side-eye.
Internet Gold, But Questions Remain
While there’s no hard evidence tying the Grindr outage directly to attendees of the Kirk memorial, the circumstantial details, and historical precedents, make for a compelling (and hilarious) theory.
For now, all we can do is marvel at the consistent pattern: when large numbers of right-wing men gather in one place, Grindr seems to sense it, and so does the internet.
Whether it’s simply a case of more people in one area overwhelming the server, or a deeper reflection of internalized homophobia manifesting in anonymous profiles, the pattern holds. And in a country where queer rights are constantly under threat from politicians who seem awfully familiar with gay hookup app UX, the moment serves as both a punchline and a warning.
