The president of the gay dating app Grindr has faced a backlash for appearing to suggest that marriage should be between a man and a woman.
Scott Chen, who has been president of the app since August, posted on Facebook that he would boycott the Chinese tech company HTC after reports it had backed US groups opposed to same-sex marriage. But he drew criticism for his comments made earlier in the post.
“Some people think marriage is a holy matrimony between a man and a woman. And I think so too. But that’s your own business,” he wrote, after sharing a story about HTC on his personal Facebook page.
Chen’s remarks – originally written in Chinese and later translated to English – were picked up and published Thursday by Into, a digital magazine owned by Grindr.
Zach Stafford, editor-in-chief of Into, wrote on Twitter Thursday that the publication had learned the “current president of Grindr believes that same-sex marriage is a ‘holy matrimony’ between men and women.”
Chen responded angrily to the article published by Into, saying he had not been contacted for a comment, and branded it “unbalanced and misleading.”
Chen acknowledged that “different people have their different feelings about their marriages,” but added that he had been a longtime campaigner for equal rights.
“I am a huge advocate for LGBTQ+ rights since I was young. I support gay marriage and I am proud that I can work for Grindr,” he wrote in the comments section under the Into article.
“The reason I said marriage is a holy matrimony between a man and a woman is based on my own personal experience,” he said. “I am a straight man married to a woman I love and I have two beautiful daughters I love from the marriage.”
In his original Facebook post, since removed, Chen urged groups which oppose same-sex marriage to donate instead to people “suffering from poverty, hunger, war or natural disasters.”
CNN has approached Grindr and Chen for comment.
