Jonathan

As expected you ignored my points.

For the avoidance of doubt, when I say 'poz' I mean anyone who is HIV+. The vast majority of those who know their status are undetectable because once you start medication which everyone does immediately after diagnosis nowadays, then being undetectable quickly follows. It's illegal everywhere for someone to knowingly transmit the virus and of course I condemn anyone who does that. But the science says that undetectable equals untransmissable, a point you will always ignore because of your prejudices. You assume (and nothing I say will change your mind) that guys that know their status are the ones transmitting the virus. That's wrong, it's guys who write negative on their profiles, mistakingly thinking that they are negative because they haven't been tested (and unless you're waiting 6-12 weeks after each time you have sex and getting tested before the next time - then there is always doubt)

The outdated laws are only relevant in a tiny portion of the world - a subset of states in the USA and some middle Eastern countries. No countries in Europe have laws like this and HIV is better controlled there than USA. Brazil as another example has the complete opposite law - it is a crime to expose the HIV status of someone else and people have the right to keep their status secret. The HIV criminalisation laws are also counterproductive, when people know that they've had risky behaviour and there are laws that criminalise them only if they KNOW their status, then it's rational to avoid getting tested.

Anyway to get back on the point of this uservoice issue, because arguing with bigots is a waste of time (I'm arguing the points here but in the app I just report and block when someone tells me I don't belong on the app or whatever). For anyone from grindr reading this - both Jonathan with his bigoted views and I agree that the filter is a good idea for everyone.

* Poz (undetectable) guys can find other poz guys
* Poz (undetectable) guys who choose to disclose their status are happy to be filtered out by other guys who are irrationally prejudiced against them
* Bigots can filter out guys they want to filter out
* Poz (undetectable) guys who don't choose to disclose their status aren't affected by the filter

To the grindr team, if you find it distasteful to allow bigots to filter out people with HIV, that's understandable. But it's in everyone's interest to allow it - particularly it's in the interest of poz guys who want to find other poz guys. Another way to implement the feature would be to only show the filter to users who have their status as one of the HIV+ ones to let them find other poz guys without allowing bigots to filter out guys with HIV.

You seem to have some confusion surrounding a couple of different topics that you have commented on here. Let's address them:

* According to the American Academy of HIV Medicine, a non-profit organization in Washington D.C, laws surrounding HIV disclosure were signed in the 80's amid a public scare of transmission. The passing of these laws were founded in Science and Medicine, not religion. I'm totally behind creating a filter to hide certain HIV statuses on the Nearby and Explore screen. But to go as far as saying that someone is a bigot because they don't share the same belief system as you, a belief system in which people of certain sexual statuses have a right to opt-out of necessary disclosure when the matter of facts are that they simply do not is a deeply troubling belief system. I'm sorry you feel that I'm a bigot, but that is a matter of opinion. The matter of facts are above. There are laws surrounding the disclosure of sexual status for a specific type of person for a very good reason. Accountability needs to be held for people who hide an unknown sexual status that is potentially a harmful status, and later go on to unknowingly transmit a condition to an unknowing and innocent person. These are not barbaric or outdated laws, they are still extremely relevant and are founded in promoting the education and advancement of knowing your status via testing, and upholding a firm level of integrity with all of your partners. If we didn't have these laws, then the world would be filled with careless people who parade around refusing to take accountability for their actions, actions that hurt other innocent people. The laws are purposed for holding guilty people accountable. Nobody wants innocent people to be hurt. And I hope you don't either.

Edit: In the community at large, there are differing understandings for "Poz" and "Undetectable." "Poz" being a person who is HIV positive but not currently taking A.R.T. medication, and "Undetectable" being a person who is HIV positive but is currently taking A.R.T. medication to fruitfully extend their life and prevent the spread of the disease to another partner. Saying "Poz folk don't have to disclose their status"(paraphrased) is a deeply troubling idea and belief system. Saying "Undetectable folk don't have to disclose their status"(paraphrased) is a much more complex platform to stand on. Everyone's health situation is different, right? The laws surrounding HIV disclosure don't explicitly provide clarity on folk of Undetectable status because at the time we did not have that kind of medicine available. Does that mean the laws are outdated? Maybe. I think we should leave that research, and those decisions up to the professionals. Doctors and scientists at various research facilities across the globe.(i.e. CDC)No matter what your status is, I believe accountability should be upheld for anyone that blindly causes harm. End of story. How that comes to fruition in state statutes is not going to be an easy path to navigate.

Another bigot joins the conversation...

No one is suggesting adding a bigot label on grindr (seriously, what?). That doesn't mean that some people (thankfully not most people) aren't bigots. This discussion is about adding a filter for hiv status. As someone who is HIV positive and loudly discloses this on my grindr profile, I think i'm in a better position to speak on if poz guys want this filter than you do - yes those of us who disclose our status want the filter to be able to find other poz guys. And I'm quite happy to be filtered out by people who don't want to talk to me - this is a feature to me to avoid the worst kind of people.

As for your point about the barbaric criminalisation of HIV in certain USA states and some middle eastern countries, may I point out there are 8 billion people in the world and 300 or so million in the USA - the vast majority of us live in more enlightened places without such counterproductive laws that only encourage people to not get tested. So yeah let's not let the way we treat our gay brothers and sisters be dictated by religious fundamentalist regions of the world shall we?

And you already know that U=U right, but still you cling to your outdated beliefs. It's been explained to you that knowing your status is the key to ending HIV because poz guys who know their status are getting treated and therefore cannot pass on the virus. It's the guys who write negative on their profile (because they legitimately think they are) but haven't been tested that transmit the disease. But you know all this and you don't care. So yes, you are a bigot. Luckily, most people these days are a bit more enlightened - just not the ones who would visit this thread :-)

Hi David,

I think that it's ill-advisable for such a large platform to be putting distasteful labels like "bigot", or "poz" on common folk that use the app in the every day life. While the desire to filter out negative messages, people, and energy is a heard and deeply sympathized struggle, putting unwanted labels and filters on people probably isn't the best way. In fact, there's a good chance it'll take bad situations and make them worse. Furthermore, refusing to disclose your sexual status is indeed a criminalized act in 34 different states. While I understand the frustration involved with desiring an equal level of treatment on the app as anyone else on the app, aiding users in committing illegal acts is unfortunately not how Grindr, their business entities, and their users are going to get there.

I suppose it’s to be expected that a thread like this will attract bigots.

Anyway if anyone from Grindr is reading this please add this filter. It works for everyone:

* bigots who want to filter out poz guys who choose to disclose their status can do that

* Poz guys who choose to disclose their status have the HUGE benefit of not receiving messages from bigots

* Poz guys can find other poz guys

* Poz guys who choose not to disclose their status on the app are unaffected

Stop lying about your status guys. There is enough crap out there to deal with as it is. Some will have no problem about it as others will. It's no different than being judged on your looks, cock size, body type, skin color, age. Add the filter, use or don't use it.

Etienne, the reason for a filter is to let poz guys find other poz guys, and avoid bigots like you. If a poz guy chooses to disclose his status it's up to him.

Dumb idea! Pos guys can just lie and say they’re negative…then what??

Please please please let poz users search for other poz users. Dealing with stigma all the time is very tiresome and draining on mental heath. Please if someone has their profile as poz, add a filter to let us find other poz users. This filter can be hidden from neg users if you don’t want them filtering out poz users. Though personally I’m happy to be filtered out from prejudiced people’s profiles

Please Grindr, implement this change. It will make a massive difference to the lives of hiv+ people

This Needs to be a gay app app as it was created for! All this change is not for most people your born Gay you stay Gay! I will absolutely never ever change to like Trans or Female ever! I fed up seeing woman on a man's app! Its no different then have a straight female trying to show interest in meeting me or chat! I absolutely don't want to feel so horrified by this! I only want men as I have always wanted!

A previous boyfriend who was HIV positive claimed we were married to qualify for financial assistance. He let them believe I was also positive.Also a testing kit I sent with samples to the lab at Qcare was intercepted or tampered with during delivery . After receiving a FALSE positive for chlamydia, and herpes , I decided to track the package which had ended up in the trash at a hotel in OKC opened! I decided to track the second kit I sent back and saw how the same package arrived at the same facility twice at different times. So two packages arrived at the but which one was mine. Are these results reported and how can we defend ourselves against false reports?

We must know

I sometimes have to still put my HIV status as my name because people don't read. It's a pain in the butt to spend time communicating with someone to later find that they didn't read the profile, so when I am tired of making my first response to messages "I got HIV", I just put it as my name. It saves time not having to invest my time in someone who has a problem with my status. Also it is a good thing fake GPS is gone, because I used to get all sorts of weirdos trying to pinpoint my location. I wish as soon as someone opened my profile to send a message they get my HIV Poz status front and center on my profile, and inside the chat window. I have no time to waste in constantly having to repeat myself.

Please tell me you're not naive enough to believe this already doesn't happen. I was looking for this as an option in a vain attempt to appease those who love to inform you that "you should only look for your kind" - or "shouldn't it be illegal for people like you to have sex?"

To discriminate against gay men (primarily) on the basis of their HIV+ status would make us no better than the homophobes who did the same thing in the 1980s, you would think that the gay community for all its talk of “Pride” and “Equal Rights” would be more sensitive about this topic based on past experiences.
And if we do add an HIV filter, then why stop there? Let’s also include filters for: mental health, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, asthma, psoriasis, acne, physical disabilities, depression, high cholesterol, etc, etc. Let’s just filter each other to the point that Grindr has no guys to suggest to us. It’s truly shocking how tone deaf the gay community can frequently be.

HIV... the 2nd Hoax of the century after cOv :D
Both of them was managed by the same guy :D

It is each persons own responsibility to wear a mask same for wearing a condom or taking Pre Exposure Profilaxis. Its a persons intimate privacy to or not to disclose a genetic status. If you’re not in a closed monogamous relationship and have sex with men or engage in risky behaviors you should be on PreP. Only then can You make the world better by taking initiative to not be a bigot and participate in stop the spread of a virus. Same as chicken pox, ghonorea, and Co-vid.

i would like you to watch my livestream when i kill myself because grindr banned my account for no reason.they took away my happiness.

Grindr provide reminders about getting a tested regularly for HIV and STIs but doesn’t allow you to screen out those that don’t. I think there should be an option to screen out those that aren’t taking safety precautions.

The problem with this is the person who you’ve gotten the exposure from probably didn’t know he had an STD, nor did you know you were exposed before being made aware of it. The time between being exposed to STDs and actually knowing to have it is likely to be weeks to some months. So if you were to be exposed to HIV, you wouldn’t know that until actually being made aware of it, which could take some months. That way everyone would always put down they are STD free, which would promote false idea of being in an STD free environment and possibly create a hostile environment for the infected to make former bed partners aware of their exposure.