David West
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4,464 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment An error occurred while saving the comment 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And you already know that U=U right, but still you cling to your outdated beliefs.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 :-)
An error occurred while saving the comment 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
An error occurred while saving the comment 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.
An error occurred while saving the comment 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
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79 votes
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.