Shakespeare famously wrote that “hell is empty, all the devils are here,” and according to reports, they all gathered at the Republican National Convention (RNC) from 15 July to 18 July 2024. The nation was watching eagerly as Donald Trump confirmed JD Vance as his running mate, his bitter primary rival Nikki Haley bowed down and kissed the ring, and the former president’s supporters donned assassination-inspired ear badges. Interestingly, however, the midwest also underwent Grindr outages at the same time, due to increased usage in towns near the convention.

Grindr, as we all know, is a popular dating app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people, geared specifically towards gay men.

Users noted that the app crashed on Tuesday 16 July, after a spike of users around Milwaukee, Wisconsin where the RNC was held. The outage was reported by more than 1,000 users in the area.

https://twitter.com/JessicaNonGrata/status/1813938645021442182

Grindr is reporting a service outage in Milwaukee. Is there a convention happening? pic.twitter.com/gEEU4sQI9A

— MARC (@nisroch) July 18, 2024

Just your reminder the Republican National Convention caused an outage in Grindr. This event is Grindr's Superbowl. I won't get into the hypocrisy, you can figure that out yourself lol

— TF Dudley__ | Streamer | Former Zookeeper (@wildlifedudley) July 18, 2024

There is a massive Grindr outage in Milwaukee…. On a completely unrelated note the RNC is currently on its third day. It’s being held in Milwaukee. pic.twitter.com/HmTv6rErRx

— Lance 🇵🇸 ❤️🇮🇷 (@lancestein936) July 19, 2024

This led a lot of netizens to speculate that the famously homophobic party might have more queer members than previously assumed, some potentially closeted. Thus, the event was quickly dubbed as the ‘Grindr Superbowl’. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

George Santos, an openly gay diva and disgraced former Republican congressman, even took it upon himself to share a very special message with attendees of the convention.

Santos posted his thoughts on the outage on X (formerly Twitter): “So Grindr executives are calling the RNC convention ‘Grindr’s Super Bowl’,” he said in a video.

“I’m openly gay, no qualms about it, proud conservative Republican,” he continued. “Let me tell you something: Just come out of the closet boys! Come on, it’s fun! You can be gay and conservative. But look, but look Grindr is always outing you anyways based on the hits. And guess who’s in town? It’s all you conservatives. Bye!”

👏🏼Come👏🏼out👏🏼the👏🏼closest👏🏼boys👏🏼! pic.twitter.com/3peFp8KOHh

— George Santos (@Georgesantos) July 17, 2024

Santos was referring to a post by the satirical account The Halfway Post which claimed as a joke that “an executive” at Grindr told them that the Republican National Convention is “basically Grindr’s Super Bowl.”

BREAKING: An executive of the gay dating app Grindr says the Republican National Convention is “basically Grindr’s Super Bowl.”

— The Halfway Post (@HalfwayPost) July 16, 2024

Surprisingly, the former congressman also shared his own love story that started on Grindr: “I met my husband on Grindr and we’ve been together six years going on seven, married for almost three.” Touching.

Of course, queer Republicans have always existed. In fact, Melania Trump recently served as a host for a fundraiser for Log Cabin Republicans, the nation’s largest Republican organisation dedicated to representing LGBTQIA+ conservatives and allies.

Still, Republicans identities have always been quite controversial within the queer community due to the party’s horrifying track record of eroding rights for the community based on antiquated, conservative family ideals.

In 2017, the LGBTQIA+ lobbying group Human Rights Campaign bought a geo-specific ad for men using Grindr while attending the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

The ad read: “You can’t be with us in the hotel room and against us in the CPAC ballroom.”