Fact Check: Are gay dating apps threatening to expose GOP politicians' alleged accounts?
WASHINGTON, DC: In August 2025, a viral claim on social media alleged that the owners of popular gay dating apps had threatened to expose Republican politicians and members of Congress who allegedly maintain secret accounts on their platforms.
The speculation linked this alleged threat to the possibility of overturning the US Supreme Court’s landmark 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
Claim: Gay dating apps may expose republican officials if same sex marriage ruling is overturned
Social media posts, especially one from the “US Democratic Socialists” Facebook page on Aug. 12, 2025, claimed that gay dating apps had vowed to publish the names of closeted Republican officials if the Supreme Court overturned the 2015 marriage equality ruling.
“BREAKING: Gay dating apps are reportedly threatening that, if the Supreme Court bans gay marriage, they'll reveal ALL closeted Republican officials and members of Congress who have accounts on their platforms,” the post read.
The post came a day after Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk jailed in 2015 for refusing to issue marriage licenses to a gay couple, petitioned the court to revisit the case.
The claim spread rapidly across Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and X, with some posts garnering over 100,000 reactions. Many users shared it as breaking news, while others treated it as a source of humor or political commentary.
Fact Check: False, no hard evidence to back the viral claim
The claim originated from The Halfway Post, a satirical news platform created by Dash McIntyre. McIntyre openly describes his work as comedy, not factual reporting.
The original satirical post, published on August 11, 2025, quickly went viral, receiving millions of views before McIntyre clarified in a follow-up that it was a joke, writing, “This one should be true, shouldn’t it? Comedy is cathartic in fascist eras such as ours.”
A review of credible news outlets, official company statements, and database searches on Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google, and Yahoo turned up no evidence to support the rumor. No reputable media organization has reported that gay dating apps have made such threats, and there is no record of any official statement from app owners confirming the claim.
Viral rumor falsely claims gay dating apps target Republican politicians
The viral rumor is false. It was created as satire by The Halfway Post and has no basis in fact. While social media often amplifies such fictional claims, especially when they align with political narratives, they remain fabrications.
The archived bio of The Halfway Post’s X account described it as, “Dadaist graffiti news. Halfway true comedy and satire by @DashMacIntyre. I don't report the facts, I improve them. Comedy is cathartic in fascist eras like ours.”
Previous fact-checks have addressed similar satirical claims from The Halfway Post, including one alleging that the owners of the gay dating app Grindr planned to expose Republican politicians who “secretly” used the platform, and another attributing a remark to a Grindr executive that the Republican National Convention was “basically Grindr’s Super Bowl.”
This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online
