Gay Dating App Romeo Overwhelmed by Response to Help Ukrainians
Contributed by: kellyseal on Friday, March 25 2022 @ 12:14 pm
Last modified on Friday, March 25 2022 @ 12:42 pm
Dating app Romeo started a new forum for its users to be able to offer support to Ukrainian refugees, and thousands of members were quick to respond.
The gay dating app is based in Germany and has been popular for years, mainly in Eastern Europe. One of its high-profile features is “groups” or chat forums where users can congregate and discuss topics of interest. This past week, when Russia invaded Ukraine, the app decided to harness the traffic in these forums to call on users for help. Developers launched a group called “Shelter for Ukraine” so that users could offer assistance those fleeing the war.
The app was quickly overwhelmed with users wanting to help, with 8,000 members joining the chat after being active for only four days.
According to Queerty.com[*1] , many European members were offering rooms in their homes to any who needed a place to stay, including in Western European countries from Italy to France and Portugal.
The website posted some messages from users: “We live in Prague and can offer a place to stay in our small guest room with one bed (140×200 for one person or couple),” said one message.
“I offer accommodation for the one or those you urgently need. Whether male or female, up to 2 people,” said another message. “Would also offer shelter or sanctuary to those Russian soldiers who oppose the war and/or are fleeing from Putin’s government as a result.”
While most Ukrainian men ages 18-60 are staying in the country to fight the Russian army, their families are fleeing and need places to stay – this includes wives, children, parents, sisters and cousins. Some Romeo users are welcoming even more refugees than they can hold to keep families together.
A spokesperson for Romeo told Queerly: “When we heard the news of the invasion of Ukraine, like many, we wanted to do something to help. We are an international team, with people from all over the world. Many of us have experienced war and oppression. Connecting people is what we do, so we looked at how we could use the platform to connect people in need, with our users who are willing to help.”
Romeo is not the only app to reach out to users about the situation in Ukraine. Grindr urged its members to support LGBTQ organizations in Ukraine in a recent post. Airbnb has also offered short-term accommodation for up to 100,000 refugees through its independent non-profit.
Romeo has over 3 million members globally, but most users are based in the Baltics and Eastern Europe.