Democrats Launch Ad Campaign on Grindr to Appeal to LGBTQ+ Voters

The Democrats have launched a new series of ads on dating app Grindr to appeal to young LGBTQ+ daters, in hopes of turning out more votes ahead of election day on November 5th.

According to The Advocate, the targeted ads focus on the Republican party’s Project 2025, emphasizing that the document threatens LGBTQ+ rights. These ads urge people to vote against the extremist agenda. One ad says: “Project 2025 Rips Away Our Rights. Stop Republicans. Make a plan to vote at IWillVote.com.”

The Kamala Harris campaign has spent three figures on the ads, indicating the importance of the LGBTQ+ constituency to her success.

Project 2025 is about 900 pages and introduces a plan to keep the federal government from "imposing radical abortion and pro-LGBT initiatives," and to "cease promotion of the DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion) agenda, including the bullying LGBTQ+ agenda," according to Newsweek.

Project 2025 was written by the conservative group the Heritage Foundation, and VP candidate J.D. Vance wrote the forward to the plan. Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025 in recent months after backlash from a majority of Americans who found the plan offensive and regressive.

“LGBTQ+ Americans have fought tirelessly for equality — but Donald Trump’s MAGA GOP wants to drag us backwards and roll back our hard-earned freedoms,” Alex Floyd, the DNC’s Rapid Response director, said in a statement, according to The Advocate. 

Analysis by the Human Right Campaign shows that LGBTQ+ voters turned out in record numbers for the elections in 2020 and 2022, which made a difference in the margins for Democrats, and played an important role in races in several battleground states.

Floyd told The Advocate: “Our votes are powerful, and it’s crucial that LGBTQ+ voters make their voices heard… to stop the Trump-Vance ticket’s dangerous Project 2025 blueprint.” He compared it to the campaign Harris and VP nominee Tim Walz are running, which is a “vision of equality for all.”

In addition to the ads, Grindr users are receiving messages in their inboxes directing them to go to IWillVote.com where they can check voter registration status, find polling locations, and make a plan for voting, according to The Advocate.

The ads launched Wednesday October 30th, six days before the election. The Democratic National Committee estimates that over one million voters will see the ads before election day, primarily being LGBTQ+ voters in swing states. They also estimate the ads will generate over 14 million impressions up through election day.

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