• by Danielle Oster , May 30, 2024

Grindr is taking to the road for Pride Month for a “Grindr Rides America Tour” across 10 American cities.

In addition to Pride Month, the campaign celebrates the 15th anniversary of the queer dating app, mostly aimed at queer men, which first launched in 2009. The “Grindr Ride America Tour” entails the brand’s inaugural Pride bus tour, which will connect with Pride celebrations across the country.

The campaign is part of the brand’s new mission to become “the global Gayborhood in your pocket,” which it announced at a recent Web Summit in Rio de Janeiro along with the introduction of a new “Roam” feature allowing users to temporarily change location ahead of traveling in order to meet and talk with locals.

Girndr’s tour bus includes two full-service portrait photography studios to spruce up profile pics in style. Also in board, according to Grindr’s blog post announcing the campaign, are “local drag queens, highway hunks, punny bumper stickers (don’t we all just want to Hoexist?), free swag, Grindr Unlimited giveaways, and more.”

Grindr is also teaming up with online LGTBQ+ sexual health and wellness provider Q Care Plus -- which will offer  LGBTQ+, gender-affirming, and sexual health and wellness education and resources at each stop, including HIV testing.

For each stop, Grindr will share regional data about how users in the location are using the app, by compiling anonymous aggregated survey and profile data to identity trends for each city. The company will also share info on its social channels about what this data says about users in each of “America’s loudest and proudest cities” it’s visiting on its tour, according to the announcement.

The “Grindr Rides America Tour” kicked off on May 29 at an event in San Francisco, and concludes with a stop at New York City Pride on June 30. Along the way, the bus will stop at locations including Los Angeles’ WEHO Pride, New Orleans Pride, and Chicago Pride.