LGBT hookup app, Grindr, will host its inaugural White House Correspondents’ Dinner Weekend Party on April 24, one day before the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The dinner party is set to be a networking event that will bring journalists, policymakers, and members of the LGBT community together at a critical time in LGBT policymaking. It’s a move that many are questioning, given the Trump administration’s hostility toward LGBT populations (even though Grindr regularly sees spikes in usage and even crashes from overuse surrounding republican-centric events). However, given today’s political climate, Grindr’s presence in Washington makes sense.
“Grindr represents a global community with real stakes in Washington,” said Joe Hack, Grindr’s head of global government affairs. “The issues being debated here—HIV funding, privacy and online safety, LGBTQ+ family rights—are daily life for our community.”
They are also policy issues that the Trump administration has sought to defund or slow research for. Since January 2025, LGBT-centric policies from DEI initiatives to LGBT healthcare have been under fierce scrutiny by the Trump administration. Executive orders and presidential memos have been effective in targeting policies that impact access to gender-affirming healthcare, define sex as binary, and negatively impact HIV service delivery to LGBT communities. Trump’s targeting of NGOs has also impacted funding and research for LGBT health issues, which negatively impacts the community.
Policy doesn’t exist in a vacuum, either, and impacts other policymaking agencies. For instance, although the International Olympic Committee’s new sex testing policy, which requires all female athletes to undergo sex testing via gene screening prior to competing, didn’t go through Washington, it was undeniably affected by anti-trans policy that republicans at the state and federal level have been pushing for years. The normalization of LGBT discrimination in policy can be traced back to policies proposed decades ago, and in 2026 alone, there are 669 active anti-trans bills, with 30 state-level anti-trans laws being passed so far this year.
So, while Grindr’s presence in Washington this week might look puzzling on the outside, it makes sense from a policy perspective–and that is the angle Grindr is going for.
“Nobody does connections like Grindr, and WHCD weekend is the most iconic place in the country to make them,” Hack said of Grindr’s presence in Washington next week. “We figured it was time to host.”