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Grindr For Equality, Varta Trust & SAATHII Launch One-Of-A-Kind Database for Queer-Friendly Services in India
As a leading platform for queer people around the world, one of the things we do at Grindr is find ways to use our technology, platform, and resources to better serve the queer community. Today, Grindr for Equality, in partnership with Indian gender and sexuality organization Varta Trust and Chennai-based not-for-profit Solidarity and Action Against the HIV Infection in India (SAATHII), launched an innovative and one-of-a-kind LGBTQ+ friendly resource database and online HIV test center location guide for India.
The spark to implement the online resource database came when Pawan Dhall, a founder of Kolkata-based Varta Trust met Jack Harrison-Quintana, VP of social impact and executive director of Grindr for Equality, at the 2016 International Aids Conference in South Africa. As a respected leader in the LGBTQ+ community and longtime activist focused on HIV in West Bengal and also nationally in India, Pawan wanted to use the local resources of Varta Trust to locate testing centers throughout the country and build a comprehensive database available in a wide variety of Indian languages, in order to be accessible to the most people. All of this fit so well into Grindr for Equality’s global mission to promote justice, health, and safety for Grindr’s 3.6 million global daily users and the worldwide LGBTQ+ community that we jumped to support it.
“It may come as a surprise to some, but India has never had a searchable online directory of HIV test centers. Before this site, if you wanted an HIV test in India, you’d have to ask a doctor, someone in the know, or know what to search for online. Nothing like this has ever been done in India on this scale,” said Dhall. “The test center locator will have an immediate impact on the sexual health of anyone in India seeking an HIV testing location.”
The resource database is accessible to LGBTQ+ identifying individuals via the Grindr app, but also anyone regardless of sexual or gender identity seeking legal aid or health service providers across India via both the Varta Trust and Grindr websites. By identifying and featuring testing sites that are supportive of different sexual and gender expressions, Grindr for Equality aims to remove much of the stigma or fear around getting an HIV test.
“This is a historic partnership that will greatly enable and empower the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community in India to identify queer-friendly providers and receive the care and support they deserve,” said Harrison-Quintana.
The queer-friendly online resource database and HIV test center locator is an effort to address the numerous queries on health concerns and complaints of rights violations which the “Varta” webzine has been receiving from its readers since its start in 2013. Service providers included in the database have been validated as “queer-friendly” through a process of information referees, direct interfaces and detailed self-administered questionnaires where it has been determined the service provider has an understanding about gender, sexuality and diversity; is sensitive to concerns of the LGBTQ+ community around stigma, discrimination, violence, health and broader well-being; and possesses the skills to address the concerns of queer individuals.
Grindr users in India will see localized ads and special notifications to drive awareness of the database’s existence. Database can be accessed via the Grindr app and website in the sexual health resource center and at the Varta Trust website www.vartagensex.org/hsearch.php.
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