Grindr on an Apple iPhone. (Getty/MARTIN BUREAU)
A group of three women reached levels of queendom never thought possible for looking for a new flatmate with “masculine energy” by advertising on Grindr.
People in Birmingham, England, logging onto Grindr, the world’s most popular queer dating app, may have seen a pretty unusual sight in the tiled torsos.
Cliodhna Heffernan, from the West Midlands city, had set up a profile on the app with a photograph of her and her two flatmates earlier this month after struggling to find interest on SpareRoom, a renting website.
“Three girls in their mid to late 20s, young professionals, looking to fill a room in Moseley centre,” the 27-year-old’s profile page read. “Modern house, social and good vibes xxx.”
Their ad shows a room to rent in Moseley, a suburb south of the city, with “vaccinated,” “confident,” “fun,” and “outgoing” listed as the tags in the description.
But the marketing assistant woke up to a wave of messages from prospective sharers after their housemate hunting methods had gone seriously viral – drawing more than 23,000 likes and retweets on Twitter.
“I can’t,” wrote user Dan, who shared screenshots of the three. “Just seen these queens using Grindr to advertise that they have a room to rent.”
I can’t, just seen these three queens using Grindr to advertise that they have a room to rent 😭😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/UdXFR7rjvQ
— Dan (@xxdanbbzxx) February 2, 2022
“We are the three best housemates there is,” joked Ellis Henry, a 28-year-old hairdresser and one member of the Grindr holy trinity.
Grindr itself even replied to the tweet, saying: “i’d move in.”
Henry later revealed that she and Dan hit it off and are even going for a drink together.
I’m one of the girls and I can confirm we are going for a drink https://t.co/YS7IAat5eQ
— Ellis (@ellisxhenry) February 3, 2022
Woman looking for housemate on Grindr was just ‘looking for a man’ to move in
Heffernan told the Kenney News and Media agency: “We had a house with four girls and one of them was moving out.
“We weren’t adamant that we wanted a male to move in, but we thought it would be a nice change to bring a bit of masculine energy into the house and change things up.
“It was a never a discussion of, ‘oh, we want a gay man,’ it was just: ‘Oh, we want a man’.”
Yet, none of the men that swung by the place was quite the right fit, she added. That’s when her “gay best friend” suddenly had an idea – advertise the room on Grindr.
“I had never thought about taking that approach before,” Heffernan said. So she, Henry and 25-year-old sales operation manager Shannon Green made the joint profile.
“I’ve seen comments from people saying, ‘these girls are just looking for a gay best friend,’” she explained, adding that it “wasn’t like that at all”.
“A lot of my close friends over here are gay,” she added, “and we are very involved in the gay community, so every weekend since I’ve come over [from Ireland] we’ve gone out in the gay village in Birmingham.”
Countless Twitter users – including the very “gay friend” whose idea the profile was in the first place – praised the “queens” for their savvy marketing idea. And we, reader, simply have no choice but to stan.
Can I just say. This whole thing was my idea. I am said gay friend who suggested this. Goodnight https://t.co/d1hxj6mTxn
— Philip Taylor (@Philip_Taylor93) February 3, 2022
I’m sure they filled the room pretty quick, queens I think. https://t.co/IBRxPUD2vc
— noey (@nooahoven) February 3, 2022
helping to end homelessness amongst queer men that are being thrown out of their homes due to homophobia. a perfect fag-hag solidarity this is so cunt omg https://t.co/DVmqe4BnsI
— this is my batman in paul dano’s voice (@queevr) February 7, 2022