The outrageous article that never should have been published

A STRAIGHT journalist has lured gay athletes at the Olympics with Grindr and outed them. The stupidity is beyond belief.

This incredibly irresponsible article has just been taken down. But it’s too late.

A “JOURNALIST” from the Daily Beast has caused a world of outrage after he walked around the Olympic Village luring gay male athletes with the dating app Grindr.

He then outed them in a pointless, condescending and downright creepy article, for no apparent reason. Except maybe to make fun of closeted athletes trying to meet each other in a space they can feel safe in.

Some of the athletes, who could easily be identified by anyone who knows how to Google, come from repressive countries where homosexuality is illegal.

The article was originally titled ‘I Got Three Grindr Dates in an Hour in The Olympic Village’. It was by a man named Nico Hines and documented the straight writer logging onto the app, which gay men use to meet gay men, and messaging athletes, many of whom are not open about their sexuality.

Why? Yes, I wondered the same thing.

Nico explains that he wanted to see if the Olympic Village was a: “hotbed of partying athletes, hook-ups, and sex, sex, sex.”

To me that seems like the equivalent of launching an inquiry to see if ice melts in the sun.

If you put a large amount of single, attractive, fit people together in a small space, it’s conceivable that romance/hook-ups will occur. I hardly feel that’s an unknown fact worthy of an undercover investigation. Do you? Does this surprise any of you in the least?!

After trying Tinder and Bumble and not having much success he went with gay dating app Grindr.

He writes: “No prizes for guessing that Grindr proved more of an instant hook-up success than Bumble or Tinder.”

Why is that Nico? Are you insinuating that those in the gay community are more promiscuous than their heterosexual counterparts? Is that why you’re not awarding any prizes?

While not naming the athletes directly his descriptions of them made them easily identifiable.

“The [height], [weight] athlete from [nationality], who sent his address, had a Rio 2016 duvet cover as his main picture. His profile read “I’m looking for sex” in both English and [language].

“He asked for ‘a sex foto’ but I’m a bit of a prude like that, so I sent a selfie from the fencing earlier this week.”

NOTE: The country that was mentioned doesn’t have any openly gay athletes.

He then goes on to reassure us of his moral backbone and pure intentions:

“For the record, I didn’t lie to anyone or pretend to be someone I wasn’t — unless you count being on Grindr in the first place — since I’m straight, with a wife and child. I used my own picture (just of my face …) and confessed to being a journalist as soon as anyone asked who I was.”

First of all, NO ONE is going to be asking anyone if they’re a journalist on a dating app.

Grindr is a place for gay men to meet GAY MEN which he pretended to be.

Since he mentioned he was straight and had a wife and child a number of times in the article (as though it was his cloak of integrity that separated him from the nasty homosexuals) I’d say he pretty much lied to everyone.

The article has since been taken down from the Daily Beast website after an AVALANCHE of complaints and criticism.

However as some of you well know the internet isn’t something you can just erase things from. Its memory is infinite and easily accessible if you know where to look.

There are so many reasons why this is a completely abhorrent act, for gay athletes from countries who do not accept their lifestyle, the Olympics may provide a rare and precious opportunity to live unguarded. To be able to truly be themselves without fear of judgment and in some countries prosecution.

Hines betrayed that in the worst possible way. Some of these athletes may now be worried about returning home, some may be ostracised by their fellow team mates and I imagine would be finding it extremely hard to focus on their events.

Openly gay Tongan Olympian Amini Fonua summed it up perfectly on Twitter today:

Imagine the one space you can feel safe, the one space you're able to be yourself, ruined by a straight person who thinks it's all a joke?

— Amini Fonua (@AminiFonua) August 11, 2016

No straight person will ever know the pain of revealing your truth, to take that away is just... I can't. It literally brings me to tears 😭😭

— Amini Fonua (@AminiFonua) August 11, 2016

Em Rusciano is a comedian, writer, singer and regular news.com.au columnist. You can follow her on Facebook.

Originally published as The outrageous article that never should have been published