World of Warcraft gets first official in-game Pride event

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World of Warcraft is getting its first official in-game Pride event as a part of an upcoming patch (via WoWHead). Even better, it’s based on a community-organized event that’s been raising money for LGBTQ+ charity The Trevor Project for over a decade.

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The community-run event, The Running of the Trolls, will be getting some official support in patch 12.0.5. Traditionally taking place on the US Feathermoon server, The Running of the Trolls sees players create new, low-level troll characters and march en masse from the Echo Isles to Silvermoon City (similar to The Running of the Gnomes, which takes place each October to raise money for breast cancer charities).

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Based on datamined info, The Running of the Trolls has been renamed the Darkspear Dash and will take place this year from June 27-29 to celebrate Pride month. Blizzard and Warcraft Cares–the fan-led community organization that holds the event each year–have reportedly been in talks about making it an official in-game holiday for about two years.

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Anti-masturbation app exposed sensitive user data

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According to 404 Media, which was tipped by an independent researcher, a misconfiguration in an app development platform is the root cause of a leak of highly sensitive information from the users of an “anti-masturbation” app, including their age, masturbation habits, emotional struggles, and the kinds of pornography they were watching.

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According to the researcher, the issue allowed anyone who could authenticate as a user to potentially access the backend database, where user information for more than 600,000 users at the time was stored, of which 100,000 were identified as minors.

The app, Quittr, claims to be the “#1 Porn Addiction App to Quit Porn Forever” on its website. It apparently blocks porn websites on one’s device, as well as tracks one’s “abstinence” from porn. Quittr also has community features like groups, a “panic button” for “emergency nofap help” and even an AI therapist. (Experts warn against using AI for therapy.)

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“Porn addiction” is a myth that has no basis in science. While porn-viewing can be compulsive, like other behaviors, research suggests that perceived porn addiction predicted distress over actual porn use itself. Yet, the idea of “porn addiction” persists in the U.S., which lacks comprehensive sex education requirements in many states; only 37 percent of states require sex education to be medically accurate, according to Boston University.

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How the Sims became queer icons

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Like the world it aims to simulate, LGBTQ+ life has always been a core part of the video game series, which is a large reason why it has a huge queer fan base.

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From the moment the series’ creator Will Wright convinced development studio Maxis’ initially reluctant board members that the idea was worth pursuing, mechanics representing LGBTQ+ relationships became a fundamental part of the life-simulation’s gameplay.

From there, it has flourished into a game choc-full of queer life, from Pride decorations to inclusive gender and sexuality options for your Sims. But where did this all begin, and how did The Sims turn into one of the LGBTQ+ gaming community’s most beloved series?

A Gay Timeline of The Sims Franchise

Released in February 2000, The Sims was, for over four years, the best-selling and one of the highest-rated video games of all time. To this day, it remains one of the best-selling games in history. It’s actually possible to pinpoint not just the first-ever same-sex kiss in The Sims, but the moment the developers became aware that same-sex attraction was a mechanic worth pursuing in the series.

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Grindr Unwrapped 2025 is a spicy ride

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Unwrapped 2025 marks Grindr’s fifth annual global snapshot of queer culture, powered by insights from more than 15 million monthly users and 32,000 community votes. The report tracks the celebrities, kinks, cities, and moments that dominated the Grid this year.

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2025’s headline winners include Lady Gaga as Mother of the Year, Sabrina Carpenter as Mother-in-Training, Pedro Pascal as Daddy of the Year, Jonathan Bailey as Hottest Man, Bad Bunny’s Calvin Klein campaign for Best Bulge, and Lady Gaga’s Mayhem as Album of the Year. Gaga’s Monster Ball Tour also drove real-world impact, boosting Grindr usage by nearly 7% in tour cities.

Beyond celebrity-hood, we got a peek into some interesting, more regional insights like Finland leads in nude-sending, South Korea tops open relationships, Switzerland claims the most twinks, and Italy ranks first for feet. France, joined this year by the US and UK, leads the Hung Bottoms ranking. The US has the highest percentage of self-proclaimed ‘daddies’ by country, and London was named the top city to visit for a Gaycation. Prime connection time hits at 10 PM, Paris is the most Roamed-to city, and users sent over 12.8 billion taps worldwide in 2025. With so much to unpack spoke to Tristan Piñeiro.

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Grindr is a borderline unusable unless you pay

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Grindr has a serious problem. Ads on ads, endless crashes, and features stripped away — Grindr feels broken on purpose, unless you’re willing to pay the ransom. You can’t do a single damn thing on the app without being smacked in the face with an ad, and it’s absolute hell.

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Does it really cost a minimum of five long seconds (in some cases, many, many more) to get a little bit of action in 2025? Yes, it does. But, it doesn’t have to… if you’re willing to let the Grindr gods take a peek into your wallet.

For $14.99 — a steep price for a weekly app subscription, I have to say — users can get rid of every unwanted Grindr ad for one whole week. On top of that, you’ll unlock access to 600 additional profiles in your area, enjoy unlimited album views without the hassle of them vanishing after a few hours, send as many expiring photos and albums as you like, and tons more

But, for a little over $2 a day, is paying for Grindr XTRA for the week really worth the money, especially when there are so many other dating apps? Prior to testing the feature for myself, I was sure I’d say no. But the answer isn’t as black and white as you’d think.

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How to stop Grindr from using your data for AI training

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Grindr users who logged into their account this weekend were greeted with an unpleasant surprise — and it wasn’t an unsolicited dick pic.

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Several Grindr users reported encountering a push notification about the app’s use of artificial intelligence. The message warned users that the app would train generative AI using personal information from people on the app. The information would “help personalize the user experience and support more authentic, meaningful connections,” according to screenshots shared on social media.

App users who don’t wish to help Grindr train its generative AI, which the company has nicknamed “gAI,” which is pronounced “gay-I,” can opt using app’s settings. To get to the settings menu, first click on your own profile picture in the upper left corner of the app, and scroll down to “Settings.” Under “Settings,” click on “Privacy Settings,” and then scroll down to “AI Technology Controls.” There will be three different AI-related prompts there, with the option to toggle each on or off.

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Apple removes queer cruising app Sniffies from app store

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Apple’s App Store has removed the app for Sniffies, a popular queer cruising platform — at least for now. In a statement to Out, Sniffies cited “ongoing content restrictions” as the reason for the app’s removal, which was described as temporary.

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“We launched our first native iOS app in March, bringing Sniffies’ real-time, location-based experience to a wider audience,” the statement reads. “Due to ongoing content restrictions, the app has been temporarily removed from the App Store. For users who already have the app installed, it will continue to function normally. Our core web app remains fully operational and continues to offer the unfiltered Sniffies experience. We’re committed to providing the best experience possible for our community and will share updates as we explore next steps.”

Formerly a browser-only cruising platform, Sniffies officially launched an iOS version March 3. The platform shows explicit images. And it had hoped to avoid violating Apple’s content policies by blurring these photos (and explicit text) with a default “Safer Work Mode,” which a user could toggle off by signing into their account through their web browser.

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How to see (or hide) NSFW content on BlueSky

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Let’s be real – everyone and their mom is jumping ship to Bluesky these days, and honestly? We get it. While Twitter is doing… whatever the hell it’s been doing lately, Bluesky has been quietly building something that actually makes sense when it comes to handling adult messages and imagery. No pearl-clutching, no drama – just features that let you decide what you want to see, and how to best avoid any inevitable online hate.

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Before jumping in, I do want to point out that everything on Bluesky (with the exception of ‘Chats’) are public, and there’s no option for a protected or ‘hidden’ account. There are however, a great set of features to put you in control of your experience, just treat every post you make as public to the whole world, and you should be fine.

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Bluesky is clearly trying to strike that sweet spot between “do whatever floats your boat” and “don’t be a jerk about it.” Importantly, the platform puts the control where it matters most – with us, the users. Here’s a quick rundown for everything you need to know about managing adult content on your new Bluesky account.

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Grindr Unwrapped

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Gay ‘dating’ app Grindr has unveiled its Unwrapped stats for 2024, including which countries have the highest percentage of tops and bottoms. It’s the most wonderful time of the year for gay people who love lists. No, it’s not Spotify Wrapped, though that did also drop this week (and was pretty disappointing).

It is, of course, Grindr’s version of the yearly look-back in statistics and figures. But whereas Spotify will tell you how many times you listened to “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan, Grindr Wrapped is here to reveal where the Daddies are, who was the users’ favourite porn star and which sex positions rocked our socks off this year.

As revealed by the app’s official site, the highest percentage of bottoms was found in South Africa, followed by South Korea, then Japan, Vietnam and Denmark. Bossy bottoms rise! And anyone complaining of a top shortage clearly hasn’t been to Jordan, where the highest percentage of tops resided this year. This was followed by Greece, the United States, Singapore and Peru.

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