Location? Set. Photos? Updated. Outfit? Perfected. It’s all one could need for “Grindr’s Hosting,” the LGBTQ+-focused dating app’s first White House Correspondents’ Dinner party.
Yes, Grindr is entering the crowded sphere of glitzy, formally dressed parties that surround the annual spring dinner celebrating journalists who cover the White House.
The April 24 affair, set to take place at a privately owned estate in Washington, D.C.’s affluent Georgetown neighborhood, will bring together journalists, politicians and celebrities in the LGBTQ+ community in a “toast to the First Amendment,” according to Grindr’s flyer — though without sacrificing the app’s saucy flair.
“This is going to be elevated Grindr,” Joe Hack, the company’s head of global government affairs, told TheWrap. “This isn’t going to be a bunch of shirtless men walking around. This is going to be very elevated, elegant, but still us.”
Grindr’s party functions as the dating app’s latest effort to broaden its Washington presence over the last year as it advocates for issues important to its community of an average of 15 million monthly users, such as HIV prevention and in vitro fertilization (IVF) expansion programs. Its presence also comes as the Trump administration has targeted both the press and members of the LGBTQ+ community with condemnations and lawsuits.
The event will bring a “house party” element to a weekend where events are routinely held at foreign ambassadors’ homes, a play on Grindr’s hookup-inclined culture. The party will feature a DJ and, perhaps, a floral arrangement in the shape of Grindr’s logo, all backed by a budget “appropriate” for D.C.’s largest annual celebration of journalism, Hack said.
Those invited include reporters in the White House Correspondents’ Association and on Capitol Hill, Trump administration officials, D.C. politicos and other leaders among Washington’s business and cultural scenes. (Hack said one “very high-profile individual” was interested in attending if they were in town, but he promised it was not Beyoncé. It is also not Leon Panetta.)
Hack, a lobbyist who previously worked as Republican Sen. Deb Fischer’s chief of staff, joined the company last year as its head of global government affairs, and the company spent $1.3 million in 2025 on lobbying efforts, according to congressional disclosure forms compiled by OpenSecrets, more than Tinder and Hinge-owner Match Group.
Hack said the idea for the party first came about late last year as the company tried to figure out the best way to publicize its Washington efforts (or, in Hack’s words, a way of “coming out of the closet” into D.C.’s political scene). It also stemmed from Hack’s experience attending WHCD parties during his time working in politics, a circuit of events he said were “just not fun anymore.”
“To be super blunt, I want fun,” he said. “I think people need fun, and so I think we’re trying to create a fun moment here that doesn’t feel like work, but feels like a party. A lot of these are called parties, but they don’t feel like parties. They feel like polite cheeseboard circuits. Our superpower is, we’re sexy and we’re fun and we’re cool, and that’s what’s missing.”
It hasn’t been a fun stretch for journalists in D.C. Since taking office last year, President Donald Trump has sued several media outlets, and his White House and Defense Department have tried to control the press corps covering each delegation.
While his administration does have some gay appointees, Trump has signed executive orders aimed at transgender people, has called for “no more drag shows” at his remade Kennedy Center and his administration has reportedly not spent money appropriated by Congress for PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), which funds HIV prevention programs in Africa. His efforts have spurred outrage from many LGBTQ+-focused groups.
Such actions make an app rooted in gay dating’s decision to throw a party against this backdrop all the more unusual, a fact not lost on Hack. He said Grindr has been “well received” by lawmakers in both parties and it’s found “common ground” on issues such as HIV funding and keeping minors off the app, a testament to his ability to leverage relationships built over his decades working in politics and Grindr’s “respectful” approach to lobbying. That’s led to success in maintaining federal funding for healthcare partners that help Grindr distribute HIV self-testing kits through its app, he said.
“One of the things that I have learned is you have to show up and you have to be present, or your voice is not heard at all,” Hack said. “We are the largest gay company on the planet, hard stop. So that, we believe, also gives us a unique responsibility, but also a unique perspective and a unique opportunity. Because anytime you’re the biggest anything, your voice automatically has credibility and commands a certain amount of attention.”
In all, he hopes the weekend marks an opportunity for Grindr to celebrate every facet of the First Amendment, one he said protects both journalists and a community “largely born out of protest,” and an exciting disruption to the largely static WHCD party scene.
“It’s a little bit ready for some party crashing,” Hack said. “That’s where we’re coming in, to bring some new life, some new joy and some new perspective.”
