Pete Buttigieg's Praise of Hinge Dating App Sparks Gay Surge

Lonely gay hearts are flocking to Hinge, following an endorsement of the dating app from Pete Buttigieg.

Fortune reports that gay profiles have spiked by 30 percent since April 1 -- around the time the gay presidential candidate stepped into the national limelight. In interviews, Buttigieg has sometimes discussed how he met his husband, Chasten, on the app.

Justin McLeod, the CEO of Hinge, credited Buttigieg with the surge.

"We're proud of all of the relationships we've helped set up -- including Mayor Pete and Chasten," McLeod told the finance publication. "We're happy to see that their love story has encouraged even more members of the LGBTQ community to find their person on Hinge."

Hinge bills itself as a dating app "that's designed to be deleted" -- meaning that it markets itself to those looking for long-term relationships.

Unlike more visually based apps like Grindr, the service allows users to show off their personality by answering interest-based questions and monthly prompts, which are meant to spark conversations.

Buttigieg met Chasten on Hinge in 2015. In a New York Times profile on his 2018 wedding, Buttigieg told the Gray Lady that he "wanted a platform where you're not necessarily inundated with hookup culture and sex."

"I could tell right away he was not like the others," the mayor of South Bend, Ind., told The Advocate in a recent interview about his experience meeting Chasten on Hinge. "He was pretty witty. We were talking about Game of Thrones. We were talking about ... I was laid up and recovering from an injury and so I had a lot of time just hanging out on my phone, and I could just tell by the chatting that he was somebody special and that I wanted to meet him."

Buttigieg has ranked as high as third among the many Democratic presidential contenders in recent polls. A cover of Time magazine made history by featuring the same-sex couple with the title "First Family."