Grindr is an iPhone/iTouch app for that special kind of guy. Rather like bat sonar, Grindr pings nearby guys also using Grindr and shows your their pictures. Why, whatever for? “Turning those missed connections into real connections,” says the founder. (Keep it clean, boys! “We have censors who work 24/7 to review each profile.”) If all else fails, your augmented-gaydar app can block one of these “connections.” Enough fellas are doing so that the inevitable (Guys with iPhones–like) Tumblr has emerged: Guys I Blocked on Grindr (often NSFW; via).
posted by joeclark on Jan 15, 2010 - 103 comments

It started as a simple term project for an MIT class on ethics and law on the electronic frontier. Using data from the social network Facebook, they made a striking discovery: just by looking at a person’s online friends, they could predict whether the person was gay.
posted by Kirth Gerson on Sep 20, 2009 - 80 comments

The Science of Gaydar. "That’s what we mean by gaydar—not the skill of the viewer so much as the telltale signs most gay people project, the set of traits that make us unmistakably one....A small constellation of researchers is specifically analyzing the traits and characteristics that, though more pronounced in some than in others, not only make us gay but also make us appear gay."
posted by jtajta on Jun 20, 2007 - 133 comments

The Gaydar test is simple. We'll show you pairs of guys and girls. See if you can recognize who's gay.
posted by three blind mice on Aug 2, 2005 - 95 comments

"Gaydar Direct brings you the first electronic device that allows gay men and women to meet safe and discreetly!" Guess the inventor's never heard of the Internet. Oh, yeah, this gaydar? It vibrates. Links are safe, but standard pop-up warnings apply.
posted by WolfDaddy on Sep 7, 2003 - 19 comments

Vatican to test if trainee priests are gay. As if the Catholic Church doesn't have bigger concerns. They seem to be trying to throw dirt onto their own graves. Organized religion is SO last millennium. If a gay person really wanted to be a priest, wouldn't it be simple to "pass" a psychological screening? And what self-respecting gay person would want to be a part of something that seeks to exclude him?
posted by archimago on Oct 25, 2002 - 77 comments