Scott Wiener Shocked, Honored by Award From Grindr

Local hero...

Supervisor Scott Wiener is not a Grindr user -- but, it turns out, many users of the service look up to him, even as they're looking up nearby men to get to know better.

Grindr -- a gay dating site aimed at those not necessarily looking for Mr. Right but Mr. Right Now -- established a Best of 2012 award. Per the site's users, Wiener is this city's "Local hero/community advocate of the year." His fellow award winners include Anderson Cooper (New York); Elizabeth Warren (Boston); and President Obama (D.C.).

Wiener made international headlines -- and launched countless horrible puns related to his last name -- when his ordinance banning most public nudity passed the board. So this award was especially satisfying for him. "It puts the lie to the notion that the nudity legislation is somehow a gay issue. It's not."

Thank you Grindr users for voting me "local hero/community advocate of the year" for San Francisco.

-- Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) January 11, 2013

Wiener says he learned of this plaudit not from the dating site but the fourth estate. "I got a call from the BAR asking if I had any comment on my award from Grindr. And I asked what they were talking about."

When it was explained to him that he'd bagged the award, he decided, "I'm pretty honored by it. When you look at who's on Grindr in San Francisco, its' a very wide swath of gay men between 20 and 45 -- and among that demographic, that these younger gay men voted for me is really very flattering."

The good folks at Grindr have not yet contacted Wiener, so he has no idea if he'll be presented with a plaque. And, if he does get one, one hopes it won't feature imagery his newly minted ordinance deems unsuitable for public display.

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