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by Aliyya Swaby ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. The day after a teenager opened fire in a Nashville high school cafeteria early this year, officials in the district scrambled to investigate potential threats across their schools. Rumors flew that the shooter, who killed a student before turning the gun on himself, had accomplices at large.At DuPont Tyler Middle School, the assistant principals most urgent concern was a 12-year-old boy. James, a seventh grader with a small voice and mop of brown hair, had posted a concerning screenshot on Instagram that morning, Jan. 23. He was arrested at school hours later and charged with making a threat of mass violence.The assistant principal had to complete a detailed investigation called a threat assessment, as required by Tennessee law. First, she and other school employees had to figure out whether James threat was valid. Then, they had to determine what actions to take to help a potentially troubled child and protect other students.Threat assessments are not public, but the district gave ProPublica a copy of James with his fathers permission. School officials did not carry out the threat assessment properly, according to experts who reviewed it at ProPublicas request. Instead, the school expelled James without investigating further and skipped crucial steps that would help him or protect others. (We are using the childs middle name to protect his privacy.)The way school officials handled James case also exposes glaring contradictions in two recent Tennessee laws that aim to criminalize school threats and require schools to expel students who make them with minimal recourse, transparency or accountability.One obvious issue in the threat assessment, according to the experts, appeared on Page 20. That page features a checklist of options for how the school could address its concerns about James, including advising his parents to secure guns in their home and ensuring he has access to counseling. Schools should take steps like these even when a student is expelled, according to John Van Dreal, a former school administrator who has spent decades helping schools improve their violence prevention strategies. Officials at James school opted for none of the options they could have taken. Instead, the assistant principal wrote under the list in blue pen, student was expelled.Thats actually about the most dangerous thing you can do for the student, Van Dreal said, and honestly for the community. Van Dreals name appears in tiny print at the bottom of each page of James threat assessment, because he helped the school district set up its current process. After ProPublica shared details about James case, Van Dreal said, What Im hearing is probably more training and more examples are needed. One page of the threat assessment form, created by John Van Dreal, used in James case (Obtained by ProPublica. Highlighted by ProPublica.) Nashvilles school district does not collect data on how many threat assessments it does or how many result in expulsions, according to spokesperson Sean Braisted. The goal is always to ensure the safety and well-being of all students while addressing incidents appropriately, Braisted wrote. He later declined to answer questions ProPublica asked about James case, although James father signed a privacy waiver allowing the school to do so.Tennessee schools must submit data to the state on how effective their threat assessments are but the state does not release that information to the public. School districts are required to get training on threat assessments, but lawyers and parents say they often carry them out inconsistently and use varying definitions for what makes a threat valid.Two recent contradictory Tennessee laws make it even harder to handle student threats. One mandates a felony charge for anyone who makes a threat of mass violence at school, without requiring police to investigate intent or credibility. The other requires schools to determine that a threat of mass violence is valid before expelling a student for at least a year.James alleged threat was a screenshot of a text exchange. One person said they would shoot up a Nashville school and asked if the other would attack a different school. Yea, the other person replied. I got some other people for other schools. The FBI flagged the post for school officials and police. James told school officials that he reposted the screenshot from the Instagram page of a Spanish-language news site. The Tennessean published a story in April detailing James arrest and overnight stay in juvenile detention. The story, and the ones ProPublica and WPLN published last year on other arrests, shows how quickly police move to take youth into custody.Schools in Tennessee are supposed to follow a higher standard than police when it comes to investigating threats of mass violence: Theyre supposed to determine whether a threat is valid. For instance, in Hamilton County, a few hours southeast of Nashville, school officials chose not to expel two students even after police arrested them for threats of mass violence, ProPublica and WPLN previously reported.Yet when James father appealed his sons expulsion at a March school district hearing, the assistant principal said repeatedly that James had to be expelled simply because hed been arrested. We did not investigate further, she said. James father shared an audio recording of the hearing with ProPublica. James, who turned 13 in February, is small for his age, still awaiting the teenage growth spurt of his three older brothers. At the hearing, his voice was soft but assured as he explained what happened. He said he understands why he shouldnt have posted the screenshot. But he said he wanted to warn others and feel heroic.Melissa Nelson, a national school safety consultant based in Pennsylvania who trains school employees on managing threats, reviewed James threat assessment at ProPublicas request and concluded that this is gross mismanagement of a case.This tool has not been used as intended, she said. They didnt do a behavior threat assessment. They filled out some paperwork.After the police took James away, assistant principal Angela Post convened a team of school employees to decide whether to expel him. They used a threat assessment form that Van Dreal had developed, one of the most commonly used across the country, to guide them on how to respond. According to Van Dreal, Metro Nashville Public Schools is in an early phase of using the form, and its staff have flown to Oregon at least once to learn from his consulting group. Van Dreal tells school officials to use the threat assessment to collect information about a student in trouble and address behavior that could signal future violence. If school officials worried that James was planning an act of violence, they should have pursued some of the many options outlined in the threat assessment to get him help and protect the school from harm. Instead, they chose none of those options.Experts said that is one of the biggest mistakes school officials make. Even if a child is expelled, what I always train is: Out of sight, out of mind doesnt help, Nelson said. Expelling a child doesnt deescalate the situation or move them off the pathway of violence. A lot of times, it makes it worse.School officials also failed to seek out more information that could have helped them figure out whether the threat was valid. Post checked a box acknowledging that she hadnt notified James parents of the threat assessment. She wrote beside it, as an explanation, student was arrested and expelled. On a line asking whether James had access to weapons, Post wrote that the threat assessment team did not know.Interviewing parents is a crucial part of the process, said Rob Moore, a Tennessee psychologist who has helped schools conduct threat assessments for more than two decades. When you sit in that room with those parents and you collect data from them, you really get a sense of things that teachers would never know, that the administrators would never know.Although school officials did not opt to investigate further or to monitor James, the threat assessment indicated they had concerns he may pose a threat. In response to a question about whether James caregivers, peers or staff were concerned about his potential for acting out aggressively, Post checked yes and wrote, He has little to no supervision in discipline structures at home but might think he could get away with it.And although James told school administrators he was not a participant in the text thread he shared on Instagram, Post wrote that he had indicated a plan and intention to harm others. See attached image. Shows location, intent to harm, targets and date, she wrote, referencing a screenshot of James Instagram post. She also wrote that he had a motive: The post indicated that he was being made fun of. See attached image.The threat assessment included questionnaires from James teachers; three out of four said they did not have concerns about potential aggression. One teacher, who taught James social studies, cited his disciplinary history: using racial slurs, fighting another student and researching racially motivated things on the school computer. Dad seemed disengaged in conference & somewhat unaware of the childs school or social or personal issues, she wrote.James dad and stepmom did not know that the threat assessment accused them of lax supervision at home. Thats because they didnt even know the threat assessment existed until ProPublica told them about it, more than a week after it took place.Upon reading the document, their first emotion, after shock, was anger. They said they hadnt known about the incident with the racial slur, and it was not directly referenced in a copy of James disciplinary history. But they felt upset at the insinuation that they had not been involved in James life. Weve been asking for help, for grades, tutoring, his dad, Kyle Caldwell, said. And we really didnt get any. James relaxes at home with his dad, Kyle Caldwell, and the family dog. James was put on court supervision following his arrest. (Andrea Morales for ProPublica) James said that in early September, his social studies teacher taught the class about World War II. He said the teacher didnt answer enough of his questions, so he started searching online. The school flagged that he had looked up swastikas. I didnt know much about it, he said. Thats why I searched it.As part of his discipline, the school prohibited him from using its computers. His stepmother, Breanne Metz, shared emails she sent to James teachers explaining she and Caldwell were worried about his grades and wanted to help him catch up.James had been struggling with his parents contentious divorce; after his mom lost custody of him, he hadnt been able to see her in months. Worried, his dad and stepmom arranged for him to see a school counselor. James said the counselor tried to connect with him through their mutual love of video games over about five sessions, which was nice, though it didnt really help. Post wrote in the threat assessment that James had disclosed confidential information to the school counselor that would support a feeling of being overwhelmed or distraught.Then James lost his best friend: Lieutenant Dan, a three-legged pitbull-lab mix named after a character from the movie Forrest Gump. Dan joined the family when he and James were both 1, and he died of cancer last November. As James describes it, he was at capacity with the emotions he was dealing with, and his dogs death was the tipping point. When someone you love or something you love for your whole life passes away, you cant hold it, he said. He sat in class feeling sad and exhausted. Records show school staff talked with James parents about his attendance at school and he was disciplined for not complying with an unspecified request. Then in mid-December, he began a fight with another student, who had been horseplaying with him off and on and went too far, according to the school report. The following month, he was arrested and expelled.In the days after the arrest, Caldwell considered hiring a lawyer. Reading the threat assessment added the urgency for him to finally make the call. The puzzle pieces werent coming together in their story, he said. It really looked like they were going to try to be sweeping their stuff under the rug.In mid-March, James sat at the oval table in the district conference room next to his father and across from assistant principal Post. He wore a gray vest over his T-shirt in preparation for an appeal hearing that would determine whether he would be allowed back in school. It had been nearly two months since he had set foot on district property.Caldwell brought his private lawyer, a rare resource for a school hearing. He showed up that morning nervous but eager to make his case directly to school administrators. The public rarely gets insight into what happens at a school appeal hearing, but Caldwell shared an audio recording with ProPublica.Post started by reading aloud the social media post that landed James in trouble, stumbling over the shorthand and unfamiliar internet slang. Then, it was James turn to speak for himself.Lisa Currie, the school districts director of discipline, asked him to explain why he had reposted the screenshot of the texts. You do understand that once you reposted them from somewhere else, it gave the appearance that this was a conversation that you were having? she said.I just wanted to let people know, feel heroic, James said. I didnt want more people to get hurt. James enjoys building and painting the model F-15E fighter jet his dad bought him. (Andrea Morales for ProPublica) Over the next 40 minutes, Caldwells lawyer questioned Post about the process the school used to determine whether James should be expelled. When he pressed her for direct responses, Post repeatedly said that law enforcement and not the school held the primary responsibility for investigating the threat. Although the law requires schools to use a threat assessment to determine if the threat is valid, Post and her team based the expulsion entirely on the polices arrest. Once local police take over a case, she said, then its not really our investigation anymore.Was it your assessment at the time that he wrote this statement, like physically typed it out on a computer and posted it? the lawyer asked.We did not make that determination, Post said.She said school staff did not look deeply through James disciplinary history as part of the threat assessment. Thats not necessarily the purpose of the threat assessment, she told the lawyer. Because James had been expelled and arrested, there would not be a reason to be concerned about the return of a student.Currie indicated that Posts approach was supported by district leaders. The purpose of the threat assessment is to determine appropriate supports and interventions around the students while theyre in the building, she said. Post and Currie did not respond to ProPublicas requests for comment or to written questions.Post told the lawyer she couldnt remember whether school staff investigated the origin of the original threat.So if there was an actual threat made and somebody else authored this threat, then we dont know who that is. Would that be a fair statement? the lawyer asked.That is possible, Post responded. She said James didnt initially say that he had shared the post to warn others and it wasnt her place to decide whether he intended to make a threat. I dont want to think, Oh, hes not going to do that. And then something just like the previous day happened, she said, referring to the Antioch High School shooting. Once James was arrested, its in MNPDs hands, Post said, referring to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.The lawyer asked Post to explain whether the threat assessment could ever have changed school officials decision to expel James: What if school officials found out that the threat was not valid? Had yall come on information that he had not written these texts, he asked, would it have changed the punishment?We would have had to let our [school resource officer] know and they would have had to go through the MNPD channels, she said.You did not at that time know whether he wrote those text messages or not? the lawyer asked again.Correct, Post said.Then, it was Caldwells turn to speak. He criticized the schools decision to leave him out of the initial disciplinary process. He would have explained to James why he should go through appropriate channels to report a threat instead of posting it on Instagram. As a dad, he said, there was a teachable parent moment that I didnt get to have.As the hearing came to a close, Currie told Caldwell to expect a decision soon. The arrest and expulsion cleaved James life in two. He now begins many sentences with the phrase before everything happened. Before everything happened, he would ride his bike with his brothers and friends to explore the forested land and abandoned houses in the surrounding neighborhoods. They found all sorts of strange garbage: a fire engines license plate, wooden pictures of demonic rituals, a dentist chair adorned with rusty handcuffs. James looks for four-leaf clovers in his backyard. (Andrea Morales for ProPublica) He was able to come home from his night in detention in exchange for agreeing to pretrial diversion with six months of court supervision, a common outcome for students charged with threats of mass violence. While under supervision, he wasnt allowed to use the computer or phone unsupervised by an adult and was mostly restricted to the streets around his house. Its a big neighborhood, but once you get used to it, its small, he said. The court recently lifted his supervision, earlier than expected. Because he had completed the terms of pretrial diversion, his case was dismissed.His parents declined Metro Nashville Public Schools offer to enroll him in the local alternative school, which primarily serves kids with disciplinary issues who were suspended or expelled from their original schools. Instead, they enrolled him at an online public charter school; he starts in the fall. As James waited to hear the result of the expulsion hearing, he followed the schedule his dad and stepmom created for him less a rigorous academic curriculum than a routine to keep him occupied while his stepmom takes calls in her home office. He gets most excited about the hands-on activities, like building and painting the model F-15E fighter jet his dad bought him online.One night in early April, tornadoes touched down just outside Nashville. James, his five siblings, and two dogs huddled with Caldwell and Metz in the windowless laundry room; the kids wore helmets in case of falling debris. When they got up the next morning, groggy but unharmed, Caldwell checked the mailbox: A letter from the school district was inside.District officials had reviewed the information from the hearing and determined that there was not a due process violation of MNPS expulsion process. James was still expelled. Caldwell had prepared his son for this outcome so that he wouldnt be devastated. James would later joke that the storm had delivered the bad news.The letter gave the family the option to escalate the appeal through the district process. But the odds of winning and the costs of retaining the lawyer made the effort feel futile. The more the family fought back, the more anxious the 13-year-old felt about his future. Would he feel even worse if they lost again? Would people start to think of him as a bad kid?That afternoon, talking with his dad about the letter, James quietly considered these questions. Then he went outside to watch the storm clouds. Paige Pfleger of WPLN contributed reporting.

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This story is written in partnership with Queer Kentucky, a diverse LGBTQ-run nonprofit based in Louisville, Kentucky working to bolster and enhance queer culture and health.Photo by Jon Cherry for Uncloseted Media and Queer Kentucky. Design by Sam Donndelinger.Subscribe nowAt 21 years old, Robert McAllister remembers unlocking his phone in Louisville, Kentucky to a grid of bodies on Grindr, the gay hook-up app.To the average American, many terms and symbols in user bios read like a foreign language: PnP, Tina and parTy, or the crystal ball, ice cream and diamond emoji. At the time, McAllister also had no clue what these terms meant.After chatting with multiple men, he met up with one of them later that night. Before they started having sex, the guy pulled out a plastic bag of white powder from his backpack and asked McAllister if he wanted to partake.He snorted it like cocaine. And for whatever reason, I was like, Oh, well, cocaine isn't that bad, so I tried some, McAllister, now 27, told Uncloseted Media and Queer Kentucky.The powder he snorted was actually crystal meth, a highly addictive drug that can ravage the body and mind and lead to psychosis, organ failure and irreversible brain damage.Photo by Jon Cherry for Uncloseted Media and Queer Kentucky.I remember thinking, Wow, I want to do that all the time, says McAllister. He says the addiction got so bad that the only people he would interact with for months would be the hookups he used with. I would seek out people that had it in their profile, says McAllister, who was addicted to meth for four years. I would invite them to my apartment to use with me just because I didn't have anybody else around. At that point I had lost my job, my family really didn't want anything to do with me, and so the app was my excuse for social interaction.Photo by Jon Cherry for Uncloseted Media and Queer Kentucky.McAllisters experience is common. Party and Play (PnP) culture, also known as chemsex, is exactly what it sounds like: the use of drugs like GHB, ketamine and meth to enhance sexual desire, arousal and pleasure. The practice is most prevalent amongst gay and bi men, who use meth or similar drugs at three times the rate of heterosexual men, according to a 2014 study from the United Kingdom.For 25% of the guys who engage in PnP culture like McAllister, it becomes a severe problem.While drug overdose deaths in the United States declined slightly in 2023 for the first time since 2018, deaths from psychostimulants like meth rose, killing 36,251 Americans in 2023. Thats just over 3,000 lives a month, or 100 lives a day. And the epidemic is even worse in rural states like Kentucky.As meth addiction continues to devastate the gay community, hook-up apps like Grindr and Sniffies which make hundreds of millions of dollars a yearare where PnP culture thrives. One 2023 survey found that 91% of dating app users had a negative experience with drugs, and 1 in 4 dating app users deleted an app because of drug-related concerns.[Dating apps] are making lots of money from this community and the biggest problem that [we are] facing is not HIV, it is drug addiction, says Ignacio Labayen de Inza, CEO and co-founder of Controlling Chemsex, a charity that provides interventions for chemsex users. People are overdosing, people are suicidal, people are suffering from sexual assaults, they are psychotic, they are losing jobs, they are ending up homeless. And Grindr is the biggest vehicle that people use to get these drugs.So what are the apps doing to combat an epidemic that has been exacerbated by the easy access to meth on their platforms?Photo by Jon Cherry for Uncloseted Media and Queer Kentucky.The Risk of Hook-Up AppsSmartphone hook-up apps, which hit the mainstream in the 2010s, have long been associated with a greater risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among queer men. But emerging research suggests they also facilitate drug use among queer men, 15% of whom have used meth within the last year and 23% of whom have used it at least once in their lifetime. A 2017 study found that gay hook-up apps, including Grindr, significantly increased motivational substance use, and approximately 1 in 10 dating app users engaged in substance use after being persuaded on the apps.The apps know this is a problem. Sniffies is an app which features an interactive map known for its anonymity and showcases pictures of users genitals and butts nearby. In an email to Uncloseted Media and Queer Kentucky, they wrote that their users are significantly more likely to engage in chemsex and meth use compared to users on other platforms. They say a notable percentage of their users have reported deleting their accounts due to drug-related concerns.One of the major problems is that these apps enable easy access to the drugs, according to Kentucky-based Grindr users Uncloseted Media and Queer Kentucky spoke with.You can see it everywhere on dating apps, says Chris Hackenberg, who first used meth at 19 years old during a Grindr hookup. He says the drug opened a door to a level 1,000 happiness.Hackenberg, now 23, remembers staying up for seven days driving around Florida looking to PnP. From Jacksonville to Orlando to Miami, he would drive for hours searching for a new place to geolocate himself on Grindr to find a new selection of men who were ready to use meth with him.I think Grindr and Sniffies turn a blind eye to all these drugs. Grindr is so well-known for finding drugs. Its just so easy, he says.Subscribe for LGBTQ-focused, accountability journalism.What Are the Apps Doing?The epidemic of crystal meth addiction and PnP culture among gay men has been an issue since the late 1990s, long before smartphones. But the most dramatic increase in meth-related deaths and usage occurred from around 2015 to 2019, when overdose deaths soared by 180%. At the same time, Grindr exploded in popularity: In 2015, it was reported to have 10.5 million global users and make $38.1 million in revenue.Grindr and Sniffies declined multiple requests for an interview for this story. Instead, Grindr directed Uncloseted Media to their work with a UK nonprofit, The Love Tank, that provides safer chillouts guides on their website for information on sexualized drug use. In the guide, they provide information on harm reduction, such as how to check in with yourself before you use, how to determine proper dosage and how to handle overdoses.In an email, The Love Tank told Uncloseted Media and Queer Kentucky that Grindr promotes their guides through inbox and pop-up broadcast messages on the app, but only in the UK region.Screenshot of their pop-up. Courtesy of Grindr.In the U.S., Grindr works with the nonprofit Building Online Healthy Communities and has a similar pop-up for all users.Labayen de Inza, of Controlling Chemsex, says that this is not enough. Clearly pop-ups and guides arent working because the problem [of chemsex addiction] is still an issue, he says. If Im horny, Im not going to check my pop-ups. And sometimes people are not planning to chill. Sometimes people are having horrible psychosis and paranoia and [are] looking for help. People tell me, I want to stop. I have to stop, or I'm going to die. The guides arent going to help with that.In the past, Grindr has gotten bad press for allowing drug dealers to use the app. In 2022, detectives that conducted a Florida investigation titled Swipe Left for Meth charged 68 suspects for selling drugs on Grindr and other hook-up apps, causing nearly 280 grams of meth to be seizedthe equivalent of roughly 1,400 doses.Since then, Grindrs community guidelines say they have cracked down on banning profiles centered around or mainly consisting of drug content and that they prohibit images that are focused on advertising or promoting drug use as well as emojis commonly associated with buying/ selling. However, users say that simply putting a capital T, which is not banned, somewhere in their bios is enough to signal that theyre ready to PnP.And these bans may not work: Uncloseted Media found five references to PnP after using the app for only 15 minutes in Louisville, Kentucky.Screenshots via Grindr.Sniffies, meanwhile, has a resource page with instructions on how to use chemical drugs safely as well as links to harm reduction resources like syringe access and overdose prevention. Labayen De Inza questions, though, whether users will ever seek out a resource page while using the apps.In addition, Sniffieswhich has seen explosive regional growth in 2024has a feature where folks can list what substances they are comfortable with, though users cannot filter for other peoples drug preferences. In a data report that Sniffies pulled for Queer Kentucky, 18% of users selected No PNP under their drug preferences.Users we spoke with say they wish the apps had a feature where you could filter out folks who are looking to engage in PnP. One 2023 survey by Sniffies public health partner found that 4 out of 5 participants wanted to be able to filter by drug use practices.Legal ImmunityWhile it is likely that illegal drug use is occurring on these apps, they have Section 230 immunity, meaning that Grindr and Sniffies arent liable for any illegal activity that occurs on their apps and arent liable for the addictions stemming from the platforms.No one wants to do anything, Labayen de Inza says. Its really difficult to digest the fact that organizations know what is happening to the community. We cannot do very much because we are working on pride parades or HIV prevention. Those are important things. But lots of people won't be able to go to the parade because they will be psychotic or they will be suicidal [because of meth addiction].Labayen de Inza, who is in recovery for chemsex addiction, has spent six years on Grindr connecting with folks who have questions about drug use. He says he spoke with over 13,000 users in his first year.He also surveyed Grindr users in 2019 and found that 10% of the 2,000 respondents were using meth. Of those who said they had used, 90% had a premium subscription to the app, a percentage far higher than the roughly 7.5% of all users who pay.Grindr CEO George Arison did not respond to Uncloseted Medias request for an interview. Apps Become TriggersUsers in recovery from meth also report risking relapse on Grindr and Sniffies.Hackenberg started recovery in 2023 after he contracted HIV from injecting meth with a hookup. He says he still cant use Grindr or Sniffies without relapsing, which is difficult because they are his go-to platforms for meeting guys. I would try to get on the apps after moving to make friends, but I just couldnt do it, he says. As soon as I start going on Grindr, I get the same head buzz as I did when I would smoke Tina. Every time Ive relapsed, it was facilitated by the apps, he says, adding that he has slipped a few times in his two years of recovery.Mark Just, a 44-year-old finance analyst, started using meth as a way to build community in rural South Carolina, which only had a bookstore and a park as queer-friendly spots. I mean, that was the only avenue to meet people, he told Uncloseted Media and Queer Kentucky.Now 20 years sober and in a relationship, he says when he tried using the apps to meet people, he had to be careful. The question comes once you match and you're chatting, he says. PnP or parTy or the puff emoji. I was just trying to meet people, but it would come up over and over again. 1 in 3 guys would ask.The temptation is powerful, he says. Its like giving up Krispy Kreme donuts and then someone showing up to your house with a dozen of your favorite donuts. Your body goes into craving mode, even though you haven't been exposed to it in so long.In a perfect world, they should make it similar to Tinder, where they don't show you people that you aren't interested in based on your demographic. So filtering people based on [drug use] would be helpful.Subscribe for investigative, LGBTQ journalism.What Do We Do?Ignacio Labayen de Inza says that the apps have to be a part of the solution because they are the ones providing a space where users can easily access the drug.He thinks resources for support and harm reduction for chemsex need to be front and center on the apps and constantly visible. There needs to be a pinned square called Chem Sex Support so people know exactly where to go for help and they dont have to leave the app, he says. He and his team, who are grant-funded and offer their services for free, are already providing this resource to Grindr users but are constantly getting banned from the app because it violates the apps user guidelines.The reality is that people are desperate and they dont know where to go, he says. Chemsex support is very unavailable.Example of intervention on Grindr, courtesy of Controlling Chemsex.Example of intervention on Grindr, courtesy of Controlling Chemsex.There needs to be a bigger conversation, says Christian Parker, executive director of the community nonprofit Gay & Sober. The epidemic of meth in the gay community is a perfect storm. There is loneliness, isolation, and stigma all tied together.Sean Young, executive director of the University of California Institute for Prediction Technology, says that the apps dont bear all the responsibility, but silence is not working.I think it's the responsibility of the technology company to have a safe environment, which right now they're not, he says. But the apps don't have the knowledge about substance use to know how to do these types of interventions, and it could backfire if they tried to start doing this. The solution to this is that technology companies should come to the table with public health officials and with individuals who are using the apps and start a conversation.I would love to have the opportunity to speak with someone from Grindr, says Labayen de Inza. To say, Let's work together. Let's do something effective.SharePhoto by Jon Cherry for Uncloseted Media and Queer Kentucky.McAllister, who became addicted to meth after his first time trying it with a Grindr hookup, says that education, online support andmost importantlya destigmatization about meth use would have helped him be more careful.Photo by Jon Cherry for Uncloseted Media and Queer Kentucky. Its all still somewhat taboo and behind closed doors, so I had no idea what it was when I first used it, he says. The dating apps are just enabling that by saying Yes, you can put that [PnP] tagline in your profile, but they're not doing anything to educate people about what that means. We'll just turn a blind eye to it and let people do it, he says.If objective, nonpartisan, rigorous, LGBTQ-focused journalism is important to you, please consider making a tax-deductible donation through our fiscal sponsor, Resource Impact, by clicking this button:Donate to Uncloseted Media

Nature, Published online: 27 May 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01570-6Manufacturing CAR T cells in the laboratory is expensive and time-consuming. An in vivo approach could get the powerful therapy to more people.

Nature, Published online: 23 May 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01658-zNew contact lenses allow people to see multi-coloured infrared images even with their eyes closed. Plus, why some conferences are abandoning the United States and evidence challenging the dominance of natural selection as the sole adaptive force in evolution.

A letter to federal agencies will instruct them to end contracts, totaling about $100 million. It is meant to sever the governments remaining ties with Harvard.

As Germanys new chancellor increases military spending, he has presided over the activation of a German tank brigade based in Lithuania and raised alarms about the threat from Russia.

Years before Jol Le Scouarnec was charged with abusing 299 former patients, he was convicted of downloading child sexual abuse imagery.

A small Vermont business that sells water bottles used by cyclists and others is struggling to adapt to President Trumps tariffs even after they were temporarily lowered.

There will be 28 Abrams tanks, 6,700 soldiers, 50 helicopters, 34 horses, two mules and a dog, according to the Armys plans for the June 14 event.

Kevin Aviance, the iconic drag artist and Black queer New York City nightlife legend whose music helped define a generation of ballroom and club culture, is recovering in the hospital after a life-threatening health emergency, his team announced Monday.In a statement posted to social media, Aviances family said he began having trouble breathing at home over the weekend and initially believed it was an asthma attack. But his condition worsened rapidly, and he was rushed to the emergency room. There, he was diagnosed with pneumonia and septic poisoning. Sepsis, also known as septic poisoning, is a dangerous complication that happens when the bodys response to an infection spirals out of control, triggering inflammation that can shut down vital organs. According to his team, doctors told Aviance hes incredibly lucky to be alive. See on Instagram The statement says he remains hospitalized, is on oxygen, and is being closely monitored. If his recovery continues smoothly, he may be discharged within a few days.Related: With an Assist From Beyonc, Black Queen Kevin Aviance Is BackThis is an emotional time for Kevin, his family, and all of us who love him, the statement read. Sometimes our bodies whisper before they scream. We have to listen and slow down.The Advocate has learned that Aviance is recovering at Mount Sinai Hospital.Kevin is currently on oxygen and under close medical supervision to ensure the septic infection is fully cleared from his body, Aviances publicist, Len Evans, told The Advocate. He is still battling pneumonia and remains in stable condition while resting. We ask everyone to please keep Kevin in your thoughts and prayers during this time.Related: Equalpride Announces Support of Kevin Aviances CVNTY Ball TourEvans said the health scare followed weeks of nonstop work. He stretched himself too thin working nonstop the last few weeks to release his new single, Evans said. Hes spent many hours in the recording studio finishing up his album and doing back-to-back gigsit just all caught up to him.After surviving a brutal anti-gay hate crime in 2006 and retreating from the spotlight, Aviance experienced a career renaissance in recent years.Aviance, 56, a member of the House of Aviance and one of the most celebrated figures in LGBTQ+ nightlife, is best known for hits like Din Da Da and Cuntythe latter sampled by Beyonc on 2022s Renaissance. His influence spans decades and genres, from club anthems and fashion runways to recent DJ sets across North America, including his CVNTY Ball Tour backed by The Advocates parent company, equalpride.News of Aviances hospitalization prompted an immediate wave of love and support from fans and fellow performers.Sending Love, Light, and Healing prayers, wrote music icon Crystal Waters. Comedian and Hey Qween! host Jonny McGovern called Aviance a legend, adding, Sending all my love and good energy to our qween.Drag artist and RuPauls Drag Race alum Nicky Doll wrote, Sending all the positive energies possible your way Kevin!

Nature, Published online: 27 May 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01568-0The global scientific community must do more to offer safety and support to displaced academics and others.

Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim has said not playing in the Champions League next season could benefit the team.

Fenerbahce coach Jose Mourinho has said he expects to remain at the club next season.

England goalkeeper Mary Earps has announced her shock decision to retire from international football, just six weeks before the start of Euro 2025.

The most important plays of Knicks-Pacers and Thunder-Timberwolves are happening nowhere near the basket.

With Memorial Day weekend behind us, it's time to take our first look at the leaders for MVP, Cy Young and more.

Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is the front-runner in the New York City mayors race. His critics say his mayoralty would be similar to a second term for the incumbent, Eric Adams.

Prosecutors are set to present the testimony of a onetime assistant, who they say was twice held against her will. The defense denies she was kidnapped.

We try to demystify the bond market.

Yessica Rojas, a Venezuelan mother, risked everything to seek a better future for her two children in the United States. This spring, they left Missouri because she feared losing them.

Neighbors say the in-your-face design of the building made it a target for criticism, leading someone to tag it with a museum-style plaque that commented on New York Citys affordable housing crisis.

Nature, Published online: 27 May 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01488-zThe race is on to build tools that can detect fradulent AI-generated images in research.

Nature, Published online: 27 May 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01615-wFive years after the murder of George Floyd spurred global protests, it is imperative that institutions continue to confront racism and discrimination.

Nature, Published online: 27 May 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01494-1In her new role as a biotechnology entrepreneur, Maya Gosztyla relies on tried-and-tested strategies to plan ahead and avoid burnout.

There are 100 days until the 2025 NFL season kicks off. Let's celebrate with 100 big thoughts, predictions, stats and situations to watch.

Looking ahead to the junior class recruits, and how the top player at each position stacks up.

Houston guard Milos Uzan will withdraw his name from the 2025 NBA draft, agent Aman Dhesi told ESPN's Jonathan Givony.