Peter Thiel, the tech billionaire who became a New Zealand citizen in 2011 despite having no plans to actually live here, is investing in a new anti-'woke' dating app that won't allow pronouns or homosexuality.
Thiel, a well-known Donald Trump campaign funder who co-founded PayPal, has put around US$1.5 million into funding The Right Stuff, founded by Ryann McEnany, the sister of Trump's press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
The company's website states that "other dating apps have gone woke. We bring people together with shared values and similar passions."
The dating app is for right-wingers or 'conservatives' only and there are certain limitations on what is acceptable and not. It is launching as invitation only and according to its website it's "getting back to normal" by banning pronouns from profiles.
It's also somewhat ironic that Thiel, an openly gay man, is investing in an app that won't allow same-sex relationships - although those may come later, according to The Hill.
"The Right Stuff is all about getting into the right dating pool with people who share the same values as you," McEnany said in a video announcing the app, which launches next month.
"We're sorry that you've had to endure years of bad dates and wasted time with people who don't see the world our way. The right way."
According to details shared by The Hill, women who join get a free premium subscription if they introduce their friends to the app, while men will have to pay.
McEnany will be hoping her dating app is more successful than others which have targeted conservatives only.
One such failure was DonaldDaters, a 'Make Americans Date Again' website that is now offline.
Daniel Huff, a former member of the Trump administration, told The Hill the app was important in an underserved market.
"Liberals own the education, media corporations, and we can't let them control our personal relationships," he said.
Thiel's citizenship of Aotearoa caused controversy at the time. He had only been in the country for 12 days prior to the granting of his application, leading to accusations that he was effectively able to buy it.
The venture capitalist is very active in US politics as the current "key financier of the Make America Great Again movement", according to the New York Times.
The Times reports Thiel is one of the largest individual donors of the US Republican party in the current 2022 midterm election cycle, in which he is supporting "hard-right candidates who traffic in the conspiracy theories espoused by Mr Trump" such as lies about the 2020 election being rigged.
Much like Thiel himself, whether The Right Stuff will be available in New Zealand in the foreseeable future is unknown.
