Scott Chen, the CEO of the gay dating app, wrote a post on Facebook saying: “There are people who believe that marriage is a holy matrimony between a man and a woman, and I think so too. But that’s your own business”

The post seemed to be a critique of the recent gay marriage discussion in Taiwan. “Some people think the purpose of the marriage is to have a child carries your DNA. But again, that’s your own business.”

His post, which he originally wrote in Chinese was later edited after the backlash towards his statement, was publicised Thursday by Into, a digital magazine that is owned by Grindr.

Chen joined Grindr after it was bought out by Chinese company Beijing Kunlun Tech last year, and became president of the company in August.

Scott later explained that marriage is a “personal issue,” adding that money used to fund anti-LGBT+ matters would be better served to combat hunger, poverty and war. “Why spend all that money to stop people who love each other from getting married? Aren’t there more important stuff in life?”

“Today we at INTO have learned that the current president of Grindr believes that same-sex marriage is a ‘holy matrimony’ between men and women,” tweeted INTO’s Editor-in-Chief, Zach Stafford. “We are reporting this as the media property owned by Grindr and will be updating this as the story develops.”

Writing on the comments section of INTO’s article, Scott denied he was against same-sex marriage.

He also hit out at INTO’s reporting on its parent company, branding the article “unbalanced and misleading” and saying that “it hurts my feelings and it also hurts INTO’s and Grindr’s reputation.”

“The reason I said marriage is a holy matrimony between a man and a woman is based on my own personal experience,” said Chen.

“I am a straight man married to a woman I love and I have two beautiful daughters I love from the marriage. This is how I feel about my marriage.

“Different people have their different feelings about their marriages. You can’t deny my feelings about my marriage.”

The Grindr president continued: “I took down this post because there were some heated discussions and my aunt was involved there. She was a really nice Taiwanese lady in her 60s and she is a very convinced Christian like my dad.

“I love my aunt. I no longer want her to see the discussion this post so I changed the settings to Friend of Friends and excluded her.”

The CEO continued that he had been “a huge advocate for LGBTQ+ rights since I was young. I support gay marriage and I am proud that I can work for Grindr.”

INTO’s editor-in-chief, Zach Stafford, told The Guardian: “We stand by the reporting… We are very interested in telling the stories that impact LGBT+ people most.”