More than 70 countries have laws that make same-sex relations a punishable offense. In India, for example, 75 percent of LGBT people surveyed fear for their lives because of their sexual orientation. A lot of people “don’t even want to accept that we exist,” a gay man tells correspondent Dan Savage in the new episode of Explorer, airing Monday, May 22 at 10 p.m. ET on National Geographic.

That oppression has helped give rise to a whole universe of online options that help LGBT people connect. The dating app Grindr is one of those options, and the company has a division called Grindr for Equality that aims to “mobilize, inform, and empower” its users. Director Jack Harrison-Quintana talks about his