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Gender fluid: Grindr isn’t just for gay men any longer

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Grindr Photo: press photo

Grindr, the popular hookup app for gay men, has gone genderfluid to be more inclusive of transgender people and women. A new update being pushed out this week will add more options for users to self identify their gender and choose their pronouns.

The update was done to make the app more trans-friendly. The company announced the changes, made in conjunction with input from users and the National Center for Transgender Equality, at the end of Transgender Awareness Week.

“As the largest global queer social network, Grindr has always had trans men, trans women, and non-binary users on the app. We are proud to release these updates to our core functionality to firmly establish that we are committed to making Grindr a welcome and safe space for all trans people,” said Peter Sloterdyk, VP of Marketing at Grindr. “To ensure we heard from a range of trans people, we polled trans users and consulted transgender community leaders to guide our thinking.”

Users will now be able to choose their gender identity as part of their profile with options like “cis man,” “woman,” “non-binary,” “queer,” “trans woman,” and more available. The app will also use gender neutral terms throughout the interface.

“One thing we heard over and over again from trans people using Grindr was that they felt unwelcome as other users would often only want to ask them about what it means to be trans or approached without knowing how to speak respectfully about trans issues,” said Jack Harrison-Quintana, Director of Grindr for Equality. “That’s why we created written resources linked from the gender identity fields in the profile to answer users’ questions and decrease that burden on trans people.”

The help section on gender identity includes common questions like “What does it mean to be cisgender?“, “How can I respectfully ask a trans person what they like sexually?“, and “Is it okay to ask a trans person about surgeries?

While the update is obviously made to be more inclusive of the transgender people who use the app, it would also allow cisgender women to join the community and start asking the two most common questions: “Sup?” and “Can you host?”

If you’re already a user, the update should hit your smartphone soon. Everyone should have it by the end of the week.

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