Grindr Gets More Trans Friendly

Responding to overwhelming interest from its transgender user and working closely with The National Center for Transgender Equality, the hook-up app Grindr, which bills itself "as the the world’s largest queer mobile social network" announced a variety of customizable features to make it more user friendly. 

According to the press release:

“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.”Starting today, the app and website copy have been updated to include gender neutral terms. Grindr users will also notice a new “Identity” section in their user profile that includes options for listing their gender and pronouns. Users can pick from a list of common gender identities like “trans man,” “woman,” “cis man,” “non-binary,” “non-conforming,” and “queer.” Users will also have the option to write in their gender identity if it doesn’t already appear on the list. Pronouns can also be included on the new profiles including “He/Him/His,” “She/Her/Hers,” “They/Them/Theirs” or users can specify pronouns not listed.

“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.”

Peter Sloterdyk, VP of Marketing at Grindr, told Plus: "the new feature updates are available to all Grindr and Grindr XTRA users."

Sloterdyk added, "From our global survey of transgender users on Grindr, the ability to identify and express gender in a way that is meaningful stood out as universal. Providing the opportunity to identify and even customize your gender identity answers this need in the most direct way. Additionally, we discovered that gender identity conversations can be difficult for all of our users. Through our partnership with the National Center for Transgender Equality, we created a Resource Center available to our users to help everyone feel welcome, safe, and understood. Grindr is for everyone; every member of the transgender community who is looking to connect, discover, and navigate the world around them is welcome on our app."