Tinder lets users swipe right on list with LGBT+ choices

Wednesday, 5 June 2019 14:36 GMT

The dating app Tinder is shown on an Apple iPhone in this photo illustration taken February 10, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake/Illustration

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Users can now choose up to three options from a list of sexual orientations that includes straight, gay, queer, asexual, bisexual, and demisexual

By Amber Milne

LONDON, June 5 (Openly) - Popular dating app Tinder has marked the start of LGBT Pride Month by rolling out an update that will allow users to detail their sexual orientation for the first time.

The dating app, which has two billion views per day, has teamed up with U.S.-based LGBT+ rights organisation GLAAD to develop a feature that will allow users more control over sexual preferences and potential matches.

"You can choose to see people of your same orientation first - the choice is yours," Tinder said in a statement, noting that the app aims to evolve and change "just like sexuality".

Users can now choose up to three options from a list of choices that includes straight, gay, queer, asexual, bisexual, and demisexual. Previously, users could only choose between men, women, or both.

Andre du Plessis, executive director at campaign group ILGA World praised the move, saying that language was important in allowing people to express themselves.

"Everybody's sexuality is unique so it's encouraging to see a platform like Tinder taking steps to allow its users to simply be the diversity of human sexuality that they are," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"One thing is clear: this language will always be evolving and the conversation will never be closed!"

The app, owned by Match Group, has made "swipe left" and "swipe right" a point of pop culture conversations with the move allowing users to find or reject dating partners.

The new feature will be rolled out in the United States, Britain, Canada, Ireland, India, Australia and New Zealand in June.

(Reporting by Amber Milne; Editing by Hugo Greenhalgh and Belinda Goldsmith Please credit Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit www.trust.org)

Openly is an initiative of the Thomson Reuters Foundation dedicated to impartial coverage of LGBT+ issues from around the world.

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