Tinder will soon have better options for trans people.
CEO Sean Rad said at a conference on Thursday that he’s working to make the dating service more friendly to those who do fit into the male/female gender binary.
The dating app — with its estimated 50 million users around the world — currently allows users to identify as “Male” and “Female” and to state their matching preference as “Male,” “Female,” or “Both.”
“For a long time we haven’t done enough to give them a good experience,” said Rad, speaking at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., asked how trans people fare on the Tinder app. “It’s harder for them to get what they are looking for. We have to modify our experience to address that…. It’s not only good for the Tinder community, but it’s the right thing to do for the world.”
He did not reveal how many gender identities/expressions the company would let users choose from in the future, but said that changes would be effective within “a month or two.”
Tinder is the latest in a slew of companies, including Facebook and Electronic Arts, that have taken steps to cater to the needs of transgender users. In 2014, internet dating behemoth OkCupid rolled out a set of 21 new gender options, including the somewhat well known “two-spirit,” “pangender,” and “genderqueer,” but also more obscure sexual orientations such as “demisexual” and “sapiosexual.” (The Urban Dictionary defines sapiosexuel as “one who finds intelligence the most sexually attractive feature.”)
From a business standpoint, it’s becoming increasingly clear that companies must grapple with young people’s shifting mores if they want to reach and retain millennial consumers. Influential pop stars with huge social media followings — including Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, rapper Angel Haze, and Orange is the New Black’s breakout Ruby Rose — have all identified as “gender fluid” and frequently dismiss traditional gender norms as something of the past.
And these celebrities are not alone. A 2015 survey from Fusion‘s Massive Millenial Poll found that 50% of the 1,000 people surveyed between the ages of 18 and 34 think gender lines are blurred and that “some people fall outside conventional categories.”
