Skip to main content

Tinder now lets you personalize your gender identity

Tinder now lets you personalize your gender identity

/

There are 37 options, but harassment issues are still a concern

Share this story

An update on Tinder this week will give users an additional option to identify their gender beyond male or female. Now, you can select “More” and choose a term to describe your gender.

The move is an effort to include the transgender and gender-nonconforming communities, which Tinder admitted did not receive the tools to reflect their identities before the update. The company says it will also welcome back users who were wrongly banned in the past because of their gender, or left due to harassment.

Some users also fear more targeted abuse

While being inclusive is a necessary change, note that no matter what you select as your gender, you’ll still need to pick whether to match with men or women. The update doesn’t stop you from being matched with users who don’t want queer or transgender partners, which CEO Sean Rad said was how transgender users were being attacked in the first place.

Now that you can publicly identify as transgender or gender-nonconforming, some users also fear more targeted abuse. It’s more than just a Tinder issue though; as writer and game designer Mattie Brice points out, dating services like OkCupid and Bumble also lack a solution for transgender users to control who they match with.

Tinder said it worked with GLAAD’s Transgender Media Program leaders and other trans advocates to build this new update. Beyond being inclusive, it should now look at how these communities actually use and experience the app in order to responsibly protect them from abuse.