- The app’s gender filtering policy has angered members of the gay community
- Currently, users can filter for trans users, but not for cis users
Gay hook-up app Grindr has been criticized by a Stonewall rioter for not letting users search specifically for biological men, claiming it is transphobic.
But Grindr, which is largely used by gay men, does let users search specifically for transgender users, saying it is “crucial for this community to be able to easily find each other.”
The policy has angered veteran gay rights activist Fred Sargeant and others.
The app, run by George Arison, a conservative gay man, claims that allowing users to filter out transgender users would “further perpetuate discrimination and harm to the trans and non-binary community.”
Gay hook-up app Grindr has fallen out of favor with some community members due to its gender filtering policy
Sargeant, who helped create the first Pride and participated in the Brick wall riots, took aim at the app’s policies on X earlier this week.
“So, filtering for gay men is bad, but filtering for transgender and non-binary is okay @Grindr?” He wrote.
“You acknowledge the trans/non-binary need to discriminate, while invalidating the very same need for gay men.
‘Remove your service @Grindr. You are no longer needed.’
Grindr’s policy was brought to attention by X account @TransHomophobia, whose cause reads: “Bringing homophobia to the attention of trans activists.”
The policy, which is listed in the FAQ section of the app in response to the question “Why can’t I filter by Cis Men or Cis Women?” reads:
‘When designing gender settings on Grindt, it was important to us not to further perpetuate discrimination and harm to the trans and non-binary community.
‘For this reason we allow filtering by gender – you can specify whether you want to see men or women – but this also includes all men or all women, because trans men are men and trans women are women.
“You can also filter by trans and non-binary people, as we know it’s critical for this community to be able to easily find each other.”
Some users are put off by the perceived hypocrisy that trans and non-binary users can filter out and find only members of their own community, but the same privilege is not afforded to biologically male (and female) users.
Grindr is currently run by George Arison, a conservative gay man who has previously been criticized for some of his right-wing political views
In response to Sargeant’s post, one user replied, “So fascinating that they think it’s okay to keep the transfilter active. Apparently transgender people are allowed to find each other because that is important, but gay people are not allowed to do that.’
“Trans people can have filters to exclude you, but you can’t have filters to exclude them,” another wrote.
The app is currently run by George Arison, a conservative gay man who has previously been criticized by some members of the LGBT community for some of his political views.
When he was appointed in 2022, some users said they were going to delete the app and encouraged others to do the same.
Arison has led the company through a successful IPO to date.