Elliot Page has recently brought more visibility to the trans community when he came out as a trans man in . With his public coming out announcement and his decision to not medically transition, his journey is helping to shed some much-needed light on the trans community.
Despite more visible people such as celebrities participating in education and activism, in the meantime there needs to be more safe spaces for trans people.
MyTransgenderCupid claims to be dedicated to trans people looking for relationships, but it has become infamous for being an epicenter for people specifically looking for and fetishizing trans people. Grindr – a dating app catering to gay men – tends to dismiss trans men and focuses more on cis-gender people.
Alternatives to Tinder
Even though more work needs to be done to create a true safe online dating space for trans people, what other options that are similar to Tinder are there?
- Bumble – This app has mechanics that are very similar to Tinder such as displaying a large profile photo with minimal up-front information until you scroll further down.A feature that also similar to Tinder is their gender identity options. Not only does Bumble have a long list of pre-made identities ranging from non-binary to two-spirit, but at the bottom of the list it also gives you an option to write your own identity.One thing that appears to be Nepali naiset avioliittoon unique to Bumble is their messaging system. For a heterosexual match, women are the only ones that have ‘First Move’ privileges to message a man they have matched with. However, for other matches, both parties have the option to make the first move.
- OkCupid – Although this may not be the first app that many people think of, it has interesting features that deserves a spot on this list.To start, OkCupid was the first large dating app to have an option for users to display their pronouns and now offers 22 gender options and 20 sexual orientation options.One of the most interesting features for trans people on OkCupid is an option to answer some gender and sexuality questions to appear on your profile. Some examples include, “when did you come out?” and “are gender and sexuality labels important to you?”
Bumble and OkCupid still have areas of improvement, but both apps are popular and have similar features to Tinder. For now, trans people should be cautious about using dating apps such as MyTransgenderCupid that claim to cater specifically to trans people because it tends to attract people that fetishize the community.
More awareness and education need to be done to help create safe online dating spaces for trans people, but there appears to be continuous improvement on apps such as Tinder, Bumble, and OkCupid even if it may be slower than we would like to see.
Notes from the author
“Thank you for reading! My name is Felix, and I am a trans man who wrote this article. Based on my experience using dating apps (usually Tinder), I do wish there could be other features added such as perhaps a more visible label or badge to display pronouns and gender identity as well as the ability to answer questions and display them similar to OkCupid.
I also found an interesting suggestion, but it would ultimately depend on the general population becoming more inclusive and educated about trans people. The suggestion was for people to state in their profile if they are open to dating trans people. There is also now a trans flag emoji that can be put to good use!
