A gay rights activist has criticised Grindr for its trans and nonbinary-inclusive filter.

Currently, the dating app prevents users from searching solely for Cisgender men and women, the site explains. “It was important to us to not further perpetuate discrimination and harm for the trans and nonbinary community.”

Instead, users can filter who they’d like to speak to on the app. The trans-inclusive filter details “three umbrella gender groups”: men, women and non-binary people.

Fred Sargeant took to X (formerly Twitter) on 5 February to question the app’s filter. The app detailed its trans-inclusive filter in a frequently asked questions section of the website.

However, Sergeant criticised the app – which was the most popular among users aged 54+ last year. “So, filtering for gay men is bad but filtering for trans and nonbinary is okay @Grindr? You recognise trans/nonbinary needs to discriminate while invalidating precisely the same need for gay men. 

“Delete your service @Grindr. You’re no longer needed.”

Others took to the comments section, with one social media user branding the app “homophobic” for its trans-inclusive filter. “Gay men, @Grindr is no longer for us,” a different person wrote. 

A representative of Grindr told PinkNews: “Trans men, trans women, and non-binary people have been a part of the Grindr community from the very beginning, and we have always been committed to creating a safe space for trans users. 

“This has included working with the National Center for Transgender Equality on profile fields for gender identity and pronouns, and building a Gender Identity Resource Center so that cis Grindr users can increase their understanding of trans people and issues.

“As part of our commitment to our trans users, we are pursuing a gender filtering system to allow all users, trans and cis, to find who they’re looking for on the app. Users who are only interested in men, for example, can select not to see women and explore a Grindr cascade of men. Of course, trans men are men, so users filtering to see men will see both cis and trans men.”

What is Grindr’s trans-inclusive filter?

The FAQ on the website regarding the trans-inclusive filter reads: “Why can’t I filter for Cis Men or Cis Women?”

“We allow filtering based on gender – you can specify that you want to see men or women – but this will include all men or all women, because trans men are men and trans women are women. 

“You can also filter for trans and nonbinary people, as we know it’s critical for this community to be able to find each other easily.”

The FAQs also explain that the “Cis Man/Woman” gender identities have changed to “Man/Woman” as part of their “ongoing commitment to inclusivity and an effort to reduce discrimination toward trans and nonbinary folks”.

Users can edit their gender and pronouns in the app’s settings “to search (and be found) by gender identity”. 

“We have a list of 50+ gender identities to choose from – and even provide non-gendered pronoun options for languages that don’t have gendered pronouns. To ensure that culturally specific gender identity terms were included in that list, we partnered with experts across 20 languages. 

“We’re still learning every day – and always open to expanding that list. If you have a gender identity or pronoun suggestion for us, please submit it using the Suggest a Gender link on the gender selection screen.”