One user I engaged with despite my initial misgivings couldn’t understand why I, a queer trans man, would say on my profile that I wasn’t interested in straight guys. I’ve been using the platform for long enough that I can usually tell who’s going to turn out to be a transphobe from just the way they say hello, but sometimes you feel like you should give them the benefit of the doubt. Requests for nudes and generally degrading comments are par for the course there, but every now and then something more sinister emerges. Unsurprisingly, Grindr is the worst offender. But are the experiences of trans users getting any better? Depressingly, no, not really. Since the start of the pandemic, more people are using Tinder, Hinge and Bumble than ever before Tinder alone saw a record three billion swipes on a single day in March last year.
People say ignorant things – and they say deliberately offensive things – and that’s before we get to the problems with the apps themselves. Like most things, though, it’s even more difficult when you’re transgender. When you’re basically online shopping for people, there’s always the possibility of a bad fit. Dating apps can be unpleasant even under the best conditions.
