Next time you're on Grindr, you might notice a few new people in your area. The popular hook-up app has made a series of changes to make transgender and gender non-conforming individuals feel more welcome.  

 

The change will allow people to choose from various different identities, including “trans man,” “woman,” “cis man,” “non-binary,” “non-conforming” and “queer.” A space is also available to write in a different gender identity if one is not available on the list.

 

Users can even post their preferred pronouns, like “He/Him/His,” “She/Her/Hers” and “They/Them/Theirs."

 

Finally, a Gender Identity Help Center is available to help users “get woke” on how to be respectful when messaging a trans person.

 

Peter Sloterdyk, Grindr’s vice president of marketing, explained this was part of an “overall goal to recognize the depth and diversity of our user base.”  

 

“Grindr takes our role as global leaders very seriously and strives to make every user feel welcome, safe and understood,” he said. “We have a daily responsibility to grow with and learn from our users, including everyone in our growing and evolving LGBTQ community.”

 

“One thing we heard over and over again from trans people using Grindr was that they felt unwelcome as other users would often only want to ask them about what it means to be trans or approached without knowing how to speak respectfully about trans issues,” Jack Harrison-Quintana, director of Grindr for Equality, added in a separate statement. “That’s why we created written resources linked from the gender identity fields in the profile to answer users’ questions and decrease that burden on trans people.”

 

Now if they could do something about the racists, liars and pic collectors ...