Brin Balboa – Staff writer

“Straight top looking for t-girls” or “fem bottoms,” or “No pic= no fems.”

Discriminatory jargon plagues the popular dating app Grindr, which caters to members of the gay, bi, trans and queer community. It also enables the objectification of gay people, trans people and people of color.

While online dating has become a popular way to foster relationships with strangers or possible hook-ups—Grindr has 3.8 million daily users, according to The Washington Post—toxic language has become rampant. Users fill their bios with descriptions like “no blacks,” “no old men,” and “into FIT guys.”

These bios are ageist, body-shaming and borderline racist filters. Take for instance a trans female on the dating service. If a man was sexually attracted to only trans females that adhered to the societal view of females being more feminine, then this one individual creates a narrative that stigmatizes anyone that strays away from society’s gender norm.

We still live in a country where trans people are murdered simply for identifying as themselves. According to the Human Rights Campaign, 22 trans individuals were murdered in 2018. On January 11, Dana Martin became the first trans person murdered this year, according to The New York Times. We must not tolerate extreme viewpoints towards trans people. Rather, we as a community must accept individuals for who they are.

Having sexual preferences geared towards physiological features like finding blue eyes more attractive than brown, or taller people more attractive than shorter people, is generally not toxic behavior. The issue, however, arises when the search for a hookup or long-term relationship is based solely on a person’s one trait that contributes to their identity. To create a relationship that is fostered on the idea that an individual has one redeeming quality is toxic and festishizes an individual’s identity.

An LGBTQIA community activist that wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons, who will now be referred to as Doe, said they identify as queer and non-binary. They said that Grindr negatively impacts queer people’s mental health. Doe said that they are currently off the application.

“Just elaborating on the dynamics of Grindr, the thing that made me self-conscious, was I knew I could craft my own little persona,” they said. “That meant not putting up pictures that had nail polish on them or anything that would be perceived as feminine.  And that was really upsetting cause I really got away from myself and started creating this persona that I wish I was so hot guys would have sex with me.”

For many, Grindr is a great tool to find others of the LGBTQIA community, but it is also not the safest medium. In Texas last year, four men impersonated the identity of gay single men on Grindr. The group of men lured individuals to their locations where they robbed, assaulted and spewed anti-LGBTQIA rhetoric at their victims, according to The Huffington Post.

While there are other applications such as Tinder or Bumble, there currently is no viable replacement that can fill the shoes Grindr has taken on. Yet if communities work together to create safe places for LGBTQIA and people of color to meet together and mingle, then the need to use these applications and the intolerance towards these members will eventually decline.

Doe said they advise users of the application take their time and beware of individuals with ill intentions.

“Take your time and be careful, you know the Internet has given us wonders,” said Doe. “You can find a community online, but I would just say be cautious because not everyone acts with the best intentions online. There are a lot of people who are looking to take advantage of young people.”