A few moments later her swear On Monday, President Donald Trump made a proclamation to those attending his inauguration: “It shall henceforth be the policy of the United States Government that there are only two sexes: men and women.” Trump then signed a executive order disparaging what the White House called “gender ideology” and asserting that a person’s sex is “not changeable and (is) based on a fundamental and indisputable reality.”
Trump’s order, which was widely seen as a unscientific Attempting to roll back the rights of transgender and genderqueer people also calls on federal agencies to “require that government-issued identification documents, including passports, visas, and global entry cards, reflect “precisely the gender of the holder”, rather than their gender identity. It was one of 78 orders signed Monday, some of which were part of Trump’s attempts to end Biden-era policies that “socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public life and private”.
Although the executive order only affects federal policy, the broader implications are vast. It’s only been a decade since Facebook “real name“The policy has made it difficult for people to hold accounts under different names than their logins. Facebook has since changed these guidelines, but like companies like Meta open the way For users to claim trans people have ‘mental illness,’ digital safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people seem to decrease. Except in one arena: dating apps.
Following Trump’s executive order, Match Group and Feeld both told Wired that they have no plans to reverse course on the gender identity options offered on their respective platforms.
“We don’t modify our apps,” says Kayla Whvaling, a spokesperson for Match Group, which owns OkCupid, Tinder, Hinge and several other dating platforms.
It remains to be seen how other technology companies will react to the executive order. Some, like Meta, appeared to be making overtures to the incoming Trump administration before this week. Earlier this month, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company end its third-party fact-checking program and move to a community notes model, à la
Zuckerberg peddled the sudden reversal as an attempt to expand free speech on Facebook, Instagram and feeds and allow more political content. “We’re going to simplify our content policies and get rid of a bunch of restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are simply disconnected from mainstream discourse,” Zuckerberg said in a video accompanying the announcement.
If online life becomes even less inclusive for LGBTQ+ people during Trump’s term, apps like OkCupid, Feeld, and Hinge could become digital havens, places to connect. “At a time when many of our civil rights are under threat, dating apps have the ability to serve as crucial spaces for gender, racial, and sexual inclusivity,” says Apryl Williams, professor of communication and digital studies at the University of Michigan.
Over a decade ago, in 2014, OkCupid expanded its gender options for users to include identifications such as transgender, pangender, intersex, agent, and gender. It was among the first dating apps to capture an accurate picture of online identity and the different ways it can evolve. Currently, Tinder offers an option to “beyond the binary“And Hinge lets users select”non-binary“On their profiles.