Tinder Is Deleting Trans Women's Profiles—Even After Adding Gender Inclusive Options

Last year, popular dating app Tinder announced the option to specify whatever gender identity an individual chooses. "Everyone is welcome on Tinder," the app released in a statement. "Starting today, no matter how you identify, you can express your authentic self."

While people may now be able to choose their gender identity, they can still be punished for sharing it. Despite the company's promise that "no one will ever be banned from Tinder because of their gender," women are still regularly getting deleted from the app for simply swiping while trans.

If enough Tinder users report a single profile, the account is automatically banned for breaking community guidelines. Transgender women are the most at risk of the feature, a la cisgender men reporting them en masse. Unfortunately for these women, Tinder offers no further inspection into their cases—and no appeal process.

The latest victim of the discriminatory feature is Twitter user Tahlia Rene, whose profile was permanently removed from the app for violating the terms of service "in some way." She shared her story on Twitter:

So @Tinder got back to me and the best they can say is I broke their community guidelines “in some way” but we all know this is because of men mass reporting me for being trans. I would appreciate as many people as possible quote tweeting this and mentioning them pic.twitter.com/AEhc5jrSPp — Tall-yuh (@Tahlia_Rene) December 3, 2017

What good does it do me to be able to put that I’m trans on tinder if I’m just gonna get reported and banned over it? All this is doing is incentivizing trans women to hide it and not put it in our profiles @Tinder — Tall-yuh (@Tahlia_Rene) December 3, 2017

Just last week, activist and YouTuber Kat Blaque shared a similar experience. "I've been banned 3 times on Tinder," she tweeted. "It has become clear to me that openly listing that I am transgender on my Tinder profile page is actually working against me."

Their “trans inclusiveness” is such a fucking joke. Your 30 gender options don’t do us shit when we get auto banned from volume of reports alone @Tinder — Tall-yuh (@Tahlia_Rene) December 3, 2017

See this is my issue. You want the front facing image of inclusion and acceptance and yet on the back end, you don't really serve the community you claim to serve. I can only conclude that my account was targeted and deleted because I was trans. And I'm not the first one. — Merry Katmas (@kat_blaque) November 28, 2017

I need @Tinder to draw a line in the sand. If you don't want transgender people using your app, then don't allow them to sign up, like @PlentyOfFish. Be about that, fully, don't dance around it. Don't take my money and then ban me for who I am. — Merry Katmas (@kat_blaque) November 28, 2017

Tinder responded to Blaque with a statement. "We want to say we are sorry for your experience on Tinder. To say we believe in inclusivity and acceptance is an understatement - it's a core value of our company. Clearly, something went wrong here."

They continued:

"Although we're sorry to hear this, by speaking out you are helping us to make our product better and make the experience of our diverse users better. We hope you will give us the opportunity to continue growing and make Tinder a better place for everyone to make meaningful connections."

While Tinder's push for inclusiveness is noble, it means nothing without action to protect all users of the app.

(PRIDE reached out to Tinder for comment and they didn't immediately respond.)