Philly Native Starts Lesbian Dating App Wing Ma’am

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Philesbian has the scoop on a new lesbian dating app created by Philly native Ariella Furman. The hilariously named Wing Ma’am started a month ago and already has 10,000 subscribers. Furman — a graduate of Temple University — describes the tool’s locally inspired creation process:

I [recently] moved to Pittsburgh for an ex, and quickly recognized the lack of a queer community here. … That made me take action and produce a Stimulus-like party in my city called Impulse Pittsburgh. The positive effect of Impulse made me aware of exploring solutions through technology on how to better unite/inform the queer community.

So she came up with the location-based app that goes a step ahead of more-established queer apps like Grindr and Scruff by creating a whole social network for women who love women. Besides merely flipping through potential mates, you can scroll events taking place in your city, something Wing Ma’am-conducted market research says is more in line with what ladies are looking for.

LGBT women want something by women, for women that is more than just a dating app; [something that ] addresses the many kinds of interactions and multi-faceted relationships LGBT women can have together. … In general, women are not as open to meeting strangers in public and we wanted women to feel like they had the power, not us. So we have users create profiles and they can create events with filters, so they can choose what information they’d like to share with the public. … By connecting LGBT women online, we are creating that community. There’s strength in numbers, and I want all women to feel safe and strong.

The app is currently available for free on iOs. A fully launched Android version should be available in the spring.