India, May 28, 2024: Just ahead of Pride month, Tinder, the world's most popular dating app, has released its first Queer Dating Starter Pack in India. Developed with Gaysi Family, a queer-owned, queer-run media platform, this visual checklist will be a great assist for young first time queer daters on Tinder, offering essential guidance on self-discovery, dating etiquette, consent, safety & boundaries, and self-care. Building on the LetsTalkGender.in guide and glossary launched by Tinder in 2022, the new checklist is integrated into this resource to be a trusted companion, providing quick check-ins as they navigate their dating firsts on Tinder!
Tinder has also announced the return of Queer Made Weekend, one of India’s most popular pride festivals, dedicated to celebrating, supporting, and amplifying businesses and products made, owned, and run by India’s LGBTQIA+ community. Tinder Queer Made Weekend will be held on June 8th, 2024 at Jio World Drive in Mumbai and DLF Promenade in Delhi on June 15th and 16th, 2024.
Dating apps are becoming a space where young adults comfortably explore and express their gender and sexuality, with 7 out of 10 young daters in India agreeing that dating apps offer more freedom for self-exploration and have helped dismantle stereotypes and expectations surrounding gender, sex, and relationships.1 Given the growing comfort in using dating apps for self-discovery, this checklist gives first-time queer daters a crucial edge in navigating various dating scenarios with confidence and clarity.
To support queer newbies to be their most authentic selves on their dating journeys, Tinder's Queer Dating Starter Pack, curated by Gaysi Family with insights from The QKnit, offers practical advice based on real-life experiences of the queer community. The FAQ section addresses common concerns and uncertainties that may arise during the dating process, such as readiness to date, exploring one’s identity, and understanding boundaries. In June 2024, Tinder users in India will see the Swipe Cards directing them to detailed checklists on LetsTalkGender.in.
Tejaswi Subramania, Digital Content Editor, Gaysi Family shared, “Gaysi Family and Tinder have a history of collaborating on initiatives like the Museum of Queer Swipe Stories, Tinder Queer Made Weekend and Let's Talk Gender, aimed at celebrating inclusivity. We are now addressing a significant need for young queer daters who are navigating their dating lives for the first time. Many existing resources offering dating advice are often neither thoughtful nor inclusive. Our checklists fill that gap by encouraging young queer daters in India to engage thoughtfully with their connections while staying true to themselves. This effort complements the resources that we have co-created over the years. Here's to creating a safe and enjoyable dating culture for young queer individuals! ”
“Tinder has always supported the freedom of its users to explore their individuality both on the app and in real life with features like More Genders, Sexual Orientation, Traveler Alert, among others. We’re so honored to play a role in the dating journey of Tinder’s queer users, from coming out to finding a community, and are committed to creating more inclusive ways to help them make authentic connections we know today’s daters value the most. The Queer Dating Starter Pack underscores this commitment by providing essential support to our users, especially first-time queer daters navigating their dating firsts on Tinder.”- Aahana Dhar, Communications Director for Tinder in India.
Tinder has also introduced a series of new profile stickers such as ‘Came Out Online’, ‘My First Pride’ and more, giving members more options to express themselves and connect with others in an authentic and relatable way to celebrate Pride. Tinder’s Pride stickers will be available in the app beginning June 3. Members can view The Pride Sticker Center and add stickers to their profile by tapping on in-app notifications.
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Notes for Editor
In-app features
Tinder was the first mobile-based dating app that introduced sexual orientation to give people a feature that empowered them to identify beyond man or woman in 2016. We built this feature with the help of our transgender and gender non-conforming members and consultants, including Nick Adams and Alex Schmider from GLAAD’s Transgender Media Program, and filmmaker and trans advocate Andrea James. In India, this feature was built in partnership with Humsafar Trust to add gender orientations including indigenous identities. Tinder also has a safety feature called Traveler’s Alert created in partnership with ILGA World to inform members of the LGBTQIA+ community of the risks inherent in using dating apps in countries that still have discriminatory laws marginalizing the LGBTQIA+ community.
Community initiatives in India
Over the years, Tinder has supported the LGBTQIA+ community by including queer narratives across campaigns, content, and stories. In 2020, we launched the Museum of Queer Swipe Stories in partnership with Gaysi Family that captured the many moods and complexities of queer dating in India. In 2021, we also launched Queer Made in partnership with Little Black Book and Gaysi Family to provide a space dedicated to celebrating, supporting and amplifying businesses and products made, owned and/or run by India’s LGBTQIA+ community. Encouraging self-expression and being loud and proud of one’s identity, we released a limited-edition ‘All of a kind’ capsule collection of 10 sneakers with FILA, hand illustrated by artists across India, highlighting the theme of identity, authenticity and diversity. We also launched Tinder Mixers for singles, exclusively curated IRL events, and partnered with Gaysi Family to organize a queer mixer in Mumbai. In 2022, Queer Made went IRL in the form of Queer Made Weekend - a two day festival showcasing products and services from queer entrepreneurs and business owners. Last year, Tinder in collaboration with That Sassy Thing, also released a dating wellness guide Tinder Love and Care for young women daters in India, which features advice and insights from prominent female and queer experts on different themes of self-care.
1 A study of 1000 18-25-year-old dating singles pan-India between April - May 2023 conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Tinder
About Tinder:
Launched in 2012, Tinder is the world’s most popular dating app and has been downloaded more than 530 million times. The app is available in 190 countries and 45+ languages. More than half of all users are 18-25 years old. In 2022, Tinder was named one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company.
Tinder is a registered trademark of Match Group LLC.
