Dating Apps Promise to Remain a Rare Haven Following Trump’s Executive Order

Mere moments after his swearing in Monday, President Donald Trump made a proclamation to attendees of his inauguration: “It shall henceforth be the policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.” Trump then signed an executive order disparaging what the White House called “gender ideology” and claiming that a person’s sex is “not changeable and [is] grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”

Trump’s order, which was widely seen as an unscientific attempt to roll back the rights of transgender and gender-expansive people, also instructs federal agencies “to require that government-issued identification documents, including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards, accurately reflect the holder’s sex,” rather than their gender identity. It was one of 78 orders signed on 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 and private life.”

While the executive order only affects federal policy, the broader implications are vast. It’s only been a decade since Facebook’s “real name” policy made it hard for people to hold accounts under names different than the ones on their IDs. Facebook has since amended these guidelines, but as companies like Meta clear the way for users to claim trans people have “mental illness,” digital safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people seem to be dwindling. Except in one arena: dating apps.

Following Trump’s executive order, Match Group and Feeld both told WIRED they have no intention of reversing course when it comes to the gender identity options offered on their respective platforms.

“We are not making changes to our apps,” says Kayla Whaling, a spokesperson for Match Group, which owns OkCupid, Tinder, Hinge, and several other dating platforms.

It remains to be seen how other tech companies will respond to the executive order. Some, like Meta, seemed to be making overtures to the incoming Trump administration before this week. Earlier this month, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would end its third-party fact-checking program and transition to a Community Notes model, à la X.

Zuckerberg peddled the sudden reversal as a bid to scale up free speech across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads and allow for 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 just out of touch with mainstream discourse,” Zuckerberg said in a video accompanying the announcement.

Should online life become even less inclusive for LGBTQ+ people during Trump’s term, apps like OkCupid, Feeld, and Hinge could become digital havens, places to connect. “In 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, a 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, agender, and genderqueer. It was among the first dating apps to capture an accurate picture of identity online, and the different ways it was evolving. Currently, Tinder provides an option for “beyond binary” and Hinge allows users to select “nonbinary” on their profiles.