Churches donât have to be accessible. Thatâs a voting rights problem.
Eli. Underwood likes the experience of voting in person, but they now have to vote by mail. Underwood went to a Detroit church to cast a ballot in the 2022 general elections, but chronic health conditions meant the two flights of stairs to the basement taxed them badly; living with Long Covid as well, Underwood was frustrated by the unventilated space and unmasked poll workers.Â
âIt caused me great physical pain and anxiety, which made me angry and sad,â Underwood said. âIt communicated to me that my vote doesnât matter and I shouldnât bother.â Extreme fatigue, pain, nausea, and headaches followed.Â
Polling locations are supposed to be accessible to all voters, including disabled and aging ones. But nearly one in five polling locations in the United States is a church, and religious entities are exempt from the Americans with Disabilities Act, key civil rights legislation that helped establish that protection. A 2022 survey by Detroit Disability Power and the Carter Center found that only around 10 percent of church polling places in Detroit, where Underwood voted, and its suburbs, were considered fully accessible. The prevalence of inaccessible polling places is particularly alarming for disabled and aging people in states that have moved to quash mail-in votingâincluding Oklahoma and Arkansas, where churches make up over 50 percent of voting locations.
âA lot of times, a bill trying to prevent [alleged] vote fraud will have a disproportionate impact on people with disabilities by saying âYou canât actually submit an absentee ballot,ââ said University of Pennsylvania disability law scholar Jasmine Harris.
Infographic via Mother Jones
When a church becomes a polling place, itâs acting on the governmentâs behalf, Harris said. In those situations, according to Harris, religious buildings need to follow the ADA, and the districtâs election officer has a responsibility âto make sure preemptively that it has general accessibility.â
Election officials âshould be striving for locations that are already completely ADA compliant,â Michelle Bishop, the National Disability Rights Networkâs voter access and engagement manager, told Mother Jones, but it also the case that âa lot of the places that are willing to serve are churches.âÂ
Accessibility isnât just helpful for the roughly 60 million American adults who have a permanent disability; though permanent disabilities are also increasing in part due to Long Covid. âYou can become injured and not be able to go up steps,â said Mia Ives-Rublee, who directs the Center for American Progressâ disability justice initiative. âMaking polling locations accessible isnât just going to affect the people who have permanent disabilities.âÂ
Counties are responsible for choosing the locations where their residents vote. The right response to inaccessible voting locations is not to have fewer of themâpolling place closures disproportionately impact voters of colorâbut to find more locations that are accessible. The Department of Justice also provides guidance on temporary solutions to make sure disabled people can vote, such as installing a ramp and keeping doors propped open.Â
The ADA is not the only federal legislation that protects disabled peopleâs right to voteâthereâs also the Voting Rights Act, the Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act, and the national Help America Vote Act, which all should support disabled peopleâs right to vote. Bishop said that disabled voters can submit complaints under the Help America Vote Act, which requires state officials to respond by a deadline, although exact procedures can vary by state.Â
But not all disabled voters want or have the energy to file complaints about access issues. For Underwood, it didnât seem worth it:Â they felt that ânobody listens or cares.â
As of now, no state mandates that poll workers be trained in accommodating disabled voters. That kind of training could help some disabled people vote more easily, Bishop said, regardless of their polling place.⌠http://dlvr.it/T669cX
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Texas AG drops âabusiveâ attempt to get info about trans kids from Seattle hospital
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has agreed to drop his pursuit of information on transgender patients who have been treated at Seattle Childrenâs Hospital.
The agreement comes as part of a settlement announced Monday between Paxtonâs office and the Washington state hospital, the Texas Tribune reports.
Seattle Childrenâs Hospital sued the Texas AGâs office in December, seeking to block a November 17 subpoena demanding records pertaining to any Texas patients who received gender-affirming care at the hospital. Paxton believed that Seattle Childrenâs was providing puberty blockers and hormone therapy to minors in Texas, where such treatment has been banned for young people since last August.
But gender-affirming care for minors is legal in the state of Washington, and the hospital argued in its lawsuit that Paxtonâs office does not have jurisdiction over it. Furthermore, in a sworn affidavit the hospital systemâs chief medical operations officer said that Seattle Childrenâs does not employ staff in Texas who provide gender-affirming care, nor does the hospital provide such care remotely to anyone outside of Washington.
The lawsuit also cited Washingtonâs âshield lawâ which blocks officials in the state from turning over records ârelated to protected health care services that are lawful in the state of Washingtonâ to officials in other states in response to âa subpoena, warrant, court order, or other civil or criminal legal process.â
The hospital argued that Paxtonâs demands were âan unconstitutional attempt to investigate and chill potential travel by Texas residents to obtain healthcare in another state,â something many families in states that have outlawed gender-affirming care for minors have been forced to do in recent years.
Seattle Childrenâs Hospital is not the only facility or organization from which Paxton has demanded information on transgender people.
According to the Texas Tribune, the AGâs office sent a nearly identical subpoena to a Georgia-based telehealth clinic. And in February, Paxton sent a civil investigation demand to PFLAG National requesting records related to the families of transgender young people in Texas seeking to maintain gender-affirming care. Last month, a Texas judge granted a temporary injunction blocking Paxtonâs demand.
Last week, a 10-page Democratic congressional report found that Paxton and other Republican AGs had used âabusive legal demandsâ to collect trans patientsâ medical records in pursuit of âideological and political goals.â Such investigations have contributed to hostile anti-LGBTQ+ social and political climates and have also worsened queer peopleâs mental health, leading to âsuicidal ideation, severe depression, and intense anxiety,â the report added. http://dlvr.it/T65yyY
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This childrenâs book about where babies come from is a queer parentâs dream
An inclusive childrenâs book is gaining praise from parents everywhere since queer author Markus Harwood-Jones brought attention to it on TikTok.
What Makes a Baby by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth is an extremely accessible story of the many ways babies come into this world. Written for kids ages preschool to eight, the book is bursting with color and imagery that makes learning the science behind creating life a joy for all ages and all types of families.
Harwood-Jones read the entire story on TikTok and praised it as âa beautifully simple yet accurate and inclusive depiction of how babies are made.â The story is not only applicable to LGBTQ+ parents, either. Through its inclusive language, it can apply to absolutely anyone.
Instead of diving deep into a single process to create a baby like in virto fertilization (IVF), sexual intercourse, or surrogacy, the book tells the story of a sperm and an egg that must meet and be placed into someone with a uterus in order for life to form. It acknowledges the variety of ways this can happen and the variety of people that may or may not be involved.
@markusbones
âWhat Makes a Babyâ by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth â a beautifully simple yet accurate and inclusive depiction of how babies are made Highly recommend! #kidlit #bookreview #childrensbooks ⏠original sound â Markus Bones
Comments on Harwood-Jonesâs video praised the story.
âI love the accuracy of the terminology,â wrote one user. âHuman anatomy isnât too much for children to learn and this book makes it so accessible for them to learn!â
Another wrote, âMy heart felt so warm with all the inclusivity!â
âIâm an IVF baby, and wouldâve loved this book when i was younger,â said a third follower.
A fourth added, âMy son was made with a donor egg, but born from me. This is the book we will use to explain it! I love it so much.â
The comments go on and on. Many wished they had something like it growing up. Some said they cried. One user pointed out that the bookâs inclusivity actually made sharing all the information simpler for kids. One person called it a ârevolution.â
Queer author and parent B.J. Woodstein told Metro that she recommends the book because its âbright illustrations depict people in colors that humans donât actually come in, so anyone can relate to the story, plus they are all non-gendered, which shows readers that people with all sorts of bodies can have eggs or sperm or a uterus.â
âFor parents unsure how to talk about trans topics, this can be a great introduction. Furthermore, Silverberg leaves a lot of room for you to tell your own story, which makes the book applicable to any and every family,â Woodstein added.
âYour child gets the basics of where babies come from, while you add the specifics of how you created your family, whether that was through adoption, fertility treatment, intercourse or another way,â Woodstein continued.
âWhen Silverberg asks, âWho was waiting for you to be born?â, my daughters love to respond, âMummy and Mama, and they wanted us so much!'â http://dlvr.it/T65jcM
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Brittney Griner, Priscilla, and a drag queenâs revenge
Here are this weekâs most popular positive stories, with some fun social media posts tossed in too. Like seeing uplifting content like this? Sign up for our Good News email.
While Iâve loved doing the Good News beat here at LGBTQ Nation for so long, Iâm moving over to our sibling site GayCities. This is the last newsletter Iâll be doing.
Iâm handing it over to Senior Editor Daniel Villarreal. Daniel and I have worked together for almost a decade, so I know youâll love him too. Shoot me an email sometime. Love to you all. -Bil
Someone call HR stat
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A post shared by page ragan (@pagan.rage)
Drag Race star gets sweet payback against rightwing idiot
If thereâs one thing that right-wingers should have learned lately, itâs never to mess with an angry drag queen.
Hundreds of them swarmed the Florida state capitol in 2020. And in 2023, hundreds more took over the Missouri state capitol building.
Brittney Griner & wife are expecting a baby
They say they canât wait to meet their âfavorite human being.â
Despite last-minute GOP push, all anti-LGBTQ+ bills fail in Iowa legislature
These bills keep failing. Could the tide be turning?
Youâre doing it wrong
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Elle Deran (@elle.deran)
This teenâs powerful speech helped defeat an anti-trans bill
Republicans were powerless against her.
Another country ends ban on being gay
Dominicaâs colonial-era law belongs in the past.
Arizona governor spikes one of the most awful anti-trans bills yet
She warned them. She followed through.
Jane Fonda in 1979
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A post shared by Retrospection (@retrosspection)
Pete Buttigieg announces major upgrade for airline passengers
Two words: Cash. Refund.
These are the best LGBTQ+ greeting cards
Three finalists were chosen by the Greeting Card Association. Which one do you like best?
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert sequel confirmed
30 years later, the original cast and director will return to the big screen.
It actually was a decision
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Dr. Hannah Gadsby (@hannah_gadsby)
From Our Sibling Sites
* GAYCITIES:Â The Kentucky Derbyâs big winner is this gay artist
* OUTSPORTS:Â Are gay footballers about to come out as a group? Hereâs what we know.
* INTO:Â Lily Gladstone and Kelly Marie Tran cast as lesbian couple for cult movie remake
* QUEERTY:Â Jonathan Bailey confirms âHeartstopperâ cameo, but donât miss his other great queer TV role http://dlvr.it/T65QYs
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âMean, old & gayâ Ellen DeGeneres is still bitter years after ending her show
Former daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres stepped out of self-imposed exile this week with the first stop on a promised summer-long stand-up comedy tour â and sheâs still whining.
âOh yeah, I got kicked out of show business,â DeGeneres complained sarcastically from the stage at West Hollywoodâs Largo at the Coronet Theater, according to Rolling Stone.
âThereâs no mean people in show business,â she continued. âI became this one-dimensional character who gave stuff away and danced up steps. Do you know how hard it is to dance up steps? Would a mean person dance up steps? Had I ended my show by saying, âGo f**k yourself,â people wouldâve been pleasantly surprised.â
DeGeneres, 66, is still sore two years after her popular talk show cratered amid accusations of rampant racism, sexual misconduct, and intimidation at the hands of executive producers. Three top EPs were fired. DeGeneres issued a poorly received on-air apology, but the damage was already done. Production company Telepictures pulled the plug after a 19-season run that ended in May 2022.
âI used to say that I didnât care what other people thought of me,â DeGeneres said. But then she realized, âI said that at the height of my popularity.â
âIt is such a waste of time to worry about what other people think,â she added.
Forbes estimated the former talk show hostâs worth at $370 million in 2020.
âFor those of you keeping score, this is the second time Iâve been kicked out of show business,â DeGeneres said. Her groundbreaking 90s sitcom Ellen was canceled not long after she came out as gay.
âEventually, theyâre going to kick me out for a third time because Iâm mean, old, and gay,â DeGeneres droned on, sounding old, mean, and gay. âItâs been such a toll on my ego and my self-esteem.â
âThereâs such extremes in this business,â she reminded her audience of hardcore fans. âPeople either love you and idolize you or they hate you, and those people somehow are louder.â
The kvetching continued in a post-set chat onstage, where the people who love and idolize her got to ask questions.
âIt was so hurtful. I couldnât gain perspective. I couldnât do anything to make myself understand that it wasnât personal,â DeGeneres moaned. âI just thought, âWell, this is not the way I wanted to end my career, but this is the way itâs ending.ââ http://dlvr.it/T657lY
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Tennessee passes first-of-its-kind law attacking trans kids
In its latest attack on transgender youth, lawmakers in Tennessee passed a bill to stop the nonexistent problem of adults kidnapping kids and taking them to other states for gender-affirming care.
The bill, S.B. 2782, was passed by the Tennesee House of Representatives on Thursday and is on its way to the governorâs desk. It amends a 2023 gender-affirming care ban, adding civil penalties for any adults who aid an unemancipated minor get out-of-state gender-affirming care without their parentsâ consent.
The bill passed along party lines 63-16 in the Tennessee House of Representatives and previously passed the stateâs Senate 25-4. This would be the first state to pass a law of this kind, according to the Associated Press.
S.B. 2782, is headed to the governorâs desk. Gov. Bill Lee (R) is expected to pass the legislation, as he previously advanced anti-LGBTQ+ bills, such as one that would allow LGBTQ+ foster children to be placed with foster parents who are opposed to LGBTQ+ rights.
It was introduced by state Sen. Janice Bowling (R), who has been introducing anti-trans legislation since at least 2020, and contains exemptions for parents, guardians, those with the consent of parents and guardians, and common carriers like bus drivers, airline pilots, and ride share app drivers.
An earlier version of S.B. 2782 reportedly had criminal penalties for adults; however, this was removed in committee.
LGBTQ+ advocacy groups are now working to make it clear that the law doesnât ban parents from taking their own kids out of state for gender-affirming care, which many have been doing since the state passed its ban on gender-affirming care.
âOUTMemphis has provided navigation assistance for families seeking gender-affirming care for youth since the ban on care for minors passed last year,â said Molly Quinn, executive director of OUTMemphis. âAbove all, we want these families to know help is available and that you donât have to fear leaving the state to get your child the care that they need.âÂ
LGBTQ+ organizations are currently looking to assist families as they navigate the confusion of this bill and whether they can get their children gender-affirming care. OUTMemphis and Campaign for Southern Equality released a joint statement emphasizing that the families of transgender children can still seek out gender-affirming care.
âItâs obvious that the Tennessee legislature is trying to intimidate families of transgender youth â piling additional fear onto the mountain of financial and logistical burdens that parents are grappling with in the face of the existing healthcare ban in Tennessee,â said Adam Polaski, Communications & Political Director of the Campaign for Southern Equality. âBut we want to be clear: This development does not block parents from traveling with their child out of state to access the healthcare they need and deserve.â
This type of legislation comes as a reaction to conspiracies that there is a ploy from transgender adults to kidnap kids and âturnâ them transgender. A recent bill in Maine made headlines in the right-wing press for supposedly being a âtransgender traffickingâ bill.
A recent bill in Maine made headlines in the right-wing press for supposedly being a âtransgender traffickingâ bill. The bill, L.D. 1735, makes Maine a safe state for trans people, protecting refugees from other states. Anti-trans advocates like Chaya Raichik (of Libs of TikTok) and Riley Gaines opposed this, arguing that it promoted the alleged kidnapping and trafficking of youth across state lines to give them gender-affirming surgery, something transgender youth almost never get.
This culture of fear about children transitioning behind their parentsâ backs has been promoted by anti-LGBTQ+ Republicans like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who alleged that there are states that want to take kids away from their parents and make them transition.
There is no evidence to support any of these assertions. http://dlvr.it/T64fNB
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GOP governor brags about shooting her own puppy for being âuntrainableâ
South Dakota Gov. and VP hopeful Kristi Noem (R) tried to build her national brand two years ago on the back of her attacks on transgender peopleâs rights. But now sheâs facing criticism for proudly telling the story of how she shot her own dog because it was difficult to train, a story she said shows that sheâs willing to do difficult tasks.
The disturbing story appears in excerpts reported on by The Guardian from Noemâs upcoming book, No Going Back: The Truth on Whatâs Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward.
âCricket was a wirehair pointer, about 14 months old,â Noem writes. âI hated that dog.â
She wrote that the dog was âuntrainable,â âdangerous to anyone she came in contact with,â and âless than worthless⌠as a hunting dog.â
Noem said that Cricket attacked another familyâs chickens. The dog âgrabbed one chicken at a time, crunching it to death with one bite, then dropping it to attack another.â The dog âwhipped around to bite me,â she said, when she tried to stop it.
She called the dog âa trained assassinâ and said that she apologized to the other family and wrote them a check to pay for the chickens.
âAt that moment, I realized I had to put her down.â Noem got her gun and took the dog to a gravel pit.
âIt was not a pleasant job, but it had to be done,â Noem wrote. âAnd after it was over, I realized another unpleasant job needed to be done.â
After killing Cricket, she recounted, she took a male goat to the gravel pit and shot it as well because it was ânasty and mean.â
Her daughter Kennedy âlooked around confusedâ when she was dropped off at the bus stop.
âHey, whereâs Cricket?â the daughter asked.
âI guess if I were a better politician, I wouldnât tell the story here,â Noem wrote.
Out clinical psychologist and niece of the Republican presidential candidate, Mary Trump, had a strong reaction to the story.
âKristi Noem is telling everybody that she murdered a puppy because she wants to be Donaldâs VP and she thinks the story will appeal to him,â Mary Trump wrote on X. âSheâs not wrong.â
Kristi Noem is telling everybody that she murdered a puppy because she wants to be Donald's VP and she thinks the story will appeal to him.
She's not wrong.â Mary L. Trump (@MaryLTrump) April 26, 2024
The Biden-Harris campaign also called Noem out.
Trump VP contender Kristi Noem brags about shooting her 14-month-old puppy to death: âI hated that dog⌠It had to be doneâ pic.twitter.com/tdQyZhCSfmâ Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) April 26, 2024
âAnyone who has ever owned a birddog knows how disgusting, lazy and evil this is. Damn,â said Montana Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ryan Busse.
Anyone who has ever owned a birddog knows how disgusting, lazy and evil this is.
Damn.
Trump VP contender Kristi Noem writes of killing dog â and goat â in new book | Books | The Guardian https://t.co/bK8Pt6NKEVâ Ryan Busse (@ryandbusse) April 26, 2024
Liberal podcaster Tommy Vietor called Noem âJeffrey Dahmer with veneersâ while discussing the story.
Noem shared a screenshot of the Guardian story and stressed that her book gives âreal honest, and political INcorrect stories thatâll have the media gaspingâ and linked the page to preorder her book.
We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm. Sadly, we just had to put down 3 horses a few weeks ago that had been in our family for 25 years.
If you want more real, honest, and politically INcorrect stories thatâll have the media gasping,⌠pic.twitter.com/bKhpUkchHVâ Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) April 26, 2024
Noem has good reason to believe that she wouldnât have told the story if she were a better politician.
Politicians have long used pets like dogs to soften their image, and appearing cruel towards animals can turn voters off. Mitt Romney, for example, was criticized after he told the story about when he put his family dog, Seamus, in a carrier on the roof of his car while driving from Massachusetts to Canada for a family vacation in⌠http://dlvr.it/T64SJN
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Why did George Santos drop out of the election?
Welcome to the (somewhat shorter this week) LGBTQ Nation News Quiz. Weâve kept you up-to-date on politics, current events, and news from the LGBTQ+ community all week. Now, this is your chance to look back on what happened.
Weâll be testing your knowledge with a series of questions taken from our headlines this past week. Try the quiz without looking up the answers or open another tab and use our search function to find the answers. (We wonât tell.)See how well you followed the LGBTQ+ news!
Take this quiz on LGBTQNationy. http://dlvr.it/T64G78
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Alabama just got a step closer to jailing librarians who provide LGBTQ+ books
Alabamaâs legislature is advancing two censorious anti-LGBTQ bills: H.B. 130 would ban LGBTQ+ flags in classrooms and expand the stateâs âDonât say gayâ law to include grades 6-8; H.B. 385 would jail librarians for giving âsexual or gender-oriented materialâ to minors without parental consent. Both bills were approved in the Alabama House of Representatives this week and now head to the stateâs Republican-led upper legislative chamber.
Alabamaâs current âDonât Say Gayâ law says that K-5 classrooms âshall not engage in classroom discussion or provide classroom instruction regarding sexual orientation or gender identity in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.â H.B. 130 would also remove the section âin a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards,â banning LGBTQ+ discussions completely.
The H.B. 130 expansion, which passed the state House on Tuesday, would expand the law to include grades 6-8 and also prohibit âflags symbolizing sexual orientations or gender identitiesâ in all grade school levels.
The billâs sponsor, state Rep. Mack Butler (R), said the bill is necessary to âpurify the schoolsâ of âsome indoctrination going on,â ABC News reported.
â[LGBTQ+ discussions and flags are] a component of Marxism where weâre â you know â destroying the family and teaching some of these things. Let it happen somewhere else other than our schools.â Butler said.
The ACLU of Alabama has spoken against the law, saying that it would silence âinclusiveâ and âessentialâ discussions among students and teachers in classrooms while violating their First Amendment rights to free speech.
On Thursday, the Alabama House also passed H.B. 385, a bill would expand the stateâs definition of âsexual conductâ to include conduct that âknowingly exposes minors to persons who are dressed in sexually revealing, exaggerated, or provocative clothing or costumes, or are stripping, or engaged in lewd and lascivious dancing, presentations, or activities in K-12 public schools, public libraries, and other public places where minors are expected and are known to be present without parental consent.â
The law would place libraries in the same category as âadult-onlyâ stores, movies, and entertainmentâ in order to criminalize librarians who provide âsexual or gender-oriented materialâ to minors without parental consent.
The bill would force school and public librarians to remove any books that other people find âobsceneâ or âharmfulâ to minors ��� though the law doesnât specify who would determine whatâs âobsceneâ or âharmful.â After filing a written objection to the library director or principal, librarians would then have seven days to remove the book from shelves.
Librarians who fail to do so could initially face a misdemeanor criminal charge and a fine of up to $10,000 and a county jail or hard labor sentence of up to one year. If a librarian is convicted of a second or subsequent violation, they could face a class C felony charge punishable by up to 10 years in prison, The Alabama Reflector reported.
State Rep. Neil Rafferty (D) said the law is so broadly written that it could allow a single complaint to result in a warrant being issued for someone who wears an objectionable Halloween costume or sundress.
âI do still have some serious problems with this because I feel like this is a violation of First Amendment, I feel like is easily going to be abused, and we will be dealing with unintended consequences of it,â Rafferty said.
âThis bill is government overreach, robs parents of their rights, and would have a chilling effect on free speech by potentially incarcerating librarians because particular books are available, including even the Bible,â wrote Craig Scott, president of the Alabama Library Association.
Both bills are among several copycat laws across the country that seek to block minors from accessing LGBTQ+ content under the⌠http://dlvr.it/T640R6
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How dating apps have tried to become more trans-inclusive over the years
Transgender actress Patti Harrison recently appeared in a comedic advertisement for the dating app Hingeâs âDesigned to be Deletedâ campaign. In the ad, Harrison plays an angelic receptionist at the Gate of the Afterlife who welcomes deleted Hinge app icons after newly and happily united couples delete the app from their phones.
While the ad is comical, online dating apps continue to provide an uneven experience for trans, nonbinary, and genderfluid users. Most dating websites and smartphone apps didnât initially offer gender descriptions for these users to authentically present themselves to others. Even with expanded gender presentation options, non-cisgender users say that ignorance and transphobia continue to make online dating feel unsafe.
A brief (incomplete) history of LGBTQ+ online dating
The earliest days of LGBTQ+ online dating harken back to the late 80s and early 90s, when gay men used dial-up modems to connect through bulletin board systems (BBSs) like Backroom and Gay.net. Back then, some lesbians also used an e-mail listserv called Sappho and, later, the website lesbian.org, which contained personals, discussion forums, web links for lesbian-oriented non-profits, and even a lesbian literary journal called Sapphic Ink.
In the early to late 90s, web services like Compuserve and America Online (AOL) provided real-time M4M, W4W, and âtransexualâ chatrooms where queer love-seekers could connect, talk dirty, and spend hours uploading and downloading pixelated photographs of themselves via very-slow internet connections.
âI think LGBTQ+ people were always really early adopters to online dating,â Michael Kaye, the one-time director of brand marketing and communications for OkCupid told QSaltLake. âSpeaking from experience, we are limited to the safe spaces that we have available.â
In the 2000s, some popular heterosexual dating sites like eHarmony didnât allow gay and lesbian profiles, leaving queer users to look elsewhere like OkCupid, a personal ad site for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and cis-het people that appeared in 2004. OkCupid helped facilitate LGB dating by including a unique feature: It let users choose only to be visible to other queer folks, reducing the likelihood that gay men or lesbian women would receive messages from a bunch of eager and unwitting heterosexuals.
However, the biggest revolution in online dating occurred in 2009 with the advent of Grindr, one of the first third-party apps for Appleâs iPhone. While the app â and similar ones â facilitated countless quick hook-ups and longer-term relationships, the apps werenât initially inclusive of trans, nonbinary, and gender-fluid users because they offered a limited range of self-identifying gender options and transphobic responses from other cisgender users.
Over time, trans-inclusive apps like Tser appeared. Tser specifically marketed itself as a place where trans people could find community and support, but trans users found that the app still contained transphobia: It categorized cis individuals as âmenâ and âwomen,â invalidating trans women and trans men as not ârealâ women and men. It also used the outdated term âtranssexual.â
Expanding gender options is a good start, but not enough
In 2016, Tindr offered users the option of entering any term that best describes their gender identity for display on their profiles. Grindr and Hinge took similar paths by offering more gender description options â like âtrans man,â âtrans woman,â ânon-binary,â ânon-conformingâ and âqueerâ â in 2017.
In 2023, eHarmony also began offering an expanded list of genders â including options like âagender,â âbigender,â âgenderqueer,â âpangender,â âquestioning,â âtrans masculine/feminine nonbinary,â and âTwo-Spirit.â
The app Bumble also expanded its options to be more inclusive of nonbinary users in 2022, but the appâs âwomen make the first moveâ feature â which was created to reduce creepy unwanted advances from men â didnât allow nonbinary people to message others who identified as women.⌠http://dlvr.it/T63fhH
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