Grindr is removing all color lines … it’s scrapping its controversial ethnicity filter, and also pledging to fight racism alongside the Black Lives Matter movement.
The popular gay dating app made the long-awaited move while announcing its support Monday for #BLM and “the hundreds of thousands of queer people of color who log in to our app every day.”
Grindr says it will not stay silent or inactive in the fight for equality, and pledged donations to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute and #BLM, while encouraging others to do the same.
The company says it will fight racism on the app through dialogue with the community and a zero-tolerance policy for racism and hate speech. It says that commitment, combined with feedback from users, is why Grindr decided to ditch the ethnicity filter from future updates.
Grindr currently allows users to pay to avoid matching with people of certain ethnicities, while also filtering potential matches by age, height and weight.
The ethnicity filters have been a controversial feature for years, and had even remained after Grindr launched an anti-racism crusade back in 2018.