Grindr announced Monday afternoon that it would be removing the ethnicity filter within the app. The decision follows years of controversy around their premium filters, which allow paying users to sort profiles via weight, height, body type, ethnicity, and other identifiers.
Criticism of Grindr escalated on Friday after the app shared a since-deleted Tweet linking to a Black Lives Matter resource page with the words “DEMAND JUSTICE. #BlackLivesMatter.” Twitter users began replying to the post, calling for Grindr to remove their ethnicity filter if they were truly in solidarity with anti-racist efforts. While Grindr deleted their original tweet on Monday afternoon, many of the replies are still viewable.
Users also questioned the gay dating app Monday morning for offering their premium filters for free as part of their “Pride Perseveres” campaign. Any user will still be able to take advantage of the “Happy Hour” promotion in order to “kick off Pride” on Monday evening, according to an in-app message.
“We stand in solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the hundred of thousands of queer people of color who log in to our app every day,” Grindr wrote in their new statement Monday. “We will continue to fight racism, both through dialogue with our community and a zero-tolerance policy for racism and hate speech on our platform. As part of this commitment, and based on your feedback, we have decided to remove the ethnicity filter from our next release.”
The app also mentioned that it is making donations to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute and Black Lives Matter today. See the full statement below.
Grindr has long faced criticism in regards to its race-based filter specifically, with some arguing that it promotes racist behavior on the app. Grindr’s former head of communications, Landen Zumwalt, told The Guardian back in 2018 that the app had considered getting rid of the feature, but was hesitant. “While I believe the ethnicity filter does promote racist behaviour in the app, other minority groups use the filter because they want to quickly find other members of their minority community,” he said at the time.
It’s unclear when Grindr’s “next release” without the ethnicity filters will arrive. them. has reached out to representatives for Grindr for further clarification.
More great stories from them.
Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for our weekly newsletter here.
