Out of support for the ongoing national protests in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police last week and in an effort to draw attention to the Black Lives Matter movement at large, Grindr wants to do its part to make the country less racially segregated by making our dating lives less racially segregated. In a statement released Monday afternoon, the popular gay dating app announced its decision to remove users’ ability to filter out their matches via ethnicity, a change that will take effect after Grindr’s next update is released.
“We stand in solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the hundreds of thousands of queer people of color who log in to our app every day,†the dating app said in a statement. “We will not be silent, and we will not be inactive. Today we are making donations to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute and Black Lives Matter, and urge you to do the same if you can. We will continue to fight racism on Grindr, both through dialogue with our community and a zero-tolerance policy for racism and hate speech on our platform. As a part of this commitment, and based on your feedback, we have decided to remove the ethnicity filter from our next release.†Tweeted the brand, “We will not be be silent. Black Lives Matter.â€