Tinder Will Warn LGBTQ Users When they Visit Anti-LGBTQ Countries

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The world is a different place for LGBTQ people. A fact that, I have found, straight and cisgender people often find surprising. In the United States alone, you can still be fired or kicked out of your home in nearly 30 states. The “gay panic” defense can still be used as an excuse for assault or murder of LGBTQ people, usually transgender women. Conversion therapy, which amounts to psychological and sometimes physical torture, resulting in a suicide rate nearly 9 times higher than average, is still legal in many U.S. states. However, we are still allowed to love freely. I cannot be arrested for being a lesbian, although police prejudice has lead to it before. Trans women and lesbians, especially, are often targets of unjust police involvement.

Things in the United States are also getting worse. Trans children may not be allowed to use their bathrooms at school. LGBTQ immigrants may find their marriages invalidated or ignored. Same-sex couples may struggle to adopt or even conceive. The president has even tried to push to allow direct anti-LGBTQ discrimination. The Trump administration and Republicans have worked tirelessly to make life more difficult for LGBTQ people. But in the United States, you cannot be arrested just for being LGBTQ.

Not all countries are like this. If you get caught in Saudi Arabia, you could be killed. The same goes for Chechnya. In Russia, kissing in public or even just holding hands could land you in prison. In Jamaica, especially if you’re a woman, you could be raped. If you’re a man, you could be arrested and assaulted. The same goes for many countries around the world, from Egypt to Nigeria, China to Saudi Arabia. There are 74 countries around the world that make LGBTQ relationships illegal.

Tinder wants to protect you in them.

Dangers of Traveling While LGBTQ

In 13 countries (as of 2016), gay acts were punishable by death. In the other 61 countries where being gay is illegal, the sentences range from torture, chemical castration, whipping, hard labor, and indefinite incarceration. Thinking of traveling to Egypt on your honeymoon? I hope you’re straight. Being gay in the country could land you in jail for up to 17 years. Business trip to Saudi Arabia? Better let your straight colleague go, you could be fined, whipped in public, beaten, tortured, and spend a lifetime in prison. You can even be killed there.

The map of the world looks different to LGBTQ people. There are countries where it’s illegal to publicly show affection to someone of the same sex. There are countries that will kill you for being gay. Others have widespread “corrective rape,” where they rape, often in groups, LGBTQ people. That’s popular in Jamaica, where many people like to vacation. The world is still largely unfriendly towards LGBTQ people. Even in countries like the United States, nearly half of people vote for anti-LGBTQ politicians, and as many as 26% of people don’t even believe LGBTQ people should have equal rights. This is in a “friendly” nation.

In Russia, Saudi Arabia, and many other anti-LGBTQ countries, people will use dating profiles to stalk, attack, rape, and kill LGBTQ people. Police also use these profiles to arrest people, deport travelers, or otherwise harass them. Trying to find love could land you in the morgue or prison.

Tinder’s New Feature

Tinder’s new feature will warn users and offer to automatically hide their profile when they arrive in an anti-LGBTQ country. They’ll also warn people not to go out with people they may meet through the app, as it could be a trap. The new feature is one of many Tinder includes for LGBTQ people, including the ability to hide your profile from straight people, to only see your preferred gender or genders, and to report predatory straight couples looking for a female partner. Tinder has become popular among LGBTQ people, even more than apps specifically targeting LGBTQ people, like Grindr or Her.

In a perfect world, we wouldn’t need anything like this. In fact, in a only halfway decent and kind of not shitty world, we wouldn’t need warnings like this. Unfortunately, the world is a dumpster fire of prejudice, bigotry, and hate. At least Tinder has our backs.

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Source: Ashley Carman, The Verge