Bye Bye Gender Binary: Tinder Adds 23 New Options Apart From Male And Female For Indians

The location-based social-search app, Tinder is now looking beyond traditional gender binary of 'man' and 'woman’. Deccan Herald reports that the online dating app rolled out its ‘more genders’ feature in India, now allowing Indian users to choose from as many as 23 genders.

Tinder had set up an advisory panel for the task which comprised of the Humsafar Trust, India’s oldest LGBTQ community, an LGBTQ author and advocate Paresh Shahani.

The new feature has come at the right time as 'Transgender Awareness Week' began on 12 November.

Tinder says with the new update users can now describe their gender identity. "Users now have the opportunity on the platform to identify as any gender that they believe represents them most authentically," a Tinder official explains.

Earlier, users who identified themselves outside the gender binary or were transgenders or gender neutral could not identify apart from as a ‘man’ or a ‘woman’. However, now they can type any word which defines their gender identity through the ‘edit info’ option on Tinder. Users also have a choice to display their gender on their profiles.

Tinder India's GM, Taru Kapoor, says: "Inclusivity, acceptance and individuality are core values of Tinder”.

Since its launch six years ago, Tinder has turned out to be the highest-grossing Android application in India. It also beats favourite apps like Netflix, Candy Crush and Pandora the Apple Store. Approximately 5 crore users log in every day in 190 countries. Over 2.6 crore people match everyday, of which 2000 crore matches made till date on Tinder.