Woman sues Tinder after they deleted her profile when she said she was trans
A transgender woman is suing Tinder after she alleged that the dating app removed the profile because she is transgender.
Ariel Hawkins, who is from Portland, Oregon, said that her profile was deleted from the app when she listed that she is trans in her bio.
Hours after adding the phrase “camgirl on the side. preop trans woman” to her profile, Hawkins alleges that her profile was removed just hours after she listed the detail, leading her to believe that the app is targeting trans people.
“I wanted to just find love like everybody else,” said Hawkins.
“I’m just looking to date. I was trying to find a boyfriend.”
The Tinder user filed a case against the dating app this morning in Multnomah County Circuit Court in Portland asking for a court order “prohibiting Tinder to continue discriminating against non-cisgender Oregon users.
“I don’t think the company understands trans people and they don’t appreciate how we may represent ourselves,” added Hawkins.
“I’ve never had this happen with another dating app before.
“Every dating app I’ve ever used or signed up for, I’ve always tried to disclose [my transgender identity] and be upfront with that because I don’t want to run into any harmful situations.”
This is not the first time Tinder has been accused of removing trans people from its service.
Twitter user Tahlia Rene also said that she had been deleted for violating the app’s community guidelines in December 2017.
“So @Tinder got back to me and the best they can say is I broke their community guidelines “in some way” but we all know this is because of men mass reporting me for being trans. I would appreciate as many people as possible quote tweeting this and mentioning them,” wrote the public health student.
However, according to a recent tweet by the user it appears that she has been allowed back on the app.
“While we do not comment on pending litigation, we can say, categorically, that we do not ban users from Tinder due to gender identity,” said a spokesperson for Tinder.
“At Tinder, we fundamentally believe that gender is not binary and we support inclusivity and acceptance of all people, which is why we offer more than 37 gender identity options for our users in the United States.”