Results of a dating app’s inclusive survey

Since last year, users have actively added their responses to the app’s questions.

For representational purposes

Everyone has the right to find love and dating apps are one way to find that person. But how inclusive are these apps? With the Indian market blooming with dating apps, OkCupid has taken a step towards making the dating platform more inclusive by adding nontraditional profile options for users to express their gender identity and sexuality — asexual, genderfluid, pansexual, sapiosexual, and transgender categories. Currently, the app includes 13 sexual orientations and 22 gender identities to help every person present their truest self in the quest for a meaningful match.

Since last year, users have actively added their responses to the app’s questions. Even more interesting are the responses by over 200,000 respondents (single Indians) on the LGBTQ issues.According to the survey, 68 per cent men and 90 per cent women say that they care a lot about LGBTQ+ issues. “Our data also states that 55 per cent of Indian men and 82 per cent of Indian women believe that gay marriage should be legalised in the country.

The data indicated that women express greater empathy towards the community,” shares Melissa Hobley, CMO, OkCupid. Ask her why women are more close to the cause, and she remarks, “Research studies in general have found that women rank higher on emotional empathy than men. Might be the result of their nurturing instinct. Then, the traditional and repressed role of women in our society is undergoing a change. Urbanisation and feminism have empowered women today, making them more informed and confident to stand up for what they feel is right, especially in support of other marginalised communities.”

Hobley says the data simply reflects what singles on OkCupid in India feel about the world around them. “A very interesting finding we came across through this survey was that the community believes that it is time for the next step in the discourse which is to legalise gay marriages in the country after Supreme Court’s decision last year to scrap Section 377, with 55 per cent of men and 82 per cent of women agreeing to it.”

Sexual orientations on OkCupid
The 13 orientations available on the app are asexual, bisexual, demisexual, gay, homoflexible, heteroflexible, lesbian, pansexual, queer, questioning, sapiosexual and straight. There’s also a option that lets users fill in the orientation identity they most identify outside the list provided. The 22 gender options available are agender, androgynous, bigender, cis man, cis woman, genderfluid, genderqueer, gender nonconforming, hijra, intersex, man, pon-binary, angender, transfeminine, transgender, trans Man, transmasculine, transsexual, trans woman, two Spirit, woman. There’s also a option that lets users fill in the gender identity they relate with.