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Blued, one of the biggest gay dating apps in the world, has succeeded because it plays by the ever-shifting rules for L. China — bringing together a minority community without activism. Illustration by Timo Lenzen. By Yi-Ling Liu.

11 Best LGBTQ+ Dating Apps No Matter What You're Looking For

Blued, one of the biggest gay dating apps in the world, has succeeded because it plays by the ever-shifting rules for L. China — bringing together a minority community without activism. Illustration by Timo Lenzen. By Yi-Ling Liu. L ike many gay Chinese growing up at the turn of the millennium, Duan Shuai began his long, deliberate process of coming out online. After school, he would visit the newly opened internet cafe in his hometown, Xinzhou, a small city in Shanxi Province bounded by a veil of mountains.

He would pick a desktop facing away from the wall so that nobody could look over his shoulder. Offline, Duan had known for a long time that he was different — and he knew no one else like him. Even in grade school, while his male classmates talked about girls, he nursed a secret crush on a boy, a gregarious, basketball-playing class monitor.

Online, he stumbled into a world where he finally felt he belonged, a place where gay people like himself sought kinship and connection.

Duan was moved by one scene in particular, in which the businessman brings his lover home for the Chinese New Year to share a customary hotpot meal with his family. He caught a glimpse into a future he never knew existed — a future that was perhaps within his reach too. As Duan came of age, so did the Chinese internet.

Today that number has swelled to more than million, and a vast majority of them are using mobile devices. Whereas Duan once sought out gay communities in small groups and quiet bars, today, as a year-old working in publishing in Beijing, he can join gay meet-ups on WeChat; follow blogs and coming-out stories on Weibo , a Twitter-like platform; and, perhaps most crucial, he can connect and find partners on Blued, a gay social networking app.

There are other options — Grindr operates in China — but Blued is the most popular by far. China is home to an L. But according to a United Nations estimate , less than 5 percent of gay Chinese choose to come out. It is easily among the most popular gay dating apps in the world.

Like WeChat, Blued aspires to be a Swiss Army knife for its users, absorbing features from other apps, like newsfeeds and livestreaming functions — as well as real-world resources like H.

Blued is in a peculiar position: It might be the biggest app of its kind, yet it is also the most precarious. It is a tech company in a society that has been transformed by free-market reforms, but also a gay tech company operating under a one-party government with an ambiguous stance toward L. On one hand, the rise of the Chinese internet, facilitated by the last three decades of market reforms, has allowed for unprecedented connection and visibility for gay communities in China.

Popular Chinese shows with gay story lines were removed from screening sites. One gay-dating app, Zank, was shut down by the government, and a lesbian-dating app, Rela, disappeared shortly after.

By staying within the commercial and public-health sectors and framing the fight for gay recognition in terms of business, the company, under the leadership of its founder and chief executive, Geng Le, has cultivated a minority community free of political activism. The company has cultivated strategic relationships within the government and raised L. Blued and its related services operate under the aegis of Blue City, which is also the name of its two-story headquarters in central Beijing.

Employees have enjoyed classic start-up benefits like free lunch and company beach retreats, some with a queer twist, like a drag performance at the Lunar New Year; company swag has included plush toys of a unicorn with a rainbow horn. Danlan was the bare-bones, browser-based website that Geng created nearly two decades ago. In his darker moments, he would sit by the beach and look out into the waves to calm himself down.

He broke down in tears while reading it because he realized he was not alone. Like the sea — faraway, yet full of possibility — Danlan would be a sanctuary for gay men to express their hopes and fears. Historically, Chinese society has neither recognized nor shunned its queer communities. Chinese religious traditions like Buddhism and Confucianism do not overtly condemn homosexuality, which means that cultural attitudes are more malleable there than in other Asian countries like Indonesia or the Philippines.

Nor was homosexuality considered by authorities to be a decadent Western import; on the contrary, it is widespread and recognized in Chinese history and culture. Still, homosexuality was formally considered a mental illness until But in recent years, the government has neither expressed explicit support for the L. But longstanding Confucian traditions and values — an emphasis on having a respectable marriage, giving birth to sons, saving face and filial piety — remain deeply embedded in the fabric of Chinese society.

This dynamic also means that family is the place where rejection and discrimination occur most frequently, particularly among the older generation. The internet has facilitated these arrangements, with websites like ChinaGayLes. By , the number of internet users in China had grown a hundredfold since Geng founded Danlan. To meet rapidly growing demand, he recruited five other team members, running the website out of a rented apartment and working through the night.

Eventually, he expanded to Beijing, keeping up this double life — shuttling between roles as straight Qinhuangdao cop, happily married and respected by his colleagues, and gay Beijing entrepreneur — until Geng agreed, assuming the video would have a relatively small audience.

Shortly after its release, Geng received a call from his police bureau, demanding he return to his post. His bosses gave him an ultimatum: Shut down the website or quit his job and leave. He handed in his resignation that day, along with the uniform that he had worn since he was He was disgraced — spurned by his colleagues, disapproved of by his parents — and his marriage dissolved.

But he had finally come out. Private enterprises in China must navigate government officialdom without being directly confrontational, operating by a set of rules that are as opaque as they are capriciously applied. An estimated , Chinese would contract H. Today Blued runs H. This alliance with the government gave the company legitimacy in the eyes of the public and prospective investors.

In November , the C. Danlan introduced the Blued app in , a few years before the government introduced a nationwide policy to boost its tech economy.

But according to Wang Shuaishuai, a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam researching digital gay-dating communities in China, this strategy might prove limited. Although social networking apps like Blued have allowed communities to form, they are closed, not public forums where Chinese people can build movements for their political rights.

Blued has a content-moderation team that works around the clock, making sure all content is by the book. Duan Shuai came out to his parents two years ago, at It was Chinese New Year, and his mother was asking, once again, when he would bring a wife home. When he told her the truth, she cried, asking him to leave and never come back. He felt both sad and free — devastated to have disappointed his family but relieved to have finally spoken the words. Center and the local craft-beer brewery Great Leap Brewing.

New laws governing NGOs have limited the ability for L. In , Duan, who volunteers for the organization, erred on the side of caution, keeping the event size small and promoting it only through word of mouth. In contrast to other minority groups, the L.

While same-sex marriage in China remains a distant reality, this was a clear indication that the government was acknowledging the status of an increasingly visible community. But, he added, to push for greater change, they need a critical mass of Chinese to come to their side. Like hundreds of thousands of young Chinese who traveled back for the holidays, he has been cooped up at home since, waiting out the coronavirus.

Duan has been able to spend more time with his family. A lot has changed since he came out to his mother two years ago. Center and even his new boyfriend. Duan told me that young people ask him, in his work at the center, whether they should come out. Published March 5, Updated March 12, Home Page World U.

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There was a time when dating services may have been considered a last resort in the long, arduous hunt for love.

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How a Dating App Helped a Generation of Chinese Come Out of the Closet

Recovery-oriented mental health practice and service delivery recognises and affirms sexuality, sex or gender diversity. Core principles Recovery-oriented practice recognises and affirms diversity in sexuality, sex or gender. Recovery-oriented practice recognises the negative impact of discrimination, stigma and phobia on the wellbeing of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. Recovery-oriented services recognise these populations as high risk and ensure safe and welcoming environments and services free from discrimination. Recovery-oriented services ensure a culturally competent and safe workforce that is knowledgeable and responsive to the lived experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people.

The best dating apps 2020: straight, gay or bi, find love whatever your orientation

Part of HUD's mission is to give every person and family access to a safe, secure and affordable home including ensuring fair and equal access to housing for all Americans, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status. As the Nation's housing agency, it is our responsibility to ensure that every person participating in HUD's programs has equal access to themwithout being arbitrarily excluded. On February 3, , HUD issued the first of three rules focusing on ensuring fair and equal access to housing for all Americans, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, nonconformance with gender stereotypes, or marital status. The first rule, " Equal Access to Housing in HUD Programs Regardless of Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity " required that a determination of eligibility for housing that is assisted by HUD or subject to a mortgage insured by the Federal Housing Administration shall be made in accordance with the eligibility requirements provided for such program by HUD, and such housing shall be made available without regard to actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status. The rule also included a definition for sexual orientation and gender identity, and expanded the definition of family in most of HUD's programs. The Gender Identity Rule ensures that all individuals have equal access to many of the Department's core shelter programs in accordance with their gender identity. Following what had previously been a practice encouraged by HUD, providers that operate single-sex projects using funds awarded through the Office of Community Planning and Development CPD are required by the rule to provide all individuals, including transgender individuals and other individuals who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth, with access to programs, benefits, services, and accommodations in accordance with their gender identity without being subjected to intrusive questioning or being asked to provide documentation. HUD's rule will require a recipient, subrecipient, or provider to establish, amend, or maintain program admissions, occupancy, and operating policies and procedures including policies and procedures to protect individuals' privacy and security , so that equal access is provided to individuals based on their gender identity. This requirement includes tenant selection and admission preferences.

It's also particularly challenging for members of the LGBTQ community, who've traditionally only had access to hetero-based sites and apps.

Gone mostly are the days of chance encounters, with many favoring themselves a more proactive dip in the dating pool. And what do many queer folks turn to in the search for love? The apps, of course. Still, knowing the landscape of possibilities is imperative.

HUD LGBTQ Resources

Grindr comes in both free and subscription-based versions the latter called Grindr Xtra. The app makes use of a mobile device's geolocation , a feature of smartphones and other devices, which allows users to locate other users who are nearby. This is accomplished through a user interface that displays a grid of representative photos of men, arranged from nearest to furthest away. Tapping on a picture will display a brief profile for that user, as well as the option to chat, send pictures, and share one's precise location. Grindr was one of the first gay geosocial apps to launch in the iTunes App Store and has since become the largest and most popular gay mobile app in the world. It is currently available in countries. For its first anniversary on March 25, , Grindr released the app for BlackBerry devices. On March 7, , Grindr launched the app for Android devices. On June 18, , Grindr announced that it had officially hit 4 million registered users in countries across the globe. In August , Grindr released an updated version of the app requiring users to verify their accounts by providing a valid email address. Grindr says this was done to reduce spam and improve portability. Critics argued it stripped the app of its anonymity. On September 30, , Grindr released version 2. The redesigned user interface brought stability improvements, a new automatic scrolling feature, larger grid images, and a unified chat inbox. Grindr also introduced a new profile field called Grindr Tribes, allowing users to identify themselves with a niche group and filter their searches to find their type.

Check out our interactive infographic to see progress toward the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Health objectives and other Healthy People topic areas. Improve the health, safety, and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender LGBT individuals. LGBT individuals encompass all races and ethnicities, religions, and social classes. Sexual orientation and gender identity questions are not asked on most national or State surveys, making it difficult to estimate the number of LGBT individuals and their health needs. Research suggests that LGBT individuals face health disparities linked to societal stigma, discrimination, and denial of their civil and human rights. Discrimination against LGBT persons has been associated with high rates of psychiatric disorders, 1 substance abuse, 2 , 3 and suicide. The LGBT companion document to Healthy People 7 highlighted the need for more research to document, understand, and address the environmental factors that contribute to health disparities in the LGBT community.