OkCupid Might Soon Be On The Receiving End Of A Boycott

It wasn't long ago that OkCupid urged users to boycott Firefox over its new (and since ousted) CEO’s donation to California's Prop. 8 campaign against gay marriage. But these days, “OkCupid” and “boycott” are appearing in the same headlines for entirely different reasons. This time, OkCupid is on the receiving end of the outrage.

It all started when it was revealed that OkCupid’s CEO donated money to a candidate with an iffy record on gay rights. Then Match.com, also owned by OkCupid’s parent company IAC, hit the news for its less-than-stellar policy towards bisexuals. Now OkCupid is in the spotlight again, this time over its limited gender and sexuality options.

Currently, users may only choose to identify as male or female for gender options, and as straight, gay, or bi for sexuality. The options are limiting for trans* and gender-non-conforming singles who may be forced to mislabel themselves if they want to use OkCupid. The site’s algorithm may then also incorrectly pair them with partners.

On May 2, activist Ryley Pogensky asked queer users and allies to replace their OkCupid profile pictures with a black box, and then to either log out or delete their profiles for 24 hours. He also created a Change.org petition, which has over 1200 signatures and counting.

“With such a strong presence of queer, trans*, and poly folks utilizing OkCupid every day,” reads the petition, “it is extremely limiting on those members to have to fit such rigid gender and sexuality options. Trans* individuals for instance are forced to choose M or F and then Gay, Bisexual, or Straight. These binaries do not fit for all of us and you will see more often than not a paragraph (or more) in these profiles devoted to trying to explain who they are and questioning why OkCupid has yet to catch on. The time has come for OkCupid to take notice of all of its members.”

OkCupid initially responded positively, saying that the changes would "involve a lot of reworking of the site, because we built it in a pretty binary way," but that they "absolutely want to add more gender and orientation options in the future." That was a year ago and no changes have been made, but Pogensky remains hopeful.

"I have made friends around the world using OkCupid and utilize it heavily," Pogensky told Huffington Post. "They are clearly the most capable and willing of all of the dating sites to make a change like this. Staying progressive means that you fight and stand up for multiple minorities, not just the ones that will make you popular to investors."