Everybody knows that dating can be hard. And when you’re LGBTQIA+ there are additional barriers that make finding the one (or two, or three… depending on your preferences) that much harder.
In fact, according to dating app Hinge, 80% of their LGBTQIA+ users struggle to find resources to help them date so that they can build healthy and meaningful connections.
Part of the issue is that queer people just don’t have the resources available that our cisgender heterosexual counterparts do, be that dating advice or positive representations of queer relationships in the media. A lot of the major dating apps can also sometimes feel exclusionary, the nuances of LGBTQIA+ identities not always taken into consideration.
Thankfully, Hinge wants to help the queer community navigate the world of dating more successfully. This month, they launched a new resource in the app that aims to answer LGBTQIA+ people’s dating queries and questions: NFAQ (Not-so Frequently Asked Questions).
NFAQ will offer up informed and knowledgeable perspectives about the burning questions that all queer daters need answers to. Curious daters and anyone with any pressing questions will be able to find NFAQ in the Hinge app, as well as at hinge.nfaq.co.
In order to ensure the NFAQ is credible and useful, Hinge has tapped a number of influential and knowledgeable figures from the LGBTQIA+ community, including Vacancy Project founder Masami Hosono, former magazine editor Phillip Picardi, licensed social worker and therapist Shahem McLaurin, writer, actor and filmmaker Tara Raani, author of Be Not Afraid of Love, Mimi Zhu, and emergency medicine physician Dr. Darien Sutton.
Questions being answered include the best way to approach dating when you’re demisexual and how to talk about your faith while dating.
For example, responding to a question about how to start dating if someone is not ready to come out, Tara Raani (they/she/he) had this advice: “Having a partner and not being out has been an exercise in communicating boundaries. My partner is totally okay with me not being out to my family and not introducing her to my family at this moment because she understands the relationship I have with them and how I’d like to grow with them before coming out.”
Mimi Zhu (they/them), meanwhile, brings their experience to the question of how an individual may feel better affirmed in their gender in the early stages of dating.
“Total transparency in the early stages of dating has allowed me to feel affirmed in my gender and its many dimensions,” they shared. “My pronouns are they/them, and I’ve had to exercise the muscle that asks me to be transparent from the very start with my lovers.”
For Hinge, it’s important that NFAQ creates a dialogue with queer daters. In order to make this happen, Hinge has teamed up with GAY TIMES so that LGBTQIA+ people can submit their own dating questions.
Naturally, we couldn’t do it alone, so we’ve teamed up with Hinge’s new Love and Connection Expert, Moe Ari Brown, to help. Moe is always comfortable discussing their identity as a transgender masculine person, and as a licensed marriage and family therapist who works with LGBTQIA+ individuals and families, they have loads of experience to bring to the table. Whether that’s helping with questions about LGBTQIA+ identities, dating and mental health, or simply building the foundations for a healthy relationship, Moe is an expert.
“For LGBTQIA+ people, our experiences are so unique that the typical answers to dating questions don’t meet our needs. NFAQ is a transformative resource that will support queer daters with creating and maintaining authentic relationships,” Moe says. “NFAQ is making the necessary space to not only answer LGBTQIA+ folks’ burning questions but to also cultivate an atmosphere of celebration and inclusivity on Hinge and beyond our app.”
As you may have noticed, in the last week over on GAY TIMES’s Instagram account, we’ve been asking you about your dating questions, queries and concerns. We’ll be putting these to Moe, who will be answering the most important and recurring questions in an insightful video series.
Hinge believes that anyone looking for love should be able to find it – being LGBTQIA+ shouldn’t be a barrier when building healthy connections. By beginning a dialogue with queer people, GAY TIMES and Hinge want to see a world where all queer people thrive. As the great Christina Aguilera once sang, “Let there be love.”
For more NFAQ, visit hinge.nfaq.co.
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