Recently, we received an email with some constructive feedback from a kind user who was LGBT. She expressed concerns about the queer friendliness of our app. 

We’re a really different kind of dating app and there are many things we do that are not orthodox. For example, we monetize on travel bookings (suspended due to covid and Apple). We charge a small entrance fee to keep our community safe from bots and scammers. We humanize online dating by limiting your active matches to 12. We encourage you to explore the world by recommending places and adventures for you and your match to discover together. We are also a friendship-making app.

Some have called Fairytrail the most wholesome dating app ever. 

But how are we supporting LGBT and gender fluidity? 

Non-binary Genders

Non-binary is used to describe people who feel their gender cannot be defined within the margins of gender binary. They understand their gender in a way that goes beyond simply identifying as either a man or woman. 

On Fairytrail, you can only choose man or woman at the moment. The reason is all users who use Fairytrail must choose a character. Choosing a character ties to a core Fairytrail mission to make dating less superficial. We want to capture and elevate personality in online dating.

It’s impossible to delineate a person who has needs, values, views, traits, preferences, and temperaments (often which are changing) in just an online profile. Even dating for six weeks can only reveal so much.

That’s why most people are so focused on looks because photos can depict it so well. (We made a video about it.) 

That said, we are doing better than most dating apps when it comes to making online dating less superficial. We leverage these characters to give insights into someone’s personality and identity.

All characters are mapped to MBTI and Enneagram types. If you don’t know anything about personality MBTI, these archetypes can still give you cues on people’s personality and identity. 

We haven’t quite cracked how to do this with fairytale characters yet, and as a startup, we have limited Product, Design, and Engineering resources to tackle this. If this is an area you feel passionate about, please do reach out to us at team@fairytrail.app.

Any help would greatly be appreciated! For example, which characters should we use? What should be the search mapping? Would you be okay with your sexual preferences displayed on your profile?

Alternatively, it would be super fun to create just a non-binary or LGBT version of Fairytrail. We’ve also gotten many requests for us to make a friends only version and a couples version. There are so many traveling couples! Sadly, we haven’t had the resources to work on those either. 

LGBT

LGBT describe people’s sexual orientation or gender identity. LGBT includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.

U.S. adults estimate that nearly one in four Americans (23.6%) are gay or lesbian, and the latest 2021 study find an estimated 5.6% of adults in the United States identify as LGBT.

Historically on most dating apps, they ask you what’s your sexual orientation. 

On Fairytrail, LGBT sexual preferences are supported behind the scenes. 

No need to tell us your sexual orientation. We can easily infer this based on your search preferences and only show you someone who might like you back. For example, if you’re a homosexual female, you would be seen only by homosexual and bisexual females.

We try to save people’s time, so try to optimize where we can and don’t like explicitly asking for things we can infer. 

So we fully support LGBT and if you have suggestions for improving our LGBT friendliness or want to help, please get in touch with us! We’re always looking to improve.

That said, I do recognize there is a liquidity problem for the LGBT user segment. Some of our few 1-star reviews are regarding not getting enough matches as a queer person. We are working hard to grow awareness for Fairytrail. As we get more awareness and users, the smaller 5% LGBT segment will get more matches.

Help us grow and we will win together.