March 31st is Trans Day of Visibility. In the Bloom community, over 16% of our members identify as trans and/or non-binary*. Trans inclusion is important to us at Bloom. Below are a few of the intentional decisions we have made to try to make our community more welcoming and inclusive to trans people, and by extension, all people. There is always more we can do - this is just our start. We welcome any feedback for how we could be doing more. 1 - When we designed the Bloom app, we wanted to make sure that our trans and non-binary members would be shown to the people they wanted to be shown to. Our trans and non-binary members have the option to select if they'd like to show up to people looking for men and/or women in addition to people looking for trans and non-binary folks. As an example, a trans man might want to be seen by people looking for non-binary people and men. As a result of this feature, over 30% of our non-binary members have gotten more “Buds.” Additionally, 15% of men and women became “Buds” with non-binary people they would not have otherwise seen. Our goal was to ensure that trans and non-binary people never missed connections because people did not know what to look for. 2 - When we created the list of options for gender identity, we combined the lists from four apps in order to have the most inclusive list possible, which includes 100 gender identities. 3 - We chose to make a write-in pronoun field part of our onboarding process and feature them prominently on people's profiles. 4 - Our Community Values specifically call out respecting the identities of people in our community. Repeatedly misgendering people, making transphobic comments, etc. will result in removal from Bloom. I want to say a special thank you to our trans and non-binary members for trusting us and for sharing your honest feedback. Please keep the feedback coming! - Luna Ray *A note on the term non-binary: these terms are ever-evolving and there is no universal consensus on exact definitions. Upon consulting members of the community, we are using non-binary as both a gender identity and an umbrella term for many different gender identities that are non-cis. We want to acknowledge that the trans and non-binary community is not a monolith and some people's preferences may conflict. We welcome and encourage your feedback and will do the best we can to help everyone feel included and welcome. Engage in Bloom
Menu