Lesbian Dating App to Use Facial Recognition to Exclude Trans Women
A dating app for lesbians will use facial recognition technology to exclude trans women from signing-up.
The app, L’App, has been created by gender-critical campaigner Jenny Watson and will scan a prospective user’s face via their smartphone, allegedly being able to detect if a woman is cis or trans with 99 per cent accuracy.
32-year-old town planner Watson told the The Mail on Sunday that there are “no female-only dating apps at the moment” and “lesbians need an app which they can use without being messaged by trans-identifying males”.
Research by PinkNews previously found most top dating apps, such as Tinder, OkCupid, Hinge and Grindr, are all trans inclusive and have zero-tolerance policies when it comes to transphobia on their platforms.
Most dating apps have trans-inclusive policies. (Getty)
Watson claims the technology analyses facial features such as bone structure and the positioning of a person’s eyes, eyebrows and nose and is also able to detect if someone is holding up an image of a woman to the camera by noting physical movements, blinking and heat emissions.
“Any time I’ve joined a lesbian dating app or any other dating app myself, I get banned,” Watson said.
“To avoid trans-identified males, I will always write a little blurb, nothing disrespectful, saying my preference is for women and please respect my boundaries.
“And every time I do that I get banned. On one app I was asked to put down my most controversial opinion, so I wrote that JK Rowling was right and was banned for that. It’s insane.”
Trans-inclusive lesbian apps have faced backlash
Last year, HER – the world’s largest sapphic dating app for lesbian, bisexual and queer people – faced conservative vitriol for welcoming trans and non-binary people.
The pile-on HER faced resulted in its X/Twitter account being temporarily suspended on Lesbian Visibility Day (26 April), after people reported it en masse.
As well as this, so-called gender critical male activists even took to creating their own accounts on HER in a bid to “catch out” trans women using it to find love – only to end up exposing one another instead.
In response, the team at HER doubled down on their policies and came out swinging for trans inclusion by sending a push notification to the app’s 10 million users and telling transphobes to delete it from their phones.
Robyn Exton, HER’s founder and chief executive, told PinkNews at the time said the response was “absurd” because the app had been inclusive of trans people since it was launched in 2015.
The CEO said she and the team were “sick” at the “aggression and violence” aimed at their app and users by so-called gender critical activists, when “all trans women want to do on our app is meet someone to fall in love with”.
The post Lesbian app to ‘use facial recognition technology’ to identify and exclude trans users appeared first on PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news.
Source – PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news
A new dating app for lesbians, L’App, created by gender-critical activist Jenny Watson, will employ facial recognition technology to exclude trans women. The app will scan a prospective user’s face via their smartphone, claiming to detect whether a woman is cisgender or transgender with 99% accuracy.
Jenny Watson, a 32-year-old town planner, explained to The Mail on Sunday that there are currently no female-only dating apps, and that lesbians need a platform where they won’t receive messages from trans-identifying males.
Research by PinkNews has previously found that most major dating apps, including Tinder, OkCupid, Hinge, and Grindr, are trans-inclusive and maintain zero-tolerance policies towards transphobia.
Watson asserts that the technology analyzes facial features such as bone structure and the positioning of the eyes, eyebrows, and nose. It can also detect if someone is holding up an image of a woman to the camera by analyzing physical movements, blinking, and heat emissions.
“Every time I join a lesbian dating app or any other dating app, I get banned,” Watson said. “To avoid trans-identified males, I always write a brief, respectful note stating my preference for women and asking to respect my boundaries. And every time I do that, I get banned. On one app, I was asked to state my most controversial opinion, so I wrote that JK Rowling was right, and I was banned for that. It’s insane.”
Trans-Inclusive Lesbian Apps Face Backlash
Last year, HER, the world’s largest sapphic dating app for lesbian, bisexual, and queer people, faced significant backlash for welcoming trans and non-binary individuals. This backlash led to HER’s Twitter account being temporarily suspended on Lesbian Visibility Day (26 April) after a mass reporting campaign.
Additionally, gender-critical male activists created accounts on HER to “catch out” trans women using the app to find love, but ended up exposing one another instead.
In response, HER reinforced its inclusive policies, sending a push notification to its 10 million users and advising transphobes to delete the app. Robyn Exton, HER’s founder and CEO, told PinkNews that the backlash was absurd, emphasizing that HER has been inclusive of trans people since its launch in 2015.
The CEO expressed frustration at the aggression and violence directed at their app and users by gender-critical activists, noting that all trans women want to do on their app is meet someone to fall in love with.
The post “Lesbian App to Use Facial Recognition Technology to Identify and Exclude Trans Users” first appeared on PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news.
Source – PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news
