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Bumble introduces a healthy queer dating guide to encourage kindness and inclusivity
Mumbai: Bumble, the women-first dating app, launched a one-of-a-kind Healthy Queer Dating Guide, developed in partnership with Social Media Matters, and supported by Rangeen Khidki, Sappho for Equality, Official Humans of Queer, in consultation with equal rights activists Harish Iyer and Manak Matiyani, aims to promote kindness and encourage an inclusive dating experience on the app and beyond.
Bumble is founded on respect and accountability and aims to build a space for everyone to authentically connect and express themselves. Bumble’s State of the Nation 2023 Report* found that 69% of LGBTQ+ respondents compared to 56 per cent of heterosexual or straight daters say being nervous talking to new people created friction for them when dating. 40 per cent of LGBTQ+ respondents compared to 30 per cent of heterosexual or straight daters said not feeling confident being themselves on dates created friction for them when dating someone.
Recognising the unique complexities faced by LGBTQ+ daters, Bumble’s Healthy Queer Dating Guide covers a wide range of topics, including navigating first dates, the journey to second dates, kindness in conversations, how to approach dating when prioritising one’s emotional needs and so on, and aims to create a kinder and more inclusive online dating environment.
“As a company rooted in kindness, respect, and online accountability, we aim to foster a diverse and inclusive community on Bumble where everyone can authentically express themselves. We are thrilled to partner with experts, thought leaders and organisations in India, who do such important work for LGBTQ+ communities, to develop this healthy queer dating guide. Our shared goal is to empower and enhance dating experiences for LGBTQ+ daters in India and hopes to contribute to creating a kinder and more inclusive future for online dating” shared Bumble India communications director Samarpita Samaddar.
Social Media Matters CEO Pratishtha Arora said, “The healthy queer dating guide is an initiative to celebrate the vibrant diversity of relationships, empower connections, and help individuals navigate the dating space more confidently. We would like to thank Bumble for building the guide, created to help individuals in the journey of inclusivity, compassion, and self-discovery as we navigate the path to meaningful connections.”
Bumble has introduced features and policies to help make the app a kind, respectful and inclusive space. This includes Incognito mode, which lets you have more control over who can see your profile while swiping, taking a stance against identity-based hate, moderating for harassment, fetishization, homophobic and body-shaming language, and more. Private Detector and Photo Verification, as well as the ability to Unmatch or Block and Report within the app, are long-standing safety features within Bumble’s robust safety tools to encourage their community to have a safer and healthier dating experience. On the Bumble app, people can expand upon their gender identities and sexual orientations, enabling them to better express themselves in a way that best reflects who they are, with options such as “trans woman,” “intersex man,” “genderfluid,” and more. This can be changed at any time, as many times as the person would like. People can also choose to share their gender identity and pronouns directly on their profile. Bumble worked closely in collaboration with GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) to help ensure that Bumble is thoughtfully serving the needs of its diverse communities.
Bumble has updated the member experience for matches with nonbinary people, where either person can make the first move on Bumble Date. Women will continue to make the first move in matches with men and, in matches between people of the same gender, either person can make the first move.
People can also easily access the Safety + Wellbeing Centre resource hub within the app built to help our community have a safe and healthy dating experience.
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Leonid Radvinsky, the man who made OnlyFans a $5.5bn empire, dies at 43
The Ukrainian-American entrepreneur transformed a niche subscription site into a $5.5bn cultural force, then kept almost entirely out of sight
LONDON: He owned one of the most talked-about platforms on the internet and almost nobody knew his name. Leonid Radvinsky, the billionaire majority owner of OnlyFans, died on Monday after a prolonged battle with cancer. He was 43. The London-based company confirmed his death in a statement, saying he had “passed away peacefully.” His family has requested privacy.
Radvinsky was not OnlyFans’ founder. That distinction belongs to British entrepreneur Tim Stokely, who launched the subscription platform in 2016. But it was Radvinsky who turned it into a money machine. In 2018 he acquired Fenix International Ltd, OnlyFans’ parent company, becoming its director and majority shareholder. What he inherited was a modest content platform. What he left behind was a global phenomenon, valued at roughly $5.5bn including debt, according to a Reuters report in January citing talks with investment firm Architect Capital over a potential majority stake sale.
Born in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, Radvinsky moved to Chicago as a child and most recently lived in Florida. Long before OnlyFans, he had built businesses in the adult internet sector, including the live cam site MyFreeCams, and founded a venture capital firm focused on technology in 2009. He knew the terrain.
His masterstroke was timing, or rather, recognising what the pandemic would do. When Covid-19 lockdowns drove millions of people indoors and online in 2020, OnlyFans was ready. Creators poured onto the platform. Subscribers followed. The model, which allowed creators to charge users directly for content, much of it adult-oriented, became a template for the broader creator economy. OnlyFans did not merely survive the pandemic; it became one of its defining commercial stories.
Despite presiding over all of this, Radvinsky maintained a near-total public silence. He rarely gave interviews. His illness was never disclosed. OnlyFans said he had supported several philanthropic projects, including donations to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, open-source initiatives and the West Suburban Humane Society. A Wall Street Journal report noted that he and his wife supported a $23m grant programme for cancer research through a gastrointestinal research foundation in 2024, a detail that now carries a particular weight.
His death lands at an uncomfortable moment for the platform he shaped. OnlyFans faces growing scrutiny from regulators and policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic, even as it continues to redefine how content creators make money online. The sale talks with Architect Capital add another layer of uncertainty. Radvinsky built something vast, then quietly stepped back from view. The question now is who steers it next, and whether anyone can do so with quite the same invisible grip.
