Navigating STI Disclosure: The Impact of Dating Apps and Filters
If you’ve followed me on Instagram for some time, you’re familiar with my positions on public disclosure, posting an STI status in one’s dating bio, and STI-exclusive apps.
1. Public disclosure isn’t for everyone, nor is it a requirement to reduce stigma or heal.
2. While I support those who publicize their STI diagnoses in their dating profiles, the following discussions come into play: I) this is a form of public disclosure, II) issues of safety, as with anything online, it can be screenshot and shared, and III) many folks post “HSV” in their profiles when other users have no idea what it means (lack of sex education). Thus, because these folks “disclose” they take interactions as a form of acceptance without clarifying or confirming what that means. Or their potential partners’ status for that matter.
3. STI-exclusive dating apps further perpetuate stigma. Period. Exclamation point. End of story.
You can read my posts dedicated to further explanations of the above. With that said, STI filters on dating apps would function in a similar manner. The world is not equipped for these filters, and I think their function as whole does not fulfill its original intentions.
Filters provide an opportunity for someone to reject users with STIs without getting a chance to know them. Arguably, this is a focus of all filters (ex: smoker, drinker, wants kids, height, etc.) but with the lack of education around STIs, as well as how society upholds the value of being without an STI, this is a recipe for potential degradation, rejection, cyber-bullying, and the like. Users see someone as and for their STI status, rather than who they are as a person.
I believe that dating applications like @tinder @hinge @bumble and others should focus more on educating their users on dating, sex, and relationships—including communication about desires, rejection, STI screening results, and how to navigate safer sex in STI serodiscordant relationships.
So, @tinder @bumble and @hinge, please reach out to me if you’d like to make your platforms a more communicative, inclusive environment for safer, more pleasurable sex.