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In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement earlier this year, gay dating app Grindr announced it would be removing its ethnicity filter. However, gay Australians of colour say racism runs much deeper than just the filter.

Gene Lim is doing a PhD at Monash University on the impact of what experts call 'sexual racism' against Asian men.

He is also a gay Asian man, and says he’s experienced it firsthand.

"The first thing you start realising is that a lot of people don't find Asians attractive, and it directly affects your self esteem," he said.

In Gene’s research, Grindr participants said the racism they experienced affected their mental health and sense of belonging.

"There are a lot of times when people like myself, we just don't feel like we should be there," Gene said.

"Your white friends are hooking up left, right and centre. And you're the only one in your friendship group who hasn't had a date or even a hookup in months."

No race filter, but still racist attitudes

Grindr announced in June it would be removing its ethnicity filter, which allowed users to screen out people from certain backgrounds - something criticised for emboldening users to express their racism.

Grindr’s community guidelines also explicitly ban racial abuse and discrimination.

"We will also remove any discriminatory statements displayed on profiles," the guidelines state.

"You're free to express your preferences, but we'd rather hear about what you're into, not what you aren't. If you see someone breaking the rules, please report them... and we'll take it from there."

However, Gene says it can still be difficult to get the app to take action.

"I know of instances where after someone has been reported for racism or even other offences, they face zero consequences whatsoever," he said.

"Grindr is not ever incentivised to crack down on these individuals. They only take immediate action against people trying to use their platform to advertise paid services."

Gene believes Grindr should use its position in the gay community to lead the conversation about anti-racism. It previously ran a campaign about inclusion that Gene said shouldn’t be a one-off.

"Grindr had the Kindr campaign in 2018, which sparked some really good conversations, but then they just stopped it abruptly."

'Sexual racism' not preferences

Often people say their bias against certain races is simply a 'preference' and a personal matter of what they find attractive in a sexual partner. This is what’s known as sexual racism.

Bronwyn Carlson is a Professor of Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University who researches how Indigenous Australians use social media and other digital technologies, including dating apps.

"This comes down to this idea of desire. But that's not something that sits outside of the society in which we live," Professor Carlson said.

Professor Carlson said dating apps amplify these issues that exist in society because they’re set up to judge people based on appearances.

"The way in which those platforms operate, it is about discriminating against particular groups, and everyone knows it."

She said dating apps like Grindr could do more to address racism on their platform.

"I don't think dating apps take this seriously… and I guess there's really no money in taking it seriously," she said.

She also highlighted issues with Grindr and other dating apps being based overseas and not having a local complaints or moderation team, which means the local understanding of racism is lost.

"Who takes care of this stuff is offshore. So they look at what is racism in their own country and context," she said.

"I started thinking that I'd never be able to find a partner"

Indian-Australian man Prashant stopped using Grindr because of his experiences with sexual racism, which started as soon as he logged on for the first time.

"I was expecting people to be inclusive people to be respectful of each other. But... several of [the profiles] had statements like, ‘No Indians, no Asians, whites only.'"

This kind of explicit racism has since been banned on Grindr, but Prashant says there are also more subtle forms of racism that are harder to police.

Prashant said people would usually ignore his messages and not respond, but one interaction left no doubt in his mind that it was about his race. He was chatting with a man who said he was a pilot.

"We had a nice conversation for the first few days. And then when I told him that I was Indian, he stopped and he said, 'Oh, you're Indian? You don't look Indian in your photo,'" Prashant recalled.

When Prashant confirmed he was Indian, he got a short response.

"He just replied, 'Oh, I wish I would have known.' And that was the last thing that I heard from him."

He stopped using Grindr several years ago and told Hack he’s still affected by the experience.

"It scared me to the extent that I started thinking that I'd never be able to find a partner. I still do.

In his research, Monash University’s Gene Lim said some participants reported putting themselves in unsafe or exploitative situations because that’s the only place they can get intimacy.

"They learn to dial back their expectations. And a lot of them eventually start accepting really poor conditions for accessing sexual intimacy."

"It's really easy to exploit someone who's in that state of vulnerability."

He says it’s about being treated with respect and equality.

"No one's asking you to sleep with whomever approaches you. But I think what a lot of us have been asking for is to be treated like human beings, even if you don't want to fuck us," Gene said.

Hack contacted Grindr for a response to this story and they did not respond.