We are pretty legit

In the past, daters were advised to stay clear of politics and religion on first dates. That seems to have changed in the age of internet dating ー at least for one once-untouchable subject. According to the CMO of popular mating hub OkCupid, politics now ranks among the most important considerations for daters.

Romantic comedies might have told Sara Haines that she’d meet her “boo at a produce department or tripping on him on a street,” but when she entered her 30s, she came to the realization that she needed to put in some effort to actually find her person. For the GMA Day co-host, that meant creating an online dating profile on OkCupid, which eventually led her to her now-husband, Max Shifrin.

As part of their profile, OKCupid’s users answer a series of questions designed to better match them with potential romantic partners. Data from these questions show that 85 percent of both Millennial men and women said voting is either extremely or very important to them. Forty-six percent of Millennial women said they wouldn’t date someone who didn’t vote. Most strikingly, 73 percent of Millennial women preferred their partner vote for the same party as them, almost 20 percent more than Millennial men.

Melissa Hobley, chief marketing officer at OkCupid, said the data reflects a growing trend among millennial users: voting with your dating app. ‘Your politics matter, and millennials voting in the bedroom is a thing,’ she said.

OkCupid says it’s the first leading dating app to let users state and share their preferred pronouns, taking an important step forward to making dating slightly more authentic and slightly less awful.

The ads that ran afoul of Metro, however, target political extremism, or at least the right-wing end of it. “DTFilter Out the Far Right,” one of the ads says, showing a handgun going down the toilet. Another says, “DTFantasize about 2020.” Hobley, in an email, said Metro justified its rejection of the two ads because the ads “show strong opinion towards one political group over another.”

“If you decide to give OkCupid the proper time it takes to thoughtfully fill in as many questions as you can,” she says, “chances are you’ll walk away with something of value,” whether that’s true love, a new friend, or a fun fling (or, as once happened to [serial dater] Mac, “a job that involves throwing castle parties in France”).

OkCupid is introducing an ACLU badge that lets daters show their support for the organization, with a #RightToLove badge appearing right on their profile, under their name. For every person who gets an ACLU badge, OkCupid will donate a $1 to the ACLU — for a total donation of up to $50,000.

OkCupid CMO Melissa Hobley said they’ve has seen a 50% surge in LGBTQ+ singles talking about politics on their profiles from January 2017 to today. The top topics people are filtering for? Trump, gun violence, voting, and support of the ACLU.

“In 2017 we saw the biggest increase in the intersection of politics and dating — both within the OkCupid ecosystem and beyond,” Melissa Hobley, CMO of OkCupid, says. “Politics went from being a dealbreaker to a ‘dealmaker’ — with daters saying that their own personal views and those of their potential dates mattered more than ever before.”

“OkCupid stands behind being inclusive, welcoming and allowing people to be whoever the F they want,” says OkCupid's CMO, Melissa Hobley. “There is no place, anywhere, for the kind of homophobic, transphobic, and generally close-minded message that CitizenGo is notorious for spreading”

Rosetta Stone and OkCupid linked up to poll daters about love and language. According to the report, 96 percent of millennials are fascinated by language, and this has researchers wondering if learning a new language improves your dating game.

The new campaign signals the brand’s commitment to being focused on substance and depth, while also reflecting the issues and passions that people care about.

OkCupid is already pretty anti–snap judgement, giving users the chance to beef up their profiles with dozens and dozens of questions, but now you can also search for users who care about the same questions you do.

This new feature from OkCupid should be a boon for anyone on the site, regardless of gender.

OkCupid may be the OG of dating sites, but that doesn’t mean it’s done innovating. The online dating service on Wednesday announced a new update that gives users the ability to let everyone know they stand with Planned Parenthood. It's an easy way to figure out who's worthy of a first date—or at the very least, a “u up.”

What is a sapiosexual, exactly? A few different definitions exist. OKCupid defines it as someone “who finds intelligence the most sexually attractive feature; behavior of becoming attracted to or aroused by intelligence and its use.”

“We do not tolerate anyone who promotes racism or hatred — it’s that simple,” said Elie Seidman, OKCupid’s chief executive, in an email to The New York Times. “At OKCupid, our mission is to connect people based on substance — based on their shared sensibility. The privilege of being in our community does not extend to Nazis and supremacists.”

After being named chief executive officer of the company in May 2016, Elie Seidman set out to create a community around online dating that he says is lacking in other apps that take a more superficial approach.