Swipe left if you voted for Trump
How dating in New York is changing under the new administration
In a CNN article about the dating woes of Trump supporters in New York City, one New York woman in her 30s explained that she got unfriended by her entire field hockey team for posting a Milo video on social media.
In addition to losing friends among her fellow field hockey players, the woman said that people regularly insult her when they discover she voted for — and still supports — the president. “I can’t believe you are college educated,” she recalls one person telling her.
Elsewhere in the article, 24-year-old electrician Mike Lagana complains about all the women he meets online who immediately stop talking with him once they discover he’s a Trump supporter. “Just because I voted for someone does not mean I’m this stuff,” he complained to CNN. “‘Oh, he’s racist, or he’s a Nazi’ or whatever the case may be. I’m not any of that. I take offense to it. You know nothing about me.” I suggest he might experience more of those reactions over the next three years dating in NYC. “Eight” he counters, and laughs. Frequently coming across the “swipe left if you voted for Trump” bio, Mike ignores the demand. “I still swipe right. I would like them to know who I am first before I openly tell them I voted for this person. They know nothing about me. I’m a very reasonable guy. I’m a nice person, open-minded.”
And finally, one 23-year-old Trump supporter tells CNN that he’s instituted a “don’t-ask-don’t-tell” policy when it comes to talking about politics on dates for fear of immediately turning off prospective mates before they get a chance to know him. “You just know it’s going to be a point of conflict,” he explained.
In almost every conversation I had about dating beyond party lines, one word kept coming up: Values. The people I spoke to on all ends of the political spectrum argued that opposition to or support for Trump serves as an instant proxy for a person’s values. It’s touted as an umbrella for a litany of issues and allegiances from religion to gun laws and abortion rights to how you think children should be raised. It’s a catch-all for the things that we feel we can’t or don’t want to overcome with a spouse.
On a recent Thursday in the East Village, a 23-year-old man who supports Trump described in hushed tones how he operates a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy when it comes to politics on dates. Able to get a feel for hardcore Democrats, he would swat away the conversation should it arise because “you just know it’s going to be a point of conflict.” Later in the same bar, a large group of men and women are celebrating a friend’s birthday. They included Hillary Clinton fans, Bernie Sanders supporters and non-Trump voting Republicans. Of 12, only one would consider dating a Trump voter, with the caveat of whether they have problems with the President now.
