I’ve been happily married for six years, and we met on a dating app. (OKCupid.)

It was my first time using such a thing, I was in my late 30s and mildly curious about those apps the Kids These Days seem to like. I installed one and was basically daring the silly thing to work. I figured if I was going to try that sort of thing, I was going to do it in a very practical way. I made sure everything about me I thought might be a red flag for someone out there was featured prominently in my profile:

• Here’s exactly where I am politically, religiously, etc., my real age, and my firm disinterest in parenthood.
• Here’s my bisexuality but also my monogamousness, yes those two things can go together.
• Here’s the neighborhood I live in (not the nearest fashionable one.)
• Here are a bunch of weird hobbies and pursuits of mine.
• Here are social and political things about which I’m a vocal activist.
• Here’s some of the art, comedy, and other creative stuff I do, and a bit of the weirder end of my sense of humor.
• Here’s the fact that my username there was also the one I’ve used everywhere online for decades (here included) and I’ve had a pretty active online presence since there’s been such a thing, so I’m fairly searchable before you even say hello.
• Here are photos of me I quite like but also some I think I look particularly fat/old/unflattered in, and ones that clearly show off certain things I like to do with my personal style (for example, I’m a cis masculine-presenting guy who wears nail polish.)

In addition to filling the hell out of my profile with all this, I had a lot of fun with the app’s survey questions and generally gave really involved answers.

My attitude on the app was one of blatant honesty. I’d heard so many horror stories about people meeting on dating apps and the person turning out to be nothing like their profile, look nothing like their photo, etc. to the point of false advertising, and I really failed to understand the logic behind that; why lie to someone from the start, as if they won’t actually realize you lied to them when they meet you?

Another important factor for me was that when I got on the app I was just getting back into dating, having recently taken a long time to work on myself and recover from a toxic and abusive relationship. Among other crappy things, my former abuser had spent the duration of our time together disapproving of and trying to force me to change fundamental things about myself in ways that caused me a lot of long-term harm and I was not interested in going through that sort of thing again. I’d rather someone who doesn’t like thing X about me would see that thing on my profile right up front and so choose not engage with me to begin with, rather than have them get interested but find out that deal-breaker thing about me later and be disappointed. I came at it from the angle of saying “hey, I’m here, this is what I’m like, and here’s a bunch of stuff about me you might not like.” I wasn’t necessarily trying to warn people off, but I wanted to see if anyone out there would see all those things about me and still potentially like me.

Long story long, it worked. I got messaged by someone who saw my profile and liked it, I liked hers, and we really clicked from the start. (Our first date was meant to be a quick cup of tea at a cafe, and ended up being many hours of walking and talking around town.) We totally fell for one another, dated, moved in together, got married, and six years later are still ridiculously happy. She is literally my favorite person in the entire world. Her weird and my weird mesh together so perfectly, and our relationship has always been based on complete honesty and open communication and sharing. We’ve seen and supported each other through the highest highs, lowest lows, and everything in between. It’s the healthiest, happiest, and closest romance, friendship, and personal relationship of any kind I’ve ever had, and every day we spend together is better than the last. Among a lot of people who know us we’re that obnoxiously-cute couple. We even have podcasts and other creative projects together nowadays, it’s so goddamn gross. 🥰