70% Of Gay Men Not Going On Dates

What are gay men up to in the lockdown? We know for sure now that across the world gay men are complying with lockdown regulations in their countries. A survey by Romeo (Planet Romeo), an Amsterdam-based gay dating app, has revealed that 70% of those surveyed said they haven’t gone out on dates.

The survey has provided insights into how gay, bisexual men and transpersons across the world are dealing with social distancing restrictions in their countries.

“Around 75,840 Romeo users responded to 11 questions about health, economy, sex, travel, and how they are coping with the lockdown,” according to the dating platform. A majority of the users who participated in the survey were from countries in the European Union.

Dating In Times of COVID

Around 70% of Romeo users said that since the lockdown they have not stepped out of their homes to hook up or date – 36,506 (48.3%) were keeping dates online only, while 16,285 (21.6%) said that the COVID-19 fallout had sapped their interest in dating.

Others, however, have not let social distancing affect their love lives – 15,510 participants (20.5%) said they were still meeting up for dates outside, 3,105 (4.1%) users said that COVID-19 had not affected their dating schedule and 856 users (1.1%) said they were in fact going out on more dates.

The dating numbers were reflected in the horniness quotient with around 40% saying they were feeling more horny than usual. An equal number or around 38% felt that they were as horny as always. 20% of the dating app users responded that COVID-19 was a mood-killer or that they were feeling less horny than normal.  The horniest countries were India at 56% and Spain at 49%.

For those in relationships, the lockdown seemed to have brought them closer with 17% reporting that they were getting on better with their partners. Tensions were running high between some couples (5.2%) while others (1.7%) were on the verge of breaking up.

Worries During Lockdown

Clubs and queer businesses had shut down in many parts of the world and a majority of the participants (57.4%) were worried about the future of the local gay communities.

Half of the participants (50.3%) were also worried about their financial futures, and less than half (43.2%) were concerned about how the global pandemic would affect their health.

Surprisingly, a large majority were not letting COVID-19 affect their attitude to life and over 89% said they were feeling good or ok. Around 40% also supported the measures taken by their respective countries to deal with the pandemic.

As for travel plans 44.5% hoped to travel after the lockdown ends, but 30.5% of the participants said they had no plans to undertake any travel.