I'm Laura Stasi, and this is Dating While Gray, the grown-up's guide to love, sex, and

relationships.

I've worked with white women who told me that they wouldn't date someone of a different race.

I've worked with black women who've said the same thing.

I would never discourage, you know, dating outside their race for them. Do you find love?

That's awesome. And even for me, like if I find, if I find love outside my race, I just haven't.

But I will tell you that when I look through dating sites, if someone says conservative, I will swipe left.

On this episode, we're talking about dating across differences.

I met a woman who went through a really nasty divorce. She told me the only way she got through it was by taking up yoga and meditation. And now that she's ready for love again, she wants to meet someone who shares these ways of relieving stress. So she's on a dating site called Meat Mindful. I've heard of dating sites for vegetarians to connect with each other,

sites for motorcycle enthusiasts to link up with other bikers, sites for highly educated people to

couple up with other MBAs and PhDs. Even the non-niche dating sites ask you to describe yourself

so they can match you with people of similar backgrounds and interests.

And though we may not especially care that our partner doesn't share our love for yoga or our educational level,

race, religion, and politics seem like three things we have to have in common, or it won't work.

In fact, a study by the Pew Research Center found that online daters 50 and older are more

likely than younger daters to say it's very important that a person's profile includes race or

ethnicity. We want to know. And it's also very important to older daters to know political

affiliation. But lately, I've been wondering if rules we set up also lead to overlooking some

solid options. I mean, what would happen if we decided to widen our specifications for the

ideal partner.

That's a question on Ron's mind.

He's a divorced black man in his early 50s.

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