Featured Image Credit: ROBIN VAN LONKHUIJSEN/AFP via Getty Images / AAMIR QURESHI/AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Tinder, Transgender, World News
Joe Yates
Topics: Tinder, Transgender, World News
A man tried to legally change his age to reflect that he is 20 years younger after claiming he faced discrimination while dating online.
Meet 75-year-old Emile Ratelband, a former Dutch politician and television presenter-turned motivational speaker.
While looking for a life-partner on the widely-used dating app Tinder, he discovered that due to his age - being 69 at the time - potential suitors weren't flocking in.
He claimed that there were fewer people swiping right on his profile, and more people ultimately rejecting him - not that it notifies you, but you kind of realise.
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So, what does he do?
Ratelband took the face of rejection to court, and attempted to wind back the clock in doing so.
Yep, he tried to legally change his age to 20 years younger.
"When I'm 69, I am limited. If I'm 49, then I can buy a new house, drive a different car," he said of his reasoning during an interview with AD, according to a translation by The Guardian.
"I can take up more work. When I'm on Tinder and it says I'm 69, I don't get an answer. When I'm 49, with the face I have, I will be in a luxurious position."
It's important to note that his whole campaign about identifying as a would-be 49-year-old at the time came across as a gibe at the transgender community.
He said to the BBC: "We live in a time when you can change your name and change your gender. Why can't I decide my own age?"
He also spoke to The Washington Post and said he is not concerned that his comparison of an age change to a sex change may be offensive to transgender people.
"Because nowadays, in Europe and in the United States, we are free people," he said. "We can make our own decisions if we want to change our name, or if we want to change our gender.
"So I want to change my age. My feeling about my body and about my mind is that I'm about 40 or 45."
So, where were we? Oh yeah, Ratelband took to the courts to try and change his age.
It was short-lived, however, as in December 2018 they ruled against him legally changing his age.
The judge explained how a number of rights in law is based on a person's age, and changing it would cause multiple problems.
"Mr Ratelband is at liberty to feel 20 years younger than his real age and to act accordingly," the judge said.
But changing his age on documents would have 'undesirable legal and societal implications'.