eHarmony Forced to Offer Same-Sex Dating Services
Time for Christians to stop using this dating service.
So, this is “progress?” eHarmony, a Christian-targeted dating website, gets sued by a gay man demanding that the business match him up with a same-sex partner. The New Jersey Attorney General intervenes on behalf of the gay plaintiff and forces eHarmony to change its entire business model. To be clear: The company never refused to do business with anyone. Their great “sin” was not providing a specialized service that litigious gay people demanded they provide. This case is akin to a meat-eater suing a vegetarian restaurant for not offering him a ribeye or a female patient suing a vasectomy doctor for not providing her hysterectomy services. Sadly, eHarmony has settled . I wish they hadn’t, but I understand the decision given the chilling antics of the anti-Prop. 8 mob. The company agreed not only to offer same-sex dating services on a new site, but also to offer six-month subscriptions for free to 10,000 gay users. Behold the submission:
Coming soon to EHarmony — Adam and Steve.
The Pasadena-based dating website, heavily promoted by Christian evangelical leaders when it was founded, has agreed in a civil rights settlement to give up its heterosexuals-only policy and offer same-sex matches.
EHarmony was started by psychologist Neil Clark Warren, who is known for his mild-mannered television and radio advertisements. It must not only implement the new policy by March 31 but also give the first 10,000 same-sex registrants a free six-month subscription.
“That was one of the things I asked for,” said Eric McKinley, 46, who complained to New Jersey’s Division on Civil Rights after being turned down for a subscription in 2005.
The company said that Warren was not giving interviews on the settlement. But attorney Theodore Olson, who issued a statement on the company’s behalf, made clear that it did not agree to offer gay matches willingly. “Even though we believed that the complaint resulted from an unfair characterization of our business,” Olson said, “we ultimately decided it was best to settle this case with the attorney general since litigation outcomes can be unpredictable.”
The settlement, which did not find that EHarmony broke any laws, calls for the company to either offer the gay matches on its current venue or create a new site for them. EHarmony has opted to create a site called Compatiblepartners.net.
Warren had said in past interviews that he didn’t want to feature same-sex services on EHarmony — which matches people based on long questionnaires concerning personality traits, relationship history and interests — because he felt he didn’t know enough about gay relationships.
eHarmony had been previously sued by a lesbian looking to force the company to match her up with another woman and by a married man who sought to force the company to hook him up in an adulterous relationship.
Perhaps heterosexual men and women should start filing lawsuits against gay dating websites and undermine their business. Coerced tolerance and diversity-by-fiat cut both ways.
November 20th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Does this mean that since I’m straight I can force a gay and lesbian group to allow me membership? And then can I sue them if they don’t start adhering to my straight agenda besides of their discriminatory gay policies?
November 20th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Yes, I’d say it does. Of course, if you did, once you started posting there, you would threatened and harassed unmercifully by the so-called “tolerant” homosexuals.
November 20th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Yeah, this is a lot of crap. I strongly support gay marriage, but it’s ridiculous that eHarmony should be forced against their will to set up a gay dating service. They should have fought this.
I think Malkin is unfair to tar all of the “anti–Prop 8 crowd” with this, though. There are plenty of us who were against Prop 8 but still in favor of freedom of association. It just takes a couple jerks to sue, after all.
November 21st, 2008 at 6:46 pm
I’m happy about this ruling. In the rest of the Western world, we don’t discriminate based on race, gender, or anything else. Christian terrorists in Ireland have long used the arguments you are using:
“Why should I have their homosexuality shoved in my face?”
A good point. But why should I have you religious views shoved in my face? I’m not gay, but I don’t see why extremist groups such as this dating site are allowed to discriminate. Imagine if your favourite store stopped letting you in because you were Christian! Madness would ensue from those “litigious fundies”.
November 21st, 2008 at 7:08 pm
It’s not discrimination. eHarmony is set up as a traditional dating service. When they started they chose to run a service that helped men and women meet each other for dating purposes. That’s not discrimination.
eHarmony an extremist group! I think not.
Gee, why don’t Ford dealers sell new Chevrolets? Sounds like they’re discriminating against Chevy buyers to me! Ford might hate ALL GM buyers for that matter. Oh perish the thought!
November 21st, 2008 at 8:50 pm
If you go to a store and that store doesn’t carry a particular product that you like, you can tell them if they don’t start carrying that product, you’ll start shopping elsewhere. At that point, the store owner can either decide to carry that product and keep your business, or not carry that product and lose your business. But, I don’t think you’re going to sue them for not offering that product, you’ll just shop somewhere else.
Same situation at eHarmony. They don’t offer that product (same sex dating), at that point a person interested in that type of relationship can go elsewhere. It’s obvious, the person that sued eHarmony is just trying to cause trouble and I hope it’s returned to him 10 fold!
November 21st, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Richard S. I’d like to see some proof about of your so called “litigious fundies”. I don’t see to many cases where Christians take anyone to court. Every time I turn around though, some homo is suing a Christian, or anyone else that isn’t giving them the tolerance that they feel they deserve for being perverse and vulgar. They have the wealth to bribe judges. They have the media in their hip pocket. They have everything except a nation wide nod to get married and adopt children for the express purpose of advancing their agenda. I personally don’t believe that kids should be used to further a political agenda. Do you?
November 28th, 2008 at 9:24 am
The simple fact is that eHarmony is (a) run by secularists, and (b) NOT forced into anything. They could have taken a stand, but they refused to.
April 17th, 2009 at 12:08 am
This is simply outrageous! It’s not as if eharmony is the only dating site out there-there are even sites especially created for gay and lesbian dating! Why don’t they go there then.They have no right to force them into this-they are just upholding Godly principles regarding Homosexuality.