Single gays and lesbians will have a new website to find suitable matches come next March, thanks to a settlement reached this week in a discrimination complaint filed by a gay New Jersey man against online matchmaker eHarmony.
In a case with chilling overtones of government meddling, the state attorney general backed an investigation of eHarmony for civil rights violations after Eric McKinley, a gay man from New Jersey, filed a complaint that eHarmony did not have a same-sex equivalent to its opposite-sex matching service.
eHarmony, the California-based dating website, has a strong Christian
following and is known for suggesting potential mates based on the company's research
into thousands of opposite-sex marriages. It is also facing a similar discrimination claim in California. Under the terms of the settlement, it agreed to launch a site, Compatible Partners, that will match "males seeking males" and "females seeking females" with the "same or equivalent technology" as it uses for its flagship heterosexual site. McKinley will receive a free, one-year membership.
This is a true story.
eHarmony must have calculated that settling the case by launching the same-sex site would be less costly in dollars and public relations hassles than continuing to fight the discrimination complaint. Why else would a private company agree to be forced by the government into a business line where they clearly have no interest and arguably have no expertise? Regardless of one's position on gay marriage or homosexuality in general, the case for government intervention here seems pretty flimsy. Plenty of other dating websites and services are all too happy to have gay clientele.
Additional terms of the settlement include:
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eHarmony, Inc. will post photos of same-sex
couples in the “Diversity”
section of its Web site as successful
relationships are created using the company’s
same-sex matching service. In addition,
eHarmony, Inc. will include photos of
same-sex couples, as well as individual
same-sex users, in advertising materials
used to promote its same-sex matching
services
-
eHarmony, Inc. will revise anti-discrimination
statements placed on company Web sites,
in company handbooks and other company
publications to make plain that it does
not discriminate on the basis of “sexual
orientation”
-
the company has committed to advertising
and public relations/ marketing dedicated
to its same-sex matching service, and
will retain a media consultant experienced
in promoting the “fair, accurate
and inclusive” representation of
gay and lesbian people in the media to
determine the most effective way of reaching
the gay and lesbian communities.
eHarmony must also pay $5,000 to McKinley and $50,000 to the state's
Division of Civil Rights to cover administrative costs of the
investigation.
As for online dating sites that cater only to specific groups of people, the government is watching.
JDate, consider yourself warned.