The straight date
Online dating seems to be the norm in dating circles these days, but who gets to decide who should be allowed to date? A number of lawsuits have been filed against online dating company eHarmony alleging that the company discriminates against gays and lesbians. eHarmony has long had a reputation as a “Christian” dating service, perhaps because it was founded in 2000 by an evangelical Christian psychologist and was associated with Focus on the Family, a conservative religious organization.
Plaintiffs claimed eHarmony denied membership to gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. The service offers only two choices: “man seeking a woman” and “woman seeking a man.” eHarmony supposedly did extensive research on married heterosexual couples to develop its exclusive “Compatibility Matching System.” Because the company did not research homosexual couples, it allegedly did not feel equipped to offer a same-sex option.
In a civil rights settlement in New Jersey, eHarmony on November 19, 2008, agreed to establish a same-sex online dating service. Called Compatiblepartners.net, the site is scheduled to launch in spring of 2009. eHarmony continues to deny it engaged in any discrimination.
This was posted
on Friday, November 21st, 2008 and is filed in the Legal categories.
November 25th, 2008 at 3:19 am
(Can’t get in, then start your own dating site)
What a stupid lawsuit. I am a lesbian. I am sometimes turned off by dating websites that are only for heterosexuals…
BUT there are plenty of websites for the LGBT only (lesbian, gay bisexual, transgender) community. Most of these sites do NOT have options for HETEROSEXUALS to to be matched up. So, is that discrimination too?
For that matter,I belong to clubs that are only for lesbians. I would hate to think that some heterosexual man (or a homosexual man, or straight woman)is going to sue the club because he/she couldn’t membership. Hello, it’s a lesbian club.
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Same thing with Christian clubs and dating sites. A Christian club, should not have to accept someone into the club who goes against the religious beliefs of the Christian club. Enough with watered down religions.
Should a Christian preacher with his own church have to accept a Jewish rabbi as a “co-preacher” so he doesn’t get sued for religious discrimination? Should a Bhuddist monk have to accept a rabbi as its leader, so it doesnt get sued.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
I agree with what Ya says above. And I don’t think that any court/gov’t etc. has the right to make a private company customize their website for gays or straights, etc. (I am gay, btw.) However I think that citizens have every right to sue that company if they wish. And in suing that company they may simply be bringing that company’s practices to the attention of the larger public, gay and straight. In this way, they bring the issue to the court of public opinion. My understanding is that eHarmony settled out of court. In the end I wonder if they did so because they realized it would be continued bad press for them, alienate their straight customers, and eventually hurt their bottom line. That would be my guess, in which case I think that the desired outcome was reached, at least from my point of view.