Thursday, January 28, 2010
eHarmony loses legal battle over segregating gay singles
Posted by Shawn Alff on Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 9:30 AM
Originally reported by californiaprogressreport.com, eHarmony settled a three-year lawsuit by agreeing to allow same-sex couples on the site, sort of. eHarmony will also pay over half a million in retributions, to be split by 130 California plaintiffs.
eHarmony maintains that it did nothing wrong by limiting its dating site to straight singles. However, it will now cater to homosexual singles, offering a direct link and promotion of its sub-site, Compatible Partners--a site originally constructed to satisfy a similar legal battle in New Jersey. Like its straight counterpart, Compatible Partners bills itself as a place for finding serious relationships.
Counsel for the California plaintiffs’ argued that the construction of this sister site was the equivalent to “separate but equal” segregation laws, which were struck down on the basis that separate is inherently not equal.
The class-action suit targeted eHarmony’s founder, clinical psychologists, and conservative Christian, Dr. Neil Clark Warren. The conservative Christian personality of “Focus on the Family” fame, Dr. Lou Dobbs, helped Warren launch the dating site. Lawyers argued Warren restricted non-heterosexual couples because of his beliefs and professional connections.
eHarmony originally claimed the website only focused on heterosexuals because the matchmaking service was based on years of research studying successful heterosexual relationships.
While eHarmony won't offer same sex dating on its parent site, it will have more of a direct connect to Compatible Partners, which will also market itself as an eHarmony product. Also, eHarmony’s main page will offer a “gay dating” link along with categories like “black dating,” “Christian dating,” and “Jewish dating.”
Read more at californiaprogressreport.com
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