Tech & Biz

eHarmony Settles Lawsuit in LA, Site to Welcome Gays, Lesbians

by Amy Judd | January 26, 2010 at 04:43 pm

139 views | 25 Recommendations | 2 comments

eHarmony settled their lawsuit in Los Angeles today after over two and a half years of litigation. They have been ordered to pay half a million dollars to a group of gays and lesbians in California and they will now make their site more 'welcoming' to gays and lesbians also looking for love matches.

After a settlement in New Jersey last year, eHarmony did set up a service for gays and lesbians called Compatible Partners, but after a judge has approved the settlement today, they will add a 'gay and lesbian category' to their main site and that will direct you to Compatible Partners. Bisexual people can access both websites for one fee.

On eHarmony currently there are links for Christian, Jewish, black, Hispanic, senior and local dating searches but no mention of gay or lesbian.

eHarmony was founded in 2000 and only started providing same-sex matches after the New Jersey case last year. They said they only provided opposite sex matches because their models were based on studies of married heterosexual couples. Attorneys for eHarmony used the example of other same-sex dating sites that do not provide a link to heterosexual dating sites from their page.

Neither the company nor its attorneys immediately returned a request for comment. As part of the California agreement, the Compatible Partners site will display the eHarmony logo “in a prominent position,” and will state that the service is “brought to you by eHarmony.” The site currently states that it is “powered by eHarmony.”

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everchanging

at 17:19 on January 26th, 2010

I am glad to hear that they are opening their eyes to the modern relationship (aka partners).

Now they need to open the door to interacial relationship in there categories of selections. I had a friend, who recently try to find an Asian, while they are Caucasian - the search recommended "to search within their own race for more matches" That's what they told me! (or something real close to this and resulting in the same theory and/or thought pattern) While they do not completely dis-allow this "interacial partner" they do recommend the thought of Caucasian for Caucasian, Black for Black, Asian for Asian - you get the ideal. If eHarmony has changed this then good for them, if not - they should.

Amanda Morgans (not verified)

at 17:59 on February 21st, 2010

I'd like to see someone write an article comparing and contrasting paid dating websites such as Match.com and eHarmony.com with free websites like PlentyofFish.com and TruLuv.com