eHarmony agrees to make site "welcoming" to gays and lesbians, ending L.A. lawsuit

Putting an end to two and a half years of litigation, the online dating site eHarmony.com has reached an agreement to pay a half a million dollars and make its website more “welcoming” to seekers of same-sex matches, settling a class-action lawsuit brought by gays and lesbians in California.

The company had already launched a service for gays and lesbians, called Compatible Partners, in an unrelated settlement with New Jersey’s attorney general last year.

As a result of the settlement agreement filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court and pending approval by a judge, eHarmony will add a “gay and lesbian dating” category to their main website -- which will direct users to Compatible Partners -- and allow bisexual users to access both websites for one fee. 

The eHarmony site currently provides links for Christian, black, Jewish, Hispanic, senior and local dating. California residents who have filed written complaints with the company will receive $4,000 each from the settlement funds.

The website, founded in 2000 by clinical psychologist Neil Clark Warren, an evangelical Christian, did not provide same-sex matching services until last year, contending that the company’s closely-guarded compatibility models were based on studies of married heterosexual couples. In court filings, attorneys for eHarmony also pointed to websites exclusively providing same-sex matches, such as gay.com or guys4men.com, saying the company “does not stand alone among companies that provide their relationship-matching services to a single sexual orientation.”

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.”

-- Victoria Kim

Comments

[markiejoe]

"shoving their lifestyle choice down our throats"

Interesting choice of words, LB. Interesting that you would go there of all places. Freud would have a field day.

[JIggy Hanz]

Regarding the comments asking about the (legal) basis for the $4,000 class members will receive for making a claim, California Civil Code section 52 provides a minimum of $4,000 in statutory damages for discrimination victims. In 2001, the California Legislature quadrupled the statutory damages from $1,000 to $4,000 in order to deter California businesses from discriminating against customers, primarily those nightclubs and other businesses that continued to employ Ladies' Night and Ladies' Day promotions that charged men more than women for the exact same goods or services. Here's part of Civil Code section 52:

Whoever denies, aids or incites a denial, or makes any discrimination or distinction contrary to Section 51, 51.5, or 51.6, is liable for each and every offense for the actual damages, and any amount that may be determined by a jury, or a court sitting without a jury, up to a maximum of three times the amount of actual damage but in no case less than four thousand dollars ($4,000), and any attorney's fees that may be determined by the court in addition thereto, suffered by any person denied the rights provided in Section 51, 51.5, or 51.6

[uncle_vito]

I think they need to admit transexuals and pedophiles too.

If you need EHarmony, you are hopeless.

Try meeting people in Church. Horrors!!!!

Vito

[Kevin]

So what's next? Are they going to sue Disney for not producing movies for kids in which two Princes or two Princesses get married and live happily ever after? Is eHarmony going to have to open a dating site for polygamists?

[Locrian]

When will they allow atheists and agnostics? You know, real people?

[Max]

What the hell is wrong with the system where a law suit of this ridiculous state even gets attention? A website is NOT suppose to fit EVERYONE'S needs. It's like suing a left-handed store, that only caters to left handed people, for not having my right handed tools? WTF.... IF you wanted a dating site that catered to your needs, MAKE IT YOURSELF and in the process make millions. We don't give a flying crap if you don't like the way some sites work , if you don't like it, go else where!!

I have nothing against gays or lesbians, but I am a student, and in the future I want to be able to create a market/business and NOT be afraid of getting sued just because a group of people dislike the way i do business. Makes me sick just to think they entertained this stupid lawsuit

[Shark]

What a crock...signed up for their "Free Weekend" to appease my curiosity...now...these bums will not stop sending me there crap...regardless of how many times i have demanded they discontinue.

The women were obviously "working the system"...to my great pleasure not one of the three I responded to replied.

Do yourself a favor...finf you next love the old fashioned way...communicate in the right environment.

[Pizzedoff]

BRILLIANT @Posted by: DB, YES YOU CAN! I am going to download the original pleading from the courts web site ASAP and rework the language to reverse the position.
If anyone is interested to jumping on board, contact me @: pissedoff@humanoid.net.
This is more than possible.

[sgh]

really? can't time and money be spent on something else more worthy? there are plenty of dating websites that are geared towards all different groups of people. should we now hunt down each of them and tell them to add x,y, and z? if you don't like their website, there are plenty of other businesses to check out. this is another example of america's "sue-happy" culture

[Ken]

Wow! Gentiles are going to make $$$ suing JDate!

Seriously, things like this are one reason why some people don't want same-sex couples to have state marriage licenses. Because the few fascists within the community will use any tool, any means to bully other people into doing what they want. They WILL go into schools and insist that marriage never be referred to as a bride+groom pairing without it also being referred to as a man+man or woman+woman pairing. Any parents who object will be told that there's nothing they can do about it because it will be official state policy to NOT distringuish between the two.

Don't like the services a business offers? DON'T BUY THOSE SERVICES!

[dPreacher]

What happened to "Freedom of Association"?
Must we be "All things to all people"?
This is Coercion!

[syscom3]

E-harmony should just move their business and servers to Mexico and tell the gays to go pound sand!

[tj]

gay sites like gay.com were created because gay relationships were excluded from sites like eHarmony.com. I bet if a hetero person wanted to post their ad on gay.com the gay people wouldn't care. But the bigotry and fear in the comments here is astounding... why does anyone care how someone finds love with someone else? More importantly, why do they feel the need to force their own religiously-based values on others? Lead by example, not hatred. That said, not sure I get why there is a dollar payout either.

[allaire8]

A lot has happened in society in 2 1/2 years. We don’t know all the details and it’s hard to capture everything that was involved. Ultimately, eHarmony knew they would lose or be in court forever so they settled. With what is available today and from the experiences I heard from other people (hetero), I’m not sure why a gay or lesbian would use eHarmony much less a straight person. But when everyone is included except you it hits hard as prejudice and injustice. So, imagine if gays and lesbians were instead all Asians or Indians and excluded. We would take offense to that, which is what happened for gays and lesbians (at the time). I personally don’t care what they do. Sometimes, when you always have to fight for something, you’re always fighting. If they had their rights the fight would be over. I feel like we’re past that somewhat now, even though I see here people still hate. If we took away all straight people’s rights each time a group of them did something imagine the world we’d live in. That’s often what it’s like for gays and lesbians now.

[jerry]

If prop 8 supporters didn't feel selfish and entitled to butt into people's lives and ban OTHER PEOPLE'S marriage, I might feel a little sympathy.

[KW]

"Could someone please explain to me why the absence of a gay dating service entitles someone to $4000 in damages? Where is it written anywhere in any law that gays are "entitled" to a dating service?"

That would be the Unruh Civil Rights Act, at California Family Code s51 et seq. In particular, section 51(b) states:

"All persons within the jurisdiction of this state are free and
equal, and no matter what their sex, race, color, religion,
ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, marital
status, or sexual orientation are entitled to the full and equal
accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in
all business establishments of every kind whatsoever."

51.5 elaborates:

"No business establishment of any kind whatsoever shall
discriminate against, boycott or blacklist, or refuse to buy from,
contract with, sell to, or trade with any person in this state on
account of any characteristic listed or defined in subdivision (b) or
(e) of Section 51 . . . "

(See http://law.onecle.com/california/civil/51.html ; http://law.onecle.com/california/civil/51.5.html )

Yes, I am an attorney. And that's the law at issue here. It very clearly states that businesses (and eharmony is a business) may not discriminate on several different grounds. One of those is sexual orientation. Feel free to look at the statute yourself.

[outraged]

I'm an ultra "gay rights supporter", but this is SO wrong. Simply outrageous.

[erin]

oh, honestly. there are bigger injustices in the world than eharmony settling to provide a second site for gay people. it wasn't court-ordered, it was a settlement. and since they will make money off it, they can't be all that upset.

In other news, most of you are horrible bigots who I hope have no contact with children.

[onlyGODcan judge]

This is ridiculous. I mean let eHarmony do what they want to do. But as for the HOMO HATERS... since u wanna throw your HATE and RELIGION at people, since when did GOD accept HATRED???? Did it ever occur to you that u might end up n HELL for your HATRED towards other people??? Yea u say we are going to hell, but guess what?? I'll see all of your sorry hating asses there if that's the case. Maybe if you would leave well enough alone we wouldn't have issues like this. Let us be who we are and stop judging. You are not GOD, and you know damn well that you are not a saint your self. Stop worrying about other people and worry about your SELF.

I am in no way a "HETERO HATER", but i do hate the HETERO's who think they can pass judgement and think they know everything. When you preach reiligion remember that all are EQUAL and THOU SHALL NOT HATE.... freakin gay bashers.

[Ezekiel]

If the service not offered by eHarmony made sense, why not start up a competing site that provides that service? Suing eHarmony to force them to provide it uses oppression to force approval. (And, in all candor, the more I'm pressured to accept something, the more I will resist doing so.)

I won't condemn people for being attracted to people of the same sex, or even for having relationships with the same. But I will never -- not even insincerely -- affirm an equality between heterosexual unions and homosexual unions. They aren't the same; they aren't equal; and even if the world's law designates death for those who refuse to affirm equality between them, I will not comply.

[badluckbay]

For all the people complaining about the judge and the "ruling": the judge made decision and there was no ruling. eHarmony was not forced to compromise anything - they agreed to settle the lawsuit because it wasn't worth the publicity and money it would have taken for them to go to court.

[Jack]

This is just a matter of principle.
Most gay people will still avoid eHarmony or CompatiblePartners only because it is clear that CompatiblePartners was created only because of the court ruling.
If you are a gay man, go with Amicurious.com or some other site. They were created for gay men and financialy and openly support the fight for equal marriage rights.

J.

[Zach]

I was originally in support of this lawsuit, as I don't like the idea of businesses telling people, "We don't serve your kind here," but the lengths to which this makes eHarmony go are pretty insane. Insane with greed, that is, not paranoid, "gay agenda"-ranting insane...some people ought to stop blowing news with the word "gay" in it out of proportion and realize gay individuals are as likely as anyone to file frivolous lawsuits.

[joycevaughn]

I'm going to sue "Baskin Robbins" for not selling me brocolli spears!

[Tim]

Why sites like GetSteady or Amicurious don't have these problems? Just wondering..