eHarmony’s Unholy Spin…

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The spin doctors are in!

Newsweek‘s Lisa Miller recently wrote on a gay couple’s lawsuit against dating site eHarmony, which prohibits same-sex couples.

The site claims that they haven’t calibrated themselves for the queers and, thus, cannot accommodate our allegedly unique dating styles. They also justify their discrimination by saying they’re marriage oriented and, since gays can’t marry, they’re just following the law of the land.

We’ve always doubted their arguments, but Miller falls for it hook, line and stinker!

Consider this confounding statement: “eHarmony does not reject gays–it simply doesn’t accept them: the only choices on the site are ‘man seeking woman’ or ‘woman seeking man.'” First of all, there’s no difference between “rejection” and “non-acceptance.” They both boil down to discrimination. And gay activist Sean Kosofsky agrees, writing:

How can you possibly say that discrimination is not occurring when you admit you don’t accept certain people? By using language the excludes people from the outset, you are overtly discriminating.

Even more disturbing, we think, is Miller’s next sentence, which amounts to nothing more than company-provided propaganda:

A company lawyer explains that eHarmony makes matches based on unique scientific research into what makes heterosexual unions work; it hasn’t done the same kind of work on gay unions, though it doesn’t rule out such research in the future.

To her credit, Miller does highlight founder Neil Clark Warren’s ties with the Christian right, a subculture geared toward marriage. Unfortunately, she does nothing to discredit their claims.

Many of you may recall our interview with “love doctor” Helen Fisher, who works with eHarmony’s rival, Chemistry.com. Fisher’s spent the majority of her career studying attraction and, in fact, is one of the world’s most respected romance researchers. Over the course of that interview, our editor asked Dr. Fisher if she has found any difference in how gays and straights pick their mates. Here’s her response:

…I would object seriously to [creating sexuality-specific compatibility tests], because I don’t think gays are any different than straights, but the one preliminary test I did…my gay population chose exactly the same as my straight population. No difference.

Newsweek‘s Miller must have missed that exchange, because she seems more than willing to regurgitate eHarmony’s incomprehensible, dangerous, discriminatory justifications. And it’s quite unattractive.

[Navy Heart by Robin Tolbert]

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