Online dating site eHarmony has finally landed a date with a jury. Lesbian Linda Carlson’s lawyer filed the suit yesterday with the Los Angeles Superior Court and alleges the virtual breeding pool denied her because she’s gay. Though this may be the first lawsuit of it’s kind launched against the company, it’s hardly the first time they’ve come under fire for their anti-gay ways.
Rival dating company, Chemistry.com, recently launched an ad campaign deriding eHarmony’s discriminatory policies. Among the mud slinging clips, one will find one of a gay man wondering if his dick digging disqualified him from the site. eHarmony has since filed a lawsuit against Chemistry.com’s parent company, Match.com.
eHarmony’s homophobic stance shouldn’t be surprising. Founder Dr. Neil Clark Warren once peddled his relationship building “skills” on Focus on the Family’s James Dobson’s radio program. The organizations dissolved their official relationship when eHarmony went public, but many claim Warren kept the Christian inclinations. eHarmony’s defended its actions in the past, claiming that they’re marriage oriented site and since gays can’t marry, they can’t cater to the queens. They’ve also asserted that their extensive compatibility questionnaire - the one that helps them set up “soul mates” - has been designed for heterosexual couples and thus they can’t guarantee its gay effectiveness. We can (almost) guarantee that’s bullshit.
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If eHarmony simply isn’t offering service to gay people now because their “research” is based on straight people, then why did they feel the need to frivolously sue Chemistry?
Why is it when a company or individual disagrees with the homosexual lifestyle, they are automatically deemed a bigot and or a gay basher? It makes no sense to me. If we, as a culture, are supposed to be “tolerant”, shouldnt we also tolerate those who dont tolerate us? But in this postmodern society we live in, common sense and truth dont seem to matter much anymore.
If a company like erhamony advertised that they are exclusingely heterosexual, I think it would cause more concern among the population. If that is there stance, then why don’t they just say so upfront? I think hte reason they don’t is because they KNOW it is wrong and would have serious ramifications. Hence, they are biggots. Could you imagine the fall out eharmony advertised in the same way they do now, but discriminated against black people, or jews, or asians, etc.? I think people would more openly say that is wrong, Itbaffles me how it is not considered so with gay people. And to read the comment from a person who state he is gay and doesnt understand why people can’t be tolerant of intollerance, that even baffles the mind further.
[…] The people depicted in these ads do not look like people I want to date and they’ve also been accused of being homophobic (not the people in the ads, the company), so in my forays into online dating, I have never even […]
[…] Lisa Miller recently wrote on a gay couple’s lawsuit against dating site eHarmony, which prohibits same-sex […]
For us “normal” individuals I think its great. I am so tired of paying good money to a dating site to find its full of gays and lesbians. Thats not what Im there for. I love the idea that there is a site out there catered to the straight. If gays, lesbians, and all the other assorted types out there want to date …let em go to all the other sites out there that open the door to anything that wanders down the street!!!