A settlement has been reached in the case of Eric McKinley, a gay man from New Jersey, who filed a discrimination suit against eHarmony Inc. when the site refused to accept his same-sex personal ad and the online dating site has agreed to accept gay couples. Beginning in 2009, gays and lesbians can join all the desperate straight folk hoping that the site's patented "love of your life" algorithms will find them the man or woman of their homosexual dreams.

Neil Clark Warren, founder and owner of the site had previously come up with all sorts of fun excuses to exclude gay singles, the most popular being that the site was focused on finding a partner for life, but since most states didn't allow gay marriage, there was no point.

CONTINUED »

Ever since it first burst upon the scene in 2003 with its "scientific" approach to finding everyone's perfect love match, Dr. Neil Clark Warren's eHarmony has also disappointed gay men by only allowing them to find love matches with women. It's quite a bait and switch really, since many of the gays we know love filling out surveys, and the eHarmony signup process is a survey aficionado's wet dream.

In the beginning, we figured they hadn't yet configured their database to allow samesex matches, but it goes deeper and darker than that. eHarmony got its first big financial bump from "Dr." James Dobson of Focus on the Family, and remains beholden to the organization to this day.

The religious ties of the dating site run so deep that they even require their straight customers to be fully divorced before enrolling. That is the reason a California lawyer who is finishing up his divorce is suing the company. He thinks that women should decide for themselves whether or not he, as a still-married man, is worth the trouble. From the nature of his case, we suspect he is quite a handful, ladies, so don't say we didn't warn you.

Married lawyer sues eHarmony for refusing to help him find love [SFGate]
eHarmony and Focus on the Family [Daily Kos]
eHarmony [Official Site]

You can get so caught up in the details of your life . . . career, shopping, the gym . . . that you forget to have meaningful relationships. Naturally, everybody has a different idea of what makes for a meaningful relationship. Some believe that until they’ve plumbed the depths of another’s soul, even holding hands is imprudent, while others feel that if they don’t first plumb where the sun doesn’t shine, they have no means for entering into another’s soul.

(Solve)Dating, which has already provided our heterosexual counterparts with a classier-than-average dating site, is poised to connect gay men as well as lesbians. The site contains thoughtful reflections on many aspects of relationships and allows you to submit your own thoughts for possible posting.

The emphasis, of course, will be on forming an enduring relationship, though the 30 minute relationships won't be neglected.