eHarmony sued in California for excluding gays

eHarmony sued in California for excluding gays

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The popular online dating service eHarmony was sued on Thursday for refusing to offer its services to gays, lesbians and bisexuals.

A lawsuit alleging discrimination based on sexual orientation was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of Linda Carlson, who was denied access to eHarmony because she is gay.

Lawyers bringing the action said they believed it was the first lawsuit of its kind against eHarmony, which has long rankled the gay community with its failure to offer a "men seeking men" or "women seeking women" option.

They were seeking to make it a class action lawsuit on behalf of gays and lesbians excluded from the dating service.

eHarmony was founded in 2000 by evangelical Christian Dr. Neil Clark Warren and had strong early ties with the influential religious conservative group Focus on the Family.

It has more than 12 million registered users, and heavy television advertising has made it one of the nation's biggest Internet dating sites.

The company said the allegations of discrimination against gays were false and reckless.

"The research that eHarmony has developed, through years of research, to match couples has been based on traits and personality patterns of successful heterosexual marriages," it said in a statement.

"Nothing precludes us from providing same-sex matching in the future. It's just not a service we offer now based upon the research we have conducted," eHarmony added.

According to the lawsuit, Carlson, who lives in the San Francisco Bay area, tried to use the site's dating services in February 2007. When she was denied access, she wrote to eHarmony saying that its anti-gay policy was discriminatory under California law but the company refused to change it.

"Such outright discrimination is hurtful and disappointing for a business open to the public in this day and age," she said.

Carlson's lawyer Todd Schneider said the lawsuit was "about changing the landscape and making a statement out there that gay people, just like heterosexuals, have the right and desire to meet other people with whom they can fall in love."

Carlson's lawyers expect a significant number of gays and lesbians to join the class action, which seeks to force eHarmony to end its policy as well as unspecified damages for those denied eHarmony services based on their sexual orientation.

Though I reckon eHarmony probably could include the option, there are plenty of gay dating websites so I don't see that much of a problem. Maybe I'm looking at it from a straight guy's perspective, though.

Well, as a lesbian, I could care less that eHarmony doesn't want to have gay/lesbian clients. That's their loss (financially)... but I really wouldn't go out of my way to fight them. That's like wanting to sue some right-winged, anti-gay church, because they would refuse to marry a gay/lesbian couple. SHEESH... go elsewhere.

Personally... this is stupid, and needless. Why cause people to want to look at us in a negative light? Is it really worth it?

Yes, thousands of people use eHarmony, and it's a reputable dating service... so maybe that's what these people wanted. But, in all honesty, there are other ways to go about finding a date. You don't NEED this particular company.

It's their website, why should they have to offer a gay option? How is this lawsuit viable? There is no case. Idiot pansy bullshit.

-HECK!

I tried to register with "mandate", a dating service that hooks you up with "hot males", but they said I was female and they can't register me because (get this.....) I'm a straight female. Discrimination!!

You should totally sue. It's every girl's right to get hooked up with hot gay men, if she wishes so

It's like, if someone tries to set up a strait white male club it would get its ass sued off three ways from Sunday. So what if a website hooks up only strait people. Like there aren't other sites that hook up gay people.

-HECK!

it'a like that with everything though

Things can be set up in favor of minoritties all day and nothing is said abou it, but do the same for a majority and its discrimination. Bullshit

You know... they should try www.gaychristiandating.com if they feel strongly about doing an online dating service, that specializes in gays and lesbians, and stop with this crap.

Does gaychristiandating.com have a section for the hell bound such as I? I mean, I'm hell bound for not believing in heaven and hell, not hell bound for being gay...... cause I'm not.... I.... I swear! Come on, don't look at me like that.

I reckon the people suing eHarmony will run out of money first... and, seriously, that's pretty much how the whole thing will end.