EHarmony Finds Real Harmony, in Court

Now that the Mormon Church is done cheerleading for Proposition 8, the anti-gay-marriage initiative in Calfironia, here's a new issue for the Latter-day Saints to get up in arms about: online dating site eHarmony will finally extend its services to the gay community.

The company reached its decision today to settle a legal fight with the New Jersey Attorney General's office.

Until now, eHarmony's much-publicized "29 dimensions of compatibility" have omitted rather one minor personal trait: sexual orientation. The relationship site has allowed for only heterosexual match-ups.

That fact drove New Jersey resident Eric McKinley to file suit against the company in 2005, saying that the site violated the state's discrimination law. Under today's settlement, eHarmony will pay New Jersey state division $50,000 to cover administrative costs and will pay McKinley $5,000.

While the company, which is based in Pasadena, California, will not make changes to include an option for same-sex searching on its main site, it will launch a sister site called "Compatible Partners" on March 31.

EHarmony denies any wrongdoing or violation of discrimination laws, saying that its failure to extend services to homosexual singles is in no way ideologically motivated. The company says that its "compatibility" research is based on data from thousands of opposite-sex marriages, and therefore is not a fair predictor of same-sex compatibility.

Politics aside, it's surprising from a business perspective that eHarmony has not voluntarily opened its matchmaking service up to the gay community. By failing to do so, it is shutting out a big source of revenue potential.

Other matchmaking sites like Lavalife.com, Match.com, and PerfectMatch.com all allow for same-sex pairings; but while eHarmony has gone so far as to create a sister site for heterosexual married users, it has made no such overtures to same-sex singles.

by Liz Gunnison