Oh, joy! The happy day has arrived. eHarmony, the online dating service that has staunchly prohibited gay and lesbian people from joining since it's founding, today launched a site called Compatible Partners. The move is part of a settlement eHarmony reached with the state of New Jersey. The Attorney General there filed an action for discrimination against them in 2005.
In reponse to the suit, eHarmony's founder, Dr. Neil Clark Warren, had claimed that the reason the dating service didn't allow same-sex matching was because it's proprietary computerized matching system was standardized on straight couples. However, many gays and lesbians have viewed this as a flimsy excuse to blatantly discriminate against them, since gay and lesbian long-term relationships are not significantly different from straight relationships. Every other major online dating site provides same-sex matches, including Match.com and Chemistry.com (the latter actually arose in response to eHarmony's discriminatory practices).
The terms of the settlement provide that Compatible Partners will allow customers to identify themselves as "male seeking male" and "female seeking female". However, the site will include a disclaimer that says the compatibility-based matching system was developed solely for use by heterosexual married couples.
