eHarmony forced to offer same-sex dating services; Update: And now, a class-action lawsuit
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So, this is “progress?” eHarmony, a Christian-targeted dating website, gets sued by a gay man demanding that the business match him up with a same-sex partner. The New Jersey Attorney General intervenes on behalf of the gay plaintiff and forces eHarmony to change its entire business model. To be clear: The company never refused to do business with anyone. Their great “sin” was not providing a specialized service that litigious gay people demanded they provide. This case is akin to a meat-eater suing a vegetarian restaurant for not offering him a ribeye or a female patient suing a vasectomy doctor for not providing her hysterectomy services. Sadly, eHarmony has settled . I wish they hadn’t, but I understand the decision given the chilling antics of the anti-Prop. 8 mob. The company agreed not only to offer same-sex dating services on a new site, but also to offer six-month subscriptions for free to 10,000 gay users. Behold the submission:
Coming soon to EHarmony — Adam and Steve.
The Pasadena-based dating website, heavily promoted by Christian evangelical leaders when it was founded, has agreed in a civil rights settlement to give up its heterosexuals-only policy and offer same-sex matches.
EHarmony was started by psychologist Neil Clark Warren, who is known for his mild-mannered television and radio advertisements. It must not only implement the new policy by March 31 but also give the first 10,000 same-sex registrants a free six-month subscription.
“That was one of the things I asked for,” said Eric McKinley, 46, who complained to New Jersey’s Division on Civil Rights after being turned down for a subscription in 2005.
The company said that Warren was not giving interviews on the settlement. But attorney Theodore Olson, who issued a statement on the company’s behalf, made clear that it did not agree to offer gay matches willingly. “Even though we believed that the complaint resulted from an unfair characterization of our business,” Olson said, “we ultimately decided it was best to settle this case with the attorney general since litigation outcomes can be unpredictable.”
The settlement, which did not find that EHarmony broke any laws, calls for the company to either offer the gay matches on its current venue or create a new site for them. EHarmony has opted to create a site called Compatiblepartners.net.
Warren had said in past interviews that he didn’t want to feature same-sex services on EHarmony — which matches people based on long questionnaires concerning personality traits, relationship history and interests — because he felt he didn’t know enough about gay relationships.
eHarmony had been previously sued by a lesbian looking to force the company to match her up with another woman and by a married man who sought to force the company to hook him up in an adulterous relationship.
Perhaps heterosexual men and women should start filing lawsuits against gay dating websites and undermine their business. Coerced tolerance and diversity-by-fiat cut both ways.
***
GayPatriot West gives eHarmony’s capitulation thumbs down.
Update 4pm Eastern 11/20. Geez. Now, a California judge has approved a class-action lawsuit by gays against eHarmony. When it rains, it pours:
(onlinedatingmagazine.com – November 20, 2008) A California Superior Court judge has certified a class action lawsuit against eHarmony.com for discrimination against gays and lesbians in California. The news comes one day after eHarmony settled a case in the State of New Jersey where a gay man accused the company of discrimination. In that settlement, eHarmony agreed to open up a service that matches gays and lesbians.
That announcement had no affect in the California case, which is moving forward.
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Oh, whatever. If you all want to hate gay people so much that you twist and distort reality to such an extent as you obviously do; then go ahead. I think I’m finished trying to argue against the grotesque illogic of it all. Just know this: your side is losing. Homophobia isn’t acceptable any more (at least, in civilised society it’s not. It’s a-ok in conservative circles, it seems). Even as the religiosity of Americans remains very high, acceptance and tolerance of gays is growing and growing and growing. I know you’d love more than anything to ensure gay teenagers grow up knowing their own country rejects them, but it won’t always be that way. Just keep that in mind the next time you decide to blow millions of dollars on lying to American citizens in order to strip gays of their rights.
This childishness is to be expected from people whose intense hatred and fear of gay people essentially boils down to “Yuck!”, but I’d like to inform you just one more act of stupidity on your part in this thread. My username, “Omu” is Japanese for ‘Owl’ – which is a bird. So distorting my user name to “Emu” – another bird – and attempting to use it with contempt and as a pejorative is just plain stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid people.
Just one last question: What did gays ever do to you? I would guess they must have done something pretty horrible to you, or your family, to warrant such massive hatred?
Fret not, there will come a day that the “religous” dissapear and many will wonder what happened. At that point…you should be very afraid.
Well, I’m glad we agree that religion will eventually die. People will realise that faith in a God is not only unreasonable and irrational, it’s ridiculous and every one will get on with their lives. I fear this will not happen for a very, very long time. In any case, gay marriage is coming; deal with it.
Omu…you missed the point. Never mind.
You think there is a general hatred of gay people here? Clearly, you are ignorant.
There is an intense hatred of being told that our religious belief are irrelevant. You really shold be capable of seeing the difference.
I don’t hate gay people. I’ve known many gay people over the years. Friends, co-workers, acquaintances. Nearly all were nice people. There is of course jerks in every walk of life, but that’s the way it goes.
This is about a lawsuit forcing a business to run that business in a way that it chooses not to. It’s not discrimination. Unless you’re talking about discrimination against eHarmony.
Like cries of RAACCCIISSTT we’ve pointed out here… GAY HAAATREEEED I suppose can be added to that list.
It seems when rationality escapes the left, they simple scream racism, hatred and so on. It’s a shame too. Because it dilutes those cases were disgusting racism and hatred are in fact at work.
As much as gays have a right to live their life as they would, others have a right to their lives as well. It works both ways. Seems you haven’t figured that out yet. Here’s hoping you do.
Omu would be irritated because we reproduce, and if there were a way to sue or decapitate that, they would. Anything normal is fair game with this bunch that cannot think rationally.
I’ve had just about enough of squishy hysterical crybabies accusing people who disagree with them of hate and bigotry because those people believe that words mean things. You casually sling around words like homophobia (a word which, incidentally, is becoming as meaningless as the word ‘racist’ is) because people believe that marriage means what it has meant for millennia, and they are offended that a fringe special interest group is attempting to appropriate the term in order to force themselves into the mainstream. It is a cheap, punk-ass slur and wholly inaccurate.
Let me be clear — I don’t care if gays enter into legal, civil domestic partnerships and are granted the same legal rights and benefits as married couples. It is none of my business. I do care, however, when they attempt to fundamentally change a culture that I revere.
All I ever hear from you lefties is ‘diversity’ and ‘tolerance’ (between the pejoratives, at least) but those terms only matter to you if I lay down my principles and start thinking like you. You don’t have to accomodate anyone… you just mock people who believe in God and disparage people who hold a more traditional world view than you do as ‘knuckle draggers.’ You have zero tollerance for any view that doesn’t fit into your little life bubble. It’s the way that six year olds behave.
You assume that opposing the legalization of gay marriage amounts to an unacceptance of gays generally, and that is a load of crap. I have lots of gay friends, and I wish them all happiness. They know my views about the marriage issue, though, and they aren’t ignorant enough to consider me a homophobe because of it, because they know that I neither fear nor hate them. We simply disagree.
You are most certainly a Conservaphobe, but try to make an effort not to project your shortcomings onto everyone else. I don’t hate you just because we disagree. That you throw hate labels around as liberally as you do (pun intended) says way more about you.
The only place they have marriage rights is where judges have granted rights by judicial fiat.
Touché, went right over his head. Perhaps we should send him to Iran or Saudi Arabia, I hear they are real “tolerant” of gay people there. Maybe he can convince them to change their ways
Don’t worry though, Europe will soon join them and the once liberal utopia will fall under Sharia Law. If he manages to live through all that, he’ll be begging for the old glory days when those Christians were around who hated the sin but loved the sinner. Do you think he’ll take his mark on his hand or head? My vote is head.
Kudos,CantCureStupid!!!It would be nice if they would shut the hell up about it….maybe even shut the closet door behind them.
I love it! Omu loses the argument so he declares that we are all haters.
Omu, you’re a joke. You obviously help enforce stigmas against consenting polygamists etc, then attempt to label commenters on here as bigots. How are you not embarrassed??? Pathetic.
Christians need to grow a pair…
By the way, Omu. Don’t try claiming again that the sophisticated argument on here boils down to “Yuck.”
We all know that it really means that you simply don’t have a logical reply.
Here’s another reason why you do it. You WISH that everyone on here had no better argument than “Yuck.” Sorry to disappoint you. Get a grip. Some gay commenters on here have debated you on this. They obviously don’t think “Yuck.” Many of us don’t think “Yuck.”
In fact, I actually don’t really even have a problem with gay marriage. However, you’re disgusting hypocrisy really pisses me off.
So let me ask you this. Does the polygamist lifestyle really bother you so much that you can’t bring yourself to support it?
If by people, you mean “me and others” you’ll have to wait at least until I’m dead. I’m not losing my religion–my faith–anytime in this lifetime. Too sure of it.
Oddly enough, I’m considered a fool by many for believing in God. Truth is, I’d be a fool not to…
Ni Hao, Omu. Yes, I know that is in Putonghua… what you might call “Mandarin” chinese, but I prefer the Mandarin dialect Zhongyuan, even though it is easier to get novels and scientific papers in both pinyin and Jianhuàzì in Guoyu.
You see, some of us, (such as myself, since philology is a an avocation and a guilty pleasure,) specialize in Altaic, Sinitic language families… and yes, even Japanese (which doesn’t seem related to anything, excepting Korean — and that relationship is so distant that it is the most feeble sort of a relative imaginable… [grin]).
So, you might want to be careful with your indictments of people’s intellect. Some of us might call you an “Emu”, (Emu: relative of an ostrich, but twice as ugly, 3 times as vain and 4 times as dumb), and mean just that. I am just such a person. Too bad you aren’t bright enough to make the connection.
BTW, I will point out that Omu might just as easily reference:
Omu, Hokkaido, Japan
Omu, South Korea
Ode Omu, Nigeria
OMU: “the man” in Romanian
Omu: generic Bird in Hawaiian
Omu rice, a popular bento-box dish
Mt. Omu in south central Romania, rising to 8225 ft (2507 m)
So, unless you’ve put up a sign, which should we choose? See, you’ve managed to be witty, by half, if you see the point.
But, you say it is an “owl”, alrighty then. Could you be more specific?
“fukurō” refers to owls without ‘ears’,
“zuku” and “mimizuku” are somewhat less common terms for owls with ‘ears’, such as various types of Scops owl and the Eagle Owl.
A proper name, perhaps? We can’t be expected to know the name of your pets, silly goose. (That’s English for “goose”, you know…).
While we’re on the subject, how many languages do you speak? I doubt more than 1, you probably looked at the panels in some translated Manga and thought: “hey, Omu=Owl! how neat, people’ll think I’m Japanese…! I can show how smart I am and how dumb those Conservative trogs are! Yay for me!”
But chum,(in both senses)in no dialect of Japanese, Korean, Tai, or any of 7 dialects of Chinese I speak is *Omu* an *owl*
Of course, you could be referencing a slang usage, since “Omu” in Japanes does loosely translate as “parrot”…
All your thinking has the same “public high school” quality to it.
Good night.
Did you not know that in the not too distant past, the Government DID make couples go and get bloodtests and could refuse them marriage licenses based on what was discovered from said tests?
Did they give you a free brown uniform, jackboots and armband when you picked up those talking points? I would think so, because making you pay for it would be hypocritical…not that tat would stop tugs like you.
You must not get “Logo” where you are.
Results 1 – 10 of about 980,000 for gay dating service. (0.19 seconds)
Results 1 – 10 of about 764,000 for heterosexual dating service. (0.20 seconds)
Numbers DON’T LIE.
So, tell me again just exactly why this chode felt the need for eHarmony to cave to his demands? I guess he couldn’t find any other site that he could get a date from, hey?
Must be a shortage of Gay Nightclubs maybe?
Results 1 – 10 of about 378,000 for gay nightclub. (0.25 seconds)
Results 1 – 10 of about 207,000 for heterosexual nightclub
My, my, my…all that discrimination towards gays. What a pity.
Disingenuous pukes.
Well…maybe he was being inundated with all the straight porn and just could not find any gay porn…?
Results 1 – 10 of about 18,500,000 for gay porn. (0.07 seconds)
Results 1 – 10 of about 784,000 for straight porn. (0.14 seconds)
Oh the HUMANITY!!!!
Considering the rate and amount that it spits out the DU’s and Kos’ “talking Points” and failure to come up with any original topics or responses on it’s own, I would say the translation into “parrot” suits it perfectly
“Homosexual” and “Marriage” don’t belong in the same sentence.
I don’t deal with Oxymorons, EMU, I tear them up.
EMU A business proprietor has the right to refuse service to anyone, just as I have the right to refuse your opinion.
That is one of the best put downs of childish liberal pretensions I have seen. I love the smell of burnt liberals in the morning!
Thanks Retfireman for the stats-I was afraid if I googled the same thing I would hit with lots of spam.
GSP
“This is a Sparta!”
Wow. I hope you are not a business proprietor because this is about as untrue as it gets.
Granite in an earlier post mentioned about the APA-he’s correct; in 1972 at the APA Convention in Chicago gay protestors caused a riot and threatened to attack APA members at their homes and the like.
So the APA being good little kafirs, gave in and removed homosexuality as a deviant disorder for DSM-III.
For more information check out the book “Gay Rights or Wrongs” by Mike Mazzalongo
The one issue that I have with gays attempting to force society to cave into thier mindset is something called “Freedom of Association” in the US Constitution.
If what eHarmony is going through, its going to force me to establish policies for my future counseling practice and that my practice will be focused strictly on Christians heterosexual couples.
GSP
“This is Sparta!”
in your dreams sonny
the most powerful empire in the history of the world tried to crush christianity, all to no avail…and you think a few pink nazis will??
ouch!!!
Because this has been such a winning strategy for them?
Yup, knock one down and 10 pop up. It is the power of the Gospel, and not by man.
WOW! This thread is still moving.
This will be the core social issue, along with abortion, that conservatives MUST WIN.
Religion (specifically Christian) will not die, just go on a haitus for 7 years.
Fam – meanwhile Gov. Terminator is running around telling the RNC that the social conservative issues and supporters need to be off-loaded and the party move more to the center in order to win elections. Didn’t they just run that play a couple of weeks ago? And see the outcome? Wow…it really works!/sarc off
mike.musculus
Touche! hee hee You rock! Thank you
Let me get this strait. The deviates want to play with people with similar plumbing, so they need to break the water main that gives them life.
HMMMMMM!! strange thought. It is early in the morning.
I’ve also noticed that any thread on gay marriage attract far more comments than others and do seem to be the issues that motivate both consevatives and the liberal trolls. This is where we have to draw the line on liberal social engineering.
The problem is these threads are a drag on office/personal productivity. I’m pretty sure they are causing a large part of the current economic downturn. If MM keeps this up we may facing a full-fledged depression.
Soooo aahhhh…anbody seen Omu?
Marriage and family is the basic structure of humanity. Everything else flows from it, and that’s a fight worth fighting for. Without the institution of the family, we wouldn’t even be here to argue politics and bailouts
The endangered species?
gunslingerpatriot
For more information check out the book “Gay Rights or Wrongs” by Mike Mazzalongo
This link doesn’t work.
The Omu is a night bird…it’s still too early to see if it will come to hoot.
very true my friend!! and all these little pink nazis will be able to get their mark of obedience…
and hell follows…
Gee Cheryl, are you itching for a fight this early?
You mean the Obama stamp of approval?
(I know what you mean though…a sad thought for those who refuse the free gift of eternal life…what a waste).
Probably out getting that tattoo removed that he thought said “Peoples Warrior” in Chinese calligraphy. Turns out the translation is actually a embarassing reference to bodily functions.
Well, after that royal spanking, I’m sure she has her head completely buried in sand but she’ll be back, these trolls have an itch they try to get scratched when they come here. By the way, has any of them been banned besides watershed?
P.S. Chrisitianity will not die, nor will it go on a hiatus. It has survived much more than what modern American liberals can throw at it. If anyone doubts, read it’s history, specifically those of it’s martyrs. They endured and are an example for all Christians today.
Familyman
no….just wonderin’
I realize your brains are mush. Deal with that. You’re the real hater EMU, and very misguided.
the 7 years of tribulation when the beast will raise his wounded head…and the church is raptured out of hear (I sure hope)
hear= here getting old…
OMU,, you will never drive out Christians,, now matter how much persecution you apply. You are merely supporting what goes on that the bible says will happen in the last days before Christ comes. It has been proven that the more persecution that comes, Christianity grows, just check out S. Korea China, and parts of Africa. You are right in one sense is that Jesus Himself said narrow is the gap to heaven and few will find it.
I do not discuss these things. They really don’t matter much. What matters happens in the present. Not what happened yesterday or what will happen tomorrow. Simply put, God is in His heavens and he knows. I don’t have to. I have to be obedient today and trust me, that is a hard enough task for me without all the other distractions.
Eharmony should have fought that suit tooth and nail.
Who is standing up for the right of a businesses to be what it wants to be?
Wow. So this thread is still going on? Okay, to add a little fuel to the fire, check out the Guardian article about the British lawyer using gay marriage to justify the legal recognition of polygamy in Britain.
But don’t worry, folks. Can’t happen here, right?
I don’t believe in the rapture, but I’ll guard your retreat if it happens.
Misscheryl
We all have a common ground. I call Natural Law and others call it religion. It all come down to the same belief which is knowledge of God’s grace on those who follow the order that was given to us.
Agree to the point that God is the creator and created the order of all things, ie, the nature of things, regardless of dogma.
Wow… this thread is STILL kicking.
Nice to see you all this beautiful morning.
Hate the sin, love the sinner. Very few people “hate” gays. However, most Americans believe that practicing homosexuality is wrong. The fact that the gay community is not only extremely vocal, but downright abusive to people that don’t bow to their whims doesn’t help. There aren’t many people willing to aid and abet someone who is committing a sin, whether it be theft, alcohol abuse, or in this case, sexual abuse.
To put it another way, if you’re practicing homosexuality, you’re doing it wrong.
Misscheryl. I believe this is our common ground for all of us on our Michille’s blog when Thomas Jefferson, appealed to unalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” He derived these ideas from Christianity and the study of Natural Law.
It is a service…however, the service that was being offered was dating opportunities for heterosexual, single or divorced individuals. They were NOT denying anyone, regardless of their sexuality, from seeking out a heterosexual relationship from their list of single or divorced individuals.
What this person and the courts have done, is tell the proprietor that he needed to add an entirely new and different service that was not previously in their business plan.
That is where this has gone wrong. It is the same as telling McDonalds that they must now begin selling spaghetti, since it was not previously offered, nor part of their business plan, but because someone wanted it and they did not offer it.
The fact that you idiots cannot see the difference is astounding and only shows that you don’t freaking care about what this guy wanted or did not want, only that your agenda is driven down people’s throats.
This is not tolerance. It is fascism. It is thuggery. All of you who support such things are nothing more than scum and I wouldn’t hit a dog in the a$$ with any of you.
Your search methods are flawed.
Results 1 – 10 of about 112,000,000 for porn -gay. (0.20 seconds)
Results 1 – 10 of about 18,900,000 for “gay porn”. (0.27 seconds)
Results 1 – 10 of about 18,600,000 for dating service -gay. (0.40 seconds)
Results 1 – 10 of about 1,150,000 for gay dating service. (0.18 seconds)
Results 1 – 10 of about 11,000,000 for nightclub -gay. (0.23 seconds)
Results 1 – 10 of about 319,000 for gay nightclub. (0.18 seconds)
I heard this on a Christian station back home once.
A man in a church congregation announced to his pastor that he was gay. He actually said “what are you going to do about it?”
The pastor said “If you’re wondering if you’re welcome here, anyone that confesses the name of Christ is welcome here. But if you want me to affirm what you do in bed at night, I can’t do that. It is a sin.”
Now, to all you chowder heads preaching about liberal tolerance and religious hatred: how is that scenario hate? What did the pastor do that was hateful or wrong? I’ll answer for you: NOTHING.
This is the way of the Christian. If you bothered going into a church once in a while you’d find out for yourselves how full of it you are.
Oh yeah: GO THREAD!
You are right that there is nothing wrong with this, but what the pastor says in his church is not really the point of this thread, or really one on the many many points that has been discussed on this thread.
Actually, Chap, just a few posts up one of the lefties were just saying how much those of us on the right seemed to hate gays.
From the prestigious Emu:
My purpose was to respond to that by illustrating something that happened once a number of years ago. Most Christians don’t hate anybody. My post points that out, and is relavant because it was brought up by past commenters.
All right. Admittedly I skip Emu’s post.
Sorry.
flawed? my ‘Search Methods” are listed right there.
I did a simple search, one time only. I did not spend an inordinate amount of time until I got the results that would suit any particular goal, which apparently you did.
If anyone’s is flawed, dare I say even dishonest, it would be yours.
I chose the words that you see, did ONE simple search one way, then changed it to the direct opposite. That is all.
Now, you can spend all day doing search after search, over and over, until you get the results you are looking for, however, I don’t have that kind of time.
Try not to be quite so disingenuous next time, `k?
I am done with this thread. there must be better things to do than to continue going on and on showing the trolls, (Emu, MP et al) just what hypocrites and thugs they are.
Doing so is like attempting to make Himmler see why his philosophies are wrong. It will never happen, they are far too brainwashed to be deprogrammed.
You are exactly correct.
Yet again I have to say…irreconcilably opposite worldviews.
God vs. Satan
God wins.
Here’s the link again (I hope it works this time)
I own the book and its available on Amazon.com
GSP
“This is Sparta!”
I am still having problems making the link work and would encourage you to check it out on Amazon.com
Sorry my geek skills aren’t working today
GSP
“This is Sparta!”
gunslingerpatriot,
gunslingerpatriot,
The problem was that when you select text and click the “link” button, the popup window contains:
If you already have the complete link, you need to delete that text (or paste over it when it is highlighted). Instead, you pasted your link after that text, so your link looked like the following and didn’t work…