Source: Wall Street Journal, Reuters
eHarmony, Inc., which runs an online dating service for heterosexual couples, must now cater to a gay clientele, Wall Street Journal and other sources report.
The company also agreed to revise its anti-discrimination statements to make plain that it does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, according to a statement released by the office of New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram.
The shift in corporate strategy is the upshot of a settlement the California company reached today with Milgram's office, WSJ's Law Blog reports.
The settlement was announced by Division on Civil Rights Director J. Frank Vespa-Papaleo. "I applaud the decision of eHarmony to settle this case and extend its matching services to those seeking same-sex relationships," he said in a statement.
In its settlement eHarmony agreed to pay $5,000 to the original plaintiff who brought the case and $50,000 in "administrative" fees to the New Jersey AG's office, according to a statement released by the company [pdf format].
eHarmony was founded in 2000 by evangelical Christian Dr. Neil Clark Warren and had ties with the influential religious conservative group Focus on the Family, Reuters reports.
The website agreed in its settlement to provide a dating service with "male seeking a male" or "female seeking a female" options, the Attorney General's office said in a statement, according to Reuters.
eHarmony said it will launch the new same-sex dating site, named "Compatible Partners," by March 31.
In what WSJ's Law Blog calls "a novel claim to our ears", New Jersey's attorney general asserted that eHarmony violated the state's anti-discrimination law by not offering a same-sex matching service. New Jersey got involved following a complaint by Eric McKinley, a gay match-seeker in the state.
eHarmony has denied violating the law, claiming that its business model has been based on its expertise to date, WSJ reports. The company says it has researched thousands of opposite-sex marriages to understand what makes opposite-sex couples compatible.
McKinley's complaint will be dismissed as a result of the settlement, according to Reuters.
The company has agreed to ensure that same-sex users are matched using "the same or equivalent technology" as that used for heterosexual match-seekers, according to a statement released by the New Jersey attorney general's office. The statement says eHarmony agrees to charge same-sex users the same fees, and agrees to offer the "same service quality and terms of service" as heterosexuals.
But a document released by eHarmony makes clear that users of eHarmony.com will not be matched with users of the new site, CompatiblePartners.net, according to WSJ.
eHarmony also says that it will tell users of CompatiblePartners.net that its matches are "solely based on research involving married heterosexual couples."
eHarmony says in its statement that the warning "lets customers know that eHarmony, Inc. has not conducted research on same-sex couples so that they have the information they need to decide whether to use our service."
The statement suggests that the company has no intention to conduct the same kind of research for same-sex couples that they've conducted for heterosexual couples, which begs the question whether eHarmony really intends to provide the "same quality of service" to same-sex customers.
According to the Garden State AG's office, eHarmony has committed to a comprehensive advertising and marketing program for CompatiblePartners.net. It agreed to retain a media consultant to help the company find the most effective way of reaching the gay and lesbian communities. The media consultant will be experienced in promoting what the AG's office calls "fair, accurate, and inclusive" representation of gay and lesbian people in the media.
eHarmony, Inc. will post photos of same-sex couples in a special "Diversity" section of its website as successful relationships are created using the company’s same-sex matching service, according to the AG's office.
eHarmony also agreed to use photos of same-sex couples, as well as individual same-sex users, in advertising materials used to promote CompatiblePartners.net.
In March, lawyers in California brought another lawsuit against the company on behalf of San Francisco resident Linda Carlson, who was denied access to eHarmony because she is gay.
WSJ's Law Blog notes, "It's unclear how this settlement will affect that case," but a lawyer for eHarmony told the Journal, "Now that we're entering the same-sex matching market, we fail to see what the [California] plaintiffs could achieve through further litigation."
Source: eHarmony Settles With NJ AG; Will Offer Matching Service for Gays | Wall Street Journal - Law Blog
Suit forces eHarmony to offer gay dating service | Reuters
Statement from New Jersey Attorney General's office
eHarmony FAQ on settlement [PDF via WSJ]