eHarmony not in harmony with homosexual agenda

Well, a dating service is not a "public accommodation" like a restaurant or a hotel, so I don't think zeke's example applies. I hope e-harmony loses a lot of business over their policy, but I don't think the suit is valid.

 

It's well worth a trial and a court decision, though.

 

Not sure I agree with the premise of the lawsuit, because there are indeed other sites out there which offer dating services solely for homosexuals.

That being said, if you've ever done eHarmony's personality testing, it offers some of the best insights into you and your ideal mate I've seen. It's doubtful other sites (I've yet to see any hetero ones) offer as effective a personality test. So this woman is definitely being denied access to a superior service in that case.

It all boils down to it supposedly violating California law. Like it or not, she may have a case.

 

Doesn't everything violate California law?

 

Then what's to stop a heterosexual asking for the same treatment on a site like OutPersonals, or GayFriendFinder, or whatever? Aren't those sites designed specifically to cater to homosexuals? I'd bet the same people launching this lawsuit wouldn't be so sympathetic to that.

On this topic, I'll also bring up a case in Montreal I was reading about the other day. A young lady sat down on the patio for a gay establishment to order a drink and she was told it was a men-only establishment. She went to the human rights tribunal. If that was a straight person doing that to a homosexual person, there likely would have been protesting right there, not just a buried headline.

 

If they live in California, they apparently can file a lawsuit against it.

If this is more about publicity or sympathy, it's a different argument. It's not. It's about the lawsuit.

 

I don't know if the lawsuit has legs, but this level of purposeful exclusion (most likely for "religious reasons") is just bad business practice.

 

I agree that the lawsuit could succeed. I just don't think it should.

Somebody said they don't know what J-Date is. Isn't that a dating service for Jewish people?

There are all kinds of dating sites that cater to certain types of people. Are they all breaking the law? Does J-Date have offer to match up Christians or Muslims? It is a niche business for people who want to date within their faith.

eHarmony markets itself on the complexity of its matching services. We've all seen the commercials. To me, their argument that they are not equipped to handle same-sex couples at this time makes some sense. Obviously, that was not a priority given the founder's background and beliefs. And if their research was based on heterosexual couples, wouldn't that make a difference?

I understand Yawn had his own agenda with this thread and he is once again proving hiimself to be a homophobic prick. So let's just ignore his bullshit and move along. This is an interesting topic with some valid arguments on both sides.

 

So, maybe it's just a large niche business. Chinese restaurants lose my business because I don't like the food they serve. I guess they are engaging in bad business practices, too?

 

OOP, they argued that very concept earlier. Imagine, instead of excluding gays by NOT offering gay matches on their menu, eHarmony instead exluded blacks by not offering black matches on their menu.

The restaraunt analogy is a good one but it falls apart at some point.

And I don't agree with the premise of the lawsuit. Rarely, however, do our beliefs jibe with the law.

 

So J-date is wrong, too? What about dating sites marketed directly to homosexuals?

 

Evidently.

Someone said it pretty clearly before. Gay people are permitted to use the service (I assume anyone can sign up...). But if a gay man signs up and doesn't like being matched up with a woman, it's a matter of not liking the service provided. That's the same as a straight man who signs up and doesn't want to date any of the offered matches.

You can't really sue over that. In a sane world, anyway.