Midway through this week, a settlement between the New Jersey attorney general and the popular online dating service eHarmony sent ripples through both religious conservatives and gay rights activists’ circles.
EHarmony was founded in 2000 by a Christian psychologist whose books on love and relationships have been published by Focus on the Family. In the past, it has limited its match-making services to heterosexual couples.
In 2005, however, this policy led to a gay man’s complaint with New Jersey’s attorney general, saying eHarmony had violated the state’s antidiscrimination law. The attorney general agreed, and now the company is retooling its services with a separate website for homosexual match-seekers. And in addition to that, now all gays and lesbians who tried using the site over the past four years can file a class-action lawsuit against the company.
While gay rights advocates have hailed the decision and eHarmony’s proposed new site , frustration has also brewed on both sides of the debate.
A representative of the plaintiffs referred to the eHarmony offshoot – “Compatible Partners” – as a “separate but equal type of situation.”
And conservatives see the settlement as just that – “a settlement” – on what a company founded by an evangelical Christian should recognize as immoral.
Either way, it’s a telling sign that sexual orientation-based discrimination lawsuits are not going away.
Speaking of which, the largest gay and lesbian rights organization in New England called for a push for same-sex marriages in the entire region by 2012. Currently, Massachusetts and Connecticut are the only states in the country to allow same-sex marriage, though Vermont and New Hampshire have legalized civil unions. And even tiny Rhode Island got in with the anti-Proposition 8 protests after Election Day.
Vermont’s governor has already spoken out against a bill that would allow same-sex marriage in the state – legislation at least one state senator is planning on introducing next year.
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