Los Angeles – Dating site
eHarmony on Tuesday agreed to pay $500,000 and make its site more
"welcoming" to gay and lesbian customers, as part of the settlement
of a class action lawsuit brought by gays and lesbians in California, the Los Angeles Times reported.
In
an unrelated but similar case last year in New Jersey, eHarmony was ordered to
include gays and lesbians on its service, and in response launched a
separate dating site specifically for gays, called Compatible Partners.
The company
was founded by Neil Clark Warren, a psychologist and evangelical Christian, and
had previously claimed that its match-making technology was designed only for
heterosexual couples — rejecting users seeking same-sex partners.
Under terms
of the California
settlement, which is still pending court approval, eHarmony will add a "gay
and lesbian dating" category to its main website, which will in turn
direct users to the Compatible Partners site.
The company also agreed to place
the eHarmony logo "in a prominent position" on the Compatible
Partners site, and change the branding from "powered by eHarmony" to
"brought to you by eHarmony."
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u7iw9
(Los Angeles Times)
