eHarmony’s gay ads

"So, this is 'progress?'" asked Michelle Malkin in MichelleMalkin.com. To settle a discrimination lawsuit filed by a gay man, the Christian-targeted online dating service eHarmony has been forced to open a matchmaking service for same-sex couples. Maybe straight men and women should start suing gay sites—"coerced tolerance" cuts both ways.

Don't expect gay men and lesbians to rush to use eHarmony's new service, said the blog Queerty. The owner of eHarmony, Neil Clark Warren, has already made his feelings clear by coming up with "all sorts of fun excuses to exclude gay singles"—including the one where he says there's no point trying to help people form lifelong relationships if it's illegal for them to marry. Nobody "wants to get hitched by a homophobic matchmaker."

That's why eHarmony's policies seem self-defeating, said Liz Gunnison in Portfolio.com. "Politics aside, it's surprising from a business perspective that eHarmony has not voluntarily opened its matchmaking service up to the gay community. By failing to do so, it is shutting out a big source of revenue potential."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Still, you'd think that as a private business eHarmony would be free to make that choice, said James Joyner in the blog Outside the Beltway. "Of course, the creation of a separate site for gays—even if it's absolutely identical—will almost certainly lead to more suits in the future."