EHarmony sued for excluding same-sex matches

2007-06-01 13:30:14 PDT -- Linda Carlson was looking for a partner and decided to try eHarmony, the Pasadena-based online dating service that advertises its ability to "deliver matches that have the foundation of compatibility based on a lifetime of joy." When the San Mateo County woman tried to log in, she was given two options: "man seeking a woman" or "woman seeking a man."

Neither suited Carlson, who was seeking another woman. Her complaint to the company this February got nowhere, and on Thursday, she filed suit in Los Angeles accusing eHarmony of violating a California law that prohibits businesses from discriminating based on sexual orientation.

"The case is about moving gay rights into this century," Todd Schneider, a lawyer for Carlson, said Friday. "It could not possibly be OK to say no black people allowed, or no Chinese people allowed, but for some reason, this Web site thinks it's OK to say no gay people allowed."

But Lanny Davis, a lawyer for eHarmony, said the company isn't violating California law by excluding gays and lesbians. He said the law prohibits only arbitrary discrimination that lacks a legitimate business purpose.

"Our rational business basis is that our research database comes from a clinical psychiatrist observing successful marriages vs. non-successful," observations based entirely on opposite-sex marriages, Davis said. He said a claim of discrimination against same-sex partners is comparable to a suit against a Japanese restaurant "for discriminating against people who like French food."

In a statement, eHarmony's chief executive, Greg Waldorf, said, "Nothing precludes us from providing same-sex matching in the future. It's just not a service we offer now, based upon the research we have conducted."

The lawsuit asserted, however, that, "there is no reason for eHarmony's policy of exclusion except for discrimination."

EHarmony was founded in 2000 by Nell Warren, an associate of James Dobson, leader of the conservative religious organiza- tion Focus on the Family. The company still promotes itself as a Christian matchmaking service, but has cut its ties with Dobson.

EHarmony says it has had more than 15 million subscribers since its founding and says its matches result in 90 marriages a day.

Unlike other dating services that allow participants to choose their own partners, eHarmony says it matches each subscriber with a compatible partner based on scientific analysis of a detailed questionnaire.

It's also the only prominent matchmaking service that excludes gays and lesbians, said Jeremy Pasternak, another lawyer for Carlson.

The proposed class-action suit seeks damages for any gay, lesbian or bisexual Californian who was denied access to the Web site or refrained from using it because of its policy, and an injunction requiring equal access.

The proposed class-action suit comes on the heels of a similar case against an online adoption service, Adoption.com, by two San Jose men whose profiles as a would-be adoptive couple were kept off the company's Web site.

The Arizona-based firm settled the suit last week with an announcement that it would no longer post profiles of California couples, rather than including same-sex or unmarried couples from California.

That doesn't appear to be an option for California-based eHarmony, Carlson's lawyers said.