The Christian online dating service eHarmony has agreed to settle a California lawsuit that claimed their site discriminated against homosexuals.
eHarmony was founded by conservative Christian Neil Warren, who is a vocal supporter of traditonal heterosexual marriage. Although the site provides matchmaking services for Jewish, Hispanic, black, Christian, and seniors, eHarmony has resisted the including a gay and lesbian section since it launched in 2000. Then in 2008, under the terms of a previous lawsuit, eHarmony created a online dating service for gays and lesbians called compatiblepartners.net. However this new site was totally separate from eHarmony.
Under a proposed settlement, filed on Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, eHarmony will have to link their straight website (eHarmony) to their Gay website (Compatible Partners) and allow people to use both without paying double fees. However as part of the settlement, eHarmony does not have to admit any wrong doing.
Plaintiff's attorney Todd Schneider says the company also agreed to pay about $500,000 to an estimated 150 Californians to settle the class-action suit, plus around $1.5 million in court and attorney's fees.
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