eHarmony does not allow you to be a member if you’re gay. This I knew. What I didn’t know is that they were brought to court on discrimination charges, and that as part of a settlement they were required include those who are attracted to the same sex.
Checking the “Compatible Partners” site they consequently put up is worth a few laughs.
The front page uses the same design formula as the eHarmony site – on the top there’s a quick subscription form, followed by a description. However, there are a few key differences between the front pages of both sites:
- Compatible Partners makes no mention of the word “couples”, unlike the eHarmony site. In its place is, you guessed it, “partner.”
- No pictures of couples, unlike eHarmony. The closest we get is a single shot of two people from the abdomen down holding hands.
- They reeeeally overdo the whole “gay” thing. ie. We offer a diverse pool of gay singles of all ages, races and religions. Among our most popular demographics are: Christian Gay Singles, Jewish Gay Singles, Black Gay Singles, and Senior Gay Singles.
I’m guessing that this content was written up by someone who has had very little exposure to people of different orientations. You don’t need to reword anything to cater to people of different orientations. People are people, and in as much as relationships go, we all go about it the same way.
Eh well. That’s why I was on the free and LGBT-friendly OKCupid.
Comments
4 responses to “Compatible Partners – “Gay” Dating Site”
I may be mistaken, but I believe that eHarmony is/was created/run by someone from the fundamental Christian movement. That might help to understand where their coming from, especially the emphasis on “acceptance”.
. . . Did you read the court case? . . . They made it quite clear why they did not have a GLBT section.
The system relies on hetero experience and behavior. Their statistics and collected information which was used to train the underlying neural network and modify the Big5 analysis is all from hetero relationships.
It is like sue in a plumber because she is not doing electrical work . . . or Amtrak for not going to London . . . or a burger joint for not selling sashimi . . . or women’s clothing stores not selling men’s stuff . . . discrimination!
The “heterosexual experience” is no different than what lesbians and gays go through in relationships.
If you were given a journal of someone’s relationship that detailed what they went through – and weren’t given names – I’d argue that you would not be able to tell if it was a same sex or opposite sex relationship.
Some sites, such as OKCupid and PlentyOfFish, get this. Both have a gallery of questionnaires and questions for their users to help determine what kind of person you are – and these questions are the same regardless of your orientation.
I suspect eHarmony’s failings to grasp just how the same we are has much to do with its conservative roots, as Jeremy pointed out.
“heterosexual experience” sounds as lame as “practicing homosexual”.
“Tommy booked a cruise to the Caribbean for a heterosexual experience.” VS “Leah joined an arts club for practicing homosexuals.”
Love is love is love.
Intolerance is ignorance is fear is pathetic.