eDisHarmony
One unhappy fellow in New Jersey, Eric McKinley, is wreaking havoc with a successful online business. His problem is that he can’t find a gay lover on eHarmony, even though he presumably can find a match in innumerable other ways. There are, of course, similar sites that cater to homosexuals.
But obviously, we can’t permit someone to operate without catering to gays.
The owner, psychologist Neil Clark Warren, reportedly started eHarmony to help single people find a suitable spouse. He used his expertise to formulate criteria that would result in compatible matches. His criteria did not include same-sex matches.
And so the intrepid Attorney General of New Jersey brought enough legal pressure to force eHarmony into a settlement. From now on, gay people can use the service to look for the perfect life mate.
The plaintiff didn’t win a court decision. He merely enlisted the virtually unlimited resources of a state to threaten economic ruin of a private business. Legal blackmail still works.
Warren has said that he doesn’t know enough about homosexual relationships to set up a successful system. So what does the settlement really require? Must Warren become an expert on same-sex relationships, or is he free to offer second-rate services to homosexuals? Is he required to use the same criteria for homosexuals that he uses for heterosexuals even though he doesn’t know if they will produce acceptable results?
(Sigh)
The safe course would be to use precisely the same criteria and to sort results exactly as eHarmony would do for heterosexuals. To do otherwise would open eHarmony to additional discrimination claims. Best to pretend that homosexuals and heterosexuals are exactly alike in every way . . . er, except for that one thing.
If that doesn’t produce good results for the gay community, then the next suit will probably concern how eHarmony promotes its success rate.
“Unfair,” they will say; the success rate for heterosexuals is 80%, but only 40% for homosexuals. “Unfair,” someone will say; they shouldn’t be allowed to publish separate figures for straights and gays. “Unfair,” another will say; they shouldn’t be able to ask about your gender or orientation.
If I were Warren, I would sell the whole operation to some aspiring gay entrepreneur and retire to a beach somewhere – a beach with lots of girls . . .
