eHarmony Ventures Into Gay Matchmaking

eHarmony has launched an online gay and lesbian matchmaking service called Compatible Partners. But will gays and lesbians support it?

On the one hand, there has to be some resentment out there: After all, eHarmony was dragged kicking and screaming into gay matchmaking. The company, founded by evangelical Christian/clinical psychologist Neil Clark Warren, only agreed to create a same-sex dating service as part of a settlement with the New Jersey attorney general after a gay man sued for discrimination back in 2005 because eHarmony refused to accept gays as clients.

Then again, if Compatible Partners delivers what it promises, maybe people will be able to forgive and forget.

Like the EHarmony site for heteros, Compatible Partners is for singles seeking "meaningful long-term relationships" and requires participants to fill out a lengthy questionnaire revealing their values, attitudes, personality traits and interests, which the service then uses to deliver matches.

FYI: The questionnaire for Compatible Partners is almost identical to the one used by EHarmony, with just a few minor modifications, according to The Wall Street Journal, which points out that there is a disclosure on the Compatible Partners homepage informing visitors that the site was developed "on the basis of research involving married heterosexual couples."

To be fair, that isn't necessarily such a bad thing. I think gay men and lesbians seeking committed relationships are looking for the same overall qualities in a partner that straight people seek anyway.

But what do you think? More specifically, will you single guys and girls make use of Compatible Partners, and do you think eHarmony is making a good faith effort to serve gay and lesbian singles through its new dating service?

(image courtesy of Getty)