A San Mateo County woman has filed a discrimination lawsuit against eHarmony, the popular dating website. The discrimination lawsuit is filed under the premise that by not offering a specific type of service, the company is discriminating against those who would use that service. Make sense to you? Me either!

But here is what the article says:

Linda Carlson was looking for a partner and decided to try eHarmony, the online dating service that advertises its ability to help people “find the love of their lives.” 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 Pasadena company in 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,” Davis said. Those findings are based entirely on opposite-sex marriages, he said.

Davis said suing eHarmony for discriminating against gays is like suing a Japanese restaurant “for discriminating against people who like French food.”

Carlson’s lawsuit asserts 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 organization Focus on the Family. The company still promotes itself as a Christian matchmaking service, but has cut its ties with Dobson.

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

Unlike other dating services that let participants choose their own partners, eHarmony says it matches each subscriber with a compatible partner based on scientific analysis of a 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 the company to grant equal access to people regardless of sexual orientation.

I have several issues with this lawsuit. For starters, I am curious what type of “damages” Ms. Carlson feels she is owed. Does the fact that eHarmony does not offer a women seeking women category financially affect her in some way?

Secondly, I think it is important for the entire gay rights movement to come to grips with the fact that discrimination cannot take place when everyone is allowed access to the same service. The website does not disallow homosexual women or men from signing up for their service, they simply do not offer a service homosexual’s would utilize. Where is the discrimination?

Another important point was brought up by Ms. Carlsons own attorney when he said “It’s also the only prominent matchmaking service that excludes gays and lesbians”. So why not use one of the other prominent services which will glady accept Ms. Carlsons money and assist her in finding a woman?

If this lawsuit is succesful and eHarmony is forced to pay the woman “X” amount of dollars for “damages”, I hope someone takes the time out of their day to file lawsuits against companies like gaydatingnetwork.net, gaydatingagency.com, gayoptions.com or any of the numerous other dating agencies which exclude heterosexuals.

Don’t look for those news headlines anytime soon however, a Judge would surely throw the case out as being frivolous!

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