eHarmony Blog.com

[JP and Amanda Duffy, an eHarmony success couple whom we quoted and discussed with on the One-Night-Stand article last April, and former US solicitor-general Ted Olson give the Wall Street Journal an interview.]

Discordant Voices Among eHarmony’s Customers

by Dale Buss, WSJ, dated 27 November 2008

Amanda Brophy and J.P. Duffy met on eHarmony.com in 2006. Each appreciated the dating site’s dedication to facilitating long-term relationships — and the Christian background of the founders. Mr. Duffy, media director at the Family Research Council in Washington, and Ms. Brophy, an art teacher from Annapolis, Md., married last fall.

But now the Duffys are disappointed with eHarmony.com because the Pasadena, Calif.-based company just capitulated to an anti-discrimination lawsuit and agreed to launch a separate site aimed at matching homosexuals with suitable partners. A gay match-seeker in New Jersey filed a complaint, and the state’s attorney general found probable cause that eHarmony had violated New Jersey’s nondiscrimination statute.

“EHarmony’s success didn’t come from its slick advertising campaigns,” said Mr. Duffy. “It was their high moral standards, because they rose above the ‘hook-up’ mentality of their competitors, and because they were openly helping people find marriage partners.” Mr. Duffy is hardly alone among Christian conservatives in his disappointment with eHarmony.

The complaints among this group are twofold. First, there is the concern that homosexual activists have succeeded in taking a private business hostage. Why should eHarmony have to serve every type of clientele? Do Jewish dating sites have to serve Christians? Can meat-eaters demand a hamburger at vegetarian restaurants? Full article at WSJ