When it comes to the wondrous world of internet dating, there seems to be a site to match every personality. Quirky singles unite on the Onion’s personals site; those looking for the hot, redneck lesbian of your dreams need look no further than redneckandsingle.com. <?p>
With so many options for the LGBT community, why would we bother with a site that showed disdain for us from the start? Will we welcome the “formerly” anti-gay eHarmony’s new gay site, Compatible Partners, which launched Tuesday, with open checkbooks?
In 2000, we started seeing commercials about an internet dating service that helps folks find true love through a “Compatibility Matching System.” It’s patented, and oh-so-scientific. The site’s founder, Neil Clark Warren, based the system on his experience as a psychologist, where, evidently, he did not encounter any gays.
Not relevant? I don’t think we feel that way. In what we thought was a possible move to appease its gay critics, eHarmony sponsored Ellen‘s version of The Newlywed Game when she had Portia on as a guest in March, but the site actually is sponsoring the entire Newlywed Game series on the Game Show Network, so as Snarker said, it wasn’t exactly a “flash of gay good will.”
In any case, eHarmony is taking a load of heat from conservatives for launching Compatible Partners in the first place. They are accused of pushing the “gay agenda” and being bullied by the government. Are they in a lose/lose situation?
As the right-wingers start calling the site Gay Mecca, their evangelical base is sure to falter. And, really, are we going to give our time (and money) to a site that rejected us so vehemently for more than eight years when we can go to sites that included us from the start?
Would you use Compatible Partners to find your queer match, or shop elsewhere?
