Eharmony gay dating site

EHarmony's gay dating site takes company into unfamiliar market

Once viewed as unwelcoming to the LGBTQ community, popular online matchmaker eHarmony has gone through a queer-friendly rebranding of late. The site, which boasts more than 2 million messages a week, began offering same-sex matches in This winter, it launched its first queer-inclusive commercial, featuring a lesbian couple. The pair wind up on the couch enjoying a pint of ice cream and going in for another peck. Launched in by Neil Clark Warren and his son-in-law, Greg Forgatch, eHarmony was different from most dating sites: Rather than allow members to pore through hundreds of profiles, it paired them based on a lengthy compatibility quiz. Publicly, Warren — a clinical psychologist, seminary professor and devout Christian — claimed that was because he had no expertise when it came to gay dating. But in , before same-sex marriage was recognized in most states, he told USA Today , "We don't really want to participate in something that's illegal. As eHarmony continued to grow, though, Warren distanced himself from the group.

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A significant distinguishing factor between dating sites eHarmony and Match. Moreover, eHarmony does not allow members to browse for matches or communicate directly with each other. The site uses member preferences and an elaborate compatibility questionnaire to match candidates and only allows communication between profiles that match. Members on eHarmony are typically looking for long-term relationships.

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In , an individual filed a complaint in New Jersey against eHarmony, because it did not offer a same-sex matching service. To that end it hired Fifteen Minutes to aid the PR campaign. However, Paul Breton, director of corporate communications for eHarmony, said that while some of the PR for the launch of Compatible Partners was laid out in the settlement, the timing of the PR plan was up to eHarmony. Breton said the PR campaign around the launch includes media outreach to print, online, and broadcast outlets nationwide, as well as social network efforts.

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81-year-old eHarmony founder on gay marriage and Tinder

In July , Neil Clark Warren came out of retirement to become chief executive officer. Warren closed unprofitable international operations, switched advertisers, made changes to the board, [13] and bought back stock from Sequoia Capital and Technology Crossover Ventures. In , eHarmony announced their questionnaire would now be optional for users.

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