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"After over two years in court, a Southern California law firm representing eHarmony has settled a class action lawsuit brought against them by gay and lesbian users who were turned away from the dating site. According to The Los Angeles Times, eHarmony has agreed to alter their website so that it is more accommodating for those interested in same-sex matches and to pay out a settlement to those filing the complaint. Of course, this decision is not without controversy. Last year, eHarmony created Compatible Partners, a dating site specifically for &amp;amp;#8220;serious relationships for the gay and lesbian community.&amp;amp;#8221; Compatible Partners uses the same match-making tools and surveys that eHarmony is known for. But it&amp;amp;#8217;s still a separate site. And that&amp;amp;#8217;s the problem. Lawyers representing the class action group explain that having a separate site still suggests a discrimination factor. After much deliberation, eHarmony has decided to change its own site so that users will soon be able to select &amp;amp;#8220;gay and lesbian dating&amp;amp;#8221; directly from the eHarmony homepage. As for the monetary settlements, the article explains that between 100 and 130 &amp;amp;#8220;California residents who have filed written complaints with the company or provide other written evidence that they attempted to access EHarmony&amp;#x27;s services between May 31, 2004, and Jan. 25, 2010, but were unable to because they were gay or lesbian, will receive as much as $4,000 per person from the settlement funds.&amp;amp;#8221; I&amp;amp;#8217;ve heard both wonderful and terrible things about eHarmony. A friend from high school met her now husband on the site; he was her first match! On the other hand my good friend HGL (Handsome Gay Lawyer; he insists that I refer to him as such when chatting about him on Smitten) hoped to sign up for the site when he found himself newly single a few years ago. He was, sadly, turned down. If I were to sign up for a dating site, I probably wouldn&amp;#x27;t go with eHarmony. I&amp;#x27;d have a hard time being a part of something that rejects potential users based on their sexualities. We all want to find love, right? What do you make of this eHarmony news? Is it fair? Should dating sites geared toward gay or lesbian matches also have sections for people looking for straight matches? Have you tried eHarmony? Do you know anyone they turned away? Further reading&amp;amp;#133; * Was this woman turned down by eHarmony because she prefers younger men? * Is anything not OK when it comes to a friend&amp;amp;#8217;s sexuality? * Same-sex marriage is now legal in Mexico City! More Ways to Get Glamour You could win $50,000 just for registering or logging in to Glamour.com! Sign up for Glamour.com&amp;#x27;s Style Tips of the Week and Beauty Tip of the Day newsletters! Add Glamour to your iGoogle homepage. Follow Glamour on Twitter. Photo: Jupiter Images. Image used for illustrative purposes only."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/smitten/2010/01/eharmony-reaches-agreement-in>