Early in November, the popular online dating company eHarmony settled with the New Jersey Attorney General’s Division on Civil Rights (DCR) over allegations that the company violated the state’s anti-discrimination law by limiting its matching service to heterosexual couples. In 2005, gay New Jersey resident Eric McKinley had filed a complaint with the state, and in July 2007 the director of the DCR issued a finding of probable cause that eHarmony had violated the statute. In the face of mounting legal costs and the risk of crippling civil and administrative liabilities–stemming not only from the New Jersey investigation but other potential litigation, such as a recently certified class action in California state court–eHarmony agreed to create, by March 2009, a new matching service for same-sex couples called CompatiblePartners.net. By the terms of the settlement, the company was not found to have actually violated the law. As counsel for eHarmony Theodore B. Olson states, “We believe these claims are legally baseless, but fighting a case like this to the end of the line can be expensive and a distraction for any company.”

The settlement also requires the company to provide free registration for the first 10,000 users of CompatiblePartners, to post photos of successfully matched same-sex partners in the “Diversity” section of the eHarmony website, and to “enlist the assistance of a media consultant experienced in promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of gay and lesbian people in the media.”