"I call complete bullpoo on both these rationales. Healthy long-haul relationships look the same all over the world, and all over the demographic map. If Warren needs to see more data before he accepts that, he should go out and gather it. There's no shortage of happy gay couples to study. And the financial incentive is obviously there—so what's stopping him?"
First off, does anyone beleive that the dynamics of male/female, male/male and female/female relationships are "the same all over the world and all over the demographic map" as Seth contends? If something so basic, and so major as the gender to which you are attracked is different from someone else, how can one presume that compatibility would have the same parameters for both hetero and homosexual relationships? I would personally assume that the dyanmics of each of those three types of relationships would be quite different.
As for Seth demanding that eHarmony go out and gather data so they can serve the homosexual market; thats bullshit. eharmony serves a particular niche in the market, heterosexuals looking for a long term relationship, preferably resulting in mariage. Seth needs to understand that this is market market segmentation and niche marketing, not his ilk crying discrimination like a spoiled child. eHarmony targets its specific market for its service. It also rejects a reported 16% of applicants. I would assume that if they wanted to make more money, or garner greater market share, they could be less selective amongst the heterosexual clientele. They don't, they reject 1 in 6. Maybe these are people just looking to hook up, maybe they are commitment-phobic. The point here is that eharmony serves a specific niche.
As to their 29 points, however valid their research is, I would assume that data gathered on heterosexuals would not translate that well to homosexuals. Playing devil's advocate, could you not see eharmony being sued by gays for opening their service to that group using the current questionnaire, and the gays contending that the questionnaire is ill-suited to their market segment?
