Progressive culture warriors score a pyrrhic victory.
Dating site ChristianMingle must now admit gay users, after two gay men won a class-action claim against its owner, Spark Networks. But what have those men really gained for their trouble?
Given its design, ChristianMingle has no feature for gay users to find other gay users — everyone is simply put in the same network and must figure out who is gay and who is straight. The Wall Street Journal reports that Spark Networks has plans to accommodate gay users more specifically within two years, but they’re in the same boat as everyone else for the time being.
Nevertheless, while the suit has forced the site to provide minimally helpful service to the gay Christian crowd, gay Christian leaders continue to see little value in using ChristianMingle. “Nobody wants to have to search through a bunch of profiles of straight folks who are not interested in you,” as Gay Christian Network executive director Justin Lee put it.
In fact, this ruling does not seem to serve anyone: Not the heterosexual user base; not Spark Networks, which got sued into making unplanned changes; and not the LGBT community, which has no way of screening out all those heterosexual Christians gumming up their list of potential matches. Amazingly, websites that were designed around a certain biblical idea of marriage do not adapt well to those with different romantic ideals.
The presumption gay customers must be served wherever they go makes sense in the context of everyday economic transactions. But a dating site that is explicitly centered around religious commonality clearly cannot function properly if it is not legally allowed to put religious views into practice.
In order for a dating website to function at all, it has to be able to set some parameters for relationships.
One wonders, too, how far the demand for inclusivity should go. Now, ChristianMingle restricts users to either gay or straight relationships with a single individual — users can choose only whether they are listed as male or female, and identify which sex they are attracted to. But this restriction leaves the site open to the attack that it is refusing to cater to those with other gender identities and to those, such as the polyamorous, who do not believe in monogamous relationships. Are more lawsuits on the horizon?
In order for a dating website to function at all, it has to be able to set some parameters for relationships. And the good news is that the market caters to virtually every dating niche. Gay Christian dating services exist, and secular dating apps such as Tinder serve the wider gay community as well as heterosexuals. There are dating services for those seeking polyamorous relationships, and those who report having gender that varies along a spectrum. You do not even have to be sure what your gender is to find a site tailored to your romantic needs.
#related#Unfortunately, LGBT activists tend to ignore the equality and diversity that is already present in the market. “I am gratified that we were able to work with Spark to help ensure that people can fully participate in all the diverse market places that make our country so special, regardless of their sexual orientation,” read a statement from Vineet Dubey, an attorney representing one of the lead plaintiffs in the ChristianMingle suit. But we already have a diverse marketplace for online dating, and it was not created by filing class-action claims against Christian dating sites.
If America is not to descend into endless tension, legislators will need to become more comfortable permitting people to associate and date as they see fit. The Internet proves that the heavy hand of the law is not needed for private companies to fill in the gaps left by “discriminatory” dating sites, whatever those gaps may be. Don’t believe me? Check out Clowndating.com.