Success Story: Kayla Donald #MetOnMingle<\/a> and found #love<\/a>. #onlinedating<\/a> #dating<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/VnkrBY2jQ6<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/rLeKAQjX6S<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014
\n @christianmingle<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
“Spark has engaged in a systemic and intentional pattern and practice of arbitrary discrimination against gays and lesbians throughout California by denying them full and equal services, accommodations, advantages and privileges in connection with many of its commercial dating services,”\u00a0reads the class-action complaint<\/a> filed in December 2013.<\/p>\n
As the Wall Street Journal points out,\u00a0a California\u00a0state law known as\u00a0the\u00a0Unruh\u00a0Civil Rights Act<\/a>\u00a0mandates that “all business establishments of every kind whatsoever” treat every person within the jurisdiction as free and equal regardless of sex, race, religion, marital status and sexual orientation, among other things.<\/p>\n
The suit against Spark states that, at the time of its filing,\u00a0individuals wishing to use the\u00a0Spark dating sites for\u00a0Christians, Catholics<\/a>, Mormons<\/a>, Seventh-day Adventists<\/a>, military singles<\/a> and black singles<\/a> could only choose from two options on the\u00a0home screens of these services: “a man seeking a woman” or “a\u00a0woman seeking a man.”<\/p>\n
![\"Christian](\"http:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.3664357.1467668579!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.png_gen\/derivatives\/original_620\/christian-mingle-signup-page.png\")
<\/p>\n
(christianmingle.com\/CBC News screenshot)<\/p>\n
\nLast week, approximately 2\u00bd years after the lawsuit was originally filed, Judge Jane L. Johnson of the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles County approved a settlement agreement<\/a> in which Spark agreed to modify its site and search features to include LGBT singles within two years.<\/p>\n
The company did not admit to any wrongdoing, but it did agree to pay each\u00a0plaintiff\u00a0$9,000 US\u00a0and cover the\u00a0$450,000 they had accumulated together\u00a0in legal fees.<\/p>\n
\n\nChristianMingle’s\u00a0homepage now asks users only for their gender. There are currently no options\u00a0for selecting the desired gender of one’s matches\u00a0throughout the sign-up process, in filling out a profile,\u00a0or in searching the site for matches once registered.<\/p>\n
Under the terms of the court agreement, this will change \u2014 though there’s a vocal contingent of people online who don’t believe it should.<\/p>\n
Twitter critics of the court decision are saying that it’s the result of a “bully verdict<\/a>,” an assault on religious liberty<\/a>,\u00a0or worse.<\/p>\n
Others though, are celebrating<\/a> the move as an act of inclusion for a group that, despite much progress, still faces discrimination and violence<\/a> on account of who they love.<\/p>\n
\n\nA HUGE win for the LGBT+ Christians. ? https:\/\/t.co\/E3sXo8KQ5D<\/a><\/p>\n
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\n @BrandanJR<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
“I thought ChristianMingle was a website for Christians to mingle,” wrote one commenter<\/a> on a forum post about the ruling.\u00a0“I guess that’s not allowed.”<\/p>\n
“Of course it is,” another person replied.\u00a0“And now it includes those Christians seeking a same-sex relationship \u2014 which many Christian churches<\/a> approve of.”<\/p>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"God-loving gay singles have won the right to mingle on the\u00a0world’s most popular\u00a0Christian dating site\u00a0\u2014 and\u00a0every other faith-based matchmaking network owned by its parent company, following a\u00a0California court ruling. Spark Networks, which owns ChristianMingle, JDate, and LDSSingles.com (“the largest dating site by Mormons for Mormons”), first came under legal fire in 2013 after two gay Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90631\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}