eHarmony.com agreed Tuesday to pay $500,000 and make its website more gay friendly to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by gays in California nearly three years ago.

The settlement in Los Angeles Court is pending a judge’s approval, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The eHarmony site currently provides links for Christian, black, Jewish, Hispanic, senior and local dating.

The company was founded by Neil Clark Warren, a psychologist and evangelical Christian, and had previously claimed that its match-making technology was designed only for heterosexual couples — rejecting users seeking same-sex partners.

As part of the agreement, eHarmony will add a “gay and lesbian dating” category to its main website that will send users to Compatible Partners, a site eHarmony already had launched for gays as part of an unrelated settlement with New Jersey’s attorney general in 2009.

Compatible Partners site will also display the eHarmony logo “in a prominent position,” and will state that the service is “brought to you by eHarmony.” The site currently states that it is “powered by eHarmony.”

California residents who have filed written complaints with the company will receive $4,000 each from the settlement funds.

Tags: Dating and Recreation, eHarmony, Internet, Matchmaking, Websites

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