I don't think the people who run eHarmony should lose their freedom to
run the business the way they want. They are clearly not setting out
to harm anyone. They simply believe that heterosexual matchmaking is
different from homosexual matchmaking, and they've chosen to do one
and not the other. They have (or can have) any number of competitors
that make the other choice.
There is also a free exercise of religion issue. As I understand it,
the founder of eHarmony is an evangelical Christian and is
specifically setting out to promote and uphold the conservative
Christian concept of marriage, which is entirely heterosexual.
Nobody sues Jewish grocers to make them sell non-kosher meat. Do they?
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you substitute the word 'black' for
the word 'homosexual' in your comments above, (which is how _many_ but
not all GLBT activists would have you handle it) perhaps you can see
the problem. _Many_ LGBT (interchangeable with 'GLBT') activists
place themselves on the same level as during the black/white struggles
in the USA prior to the 1960s.
Regards Jewish grocers and non-Kosher products, the fellow across the
street from the Skokie Bus Station is Jewish, and operates a specific-
ally Kosher market. One day I was joking with him and said "Please fix
me a bologna and cheese sandwhich". His reply was "I will sell you the
bread and a slice of bologna, then I will sell you a slice of
cheese. What you choose to do with them when you get back to the bus
station is your own business." His deli market was a large, sort of
busy place, with many clerks on duty. But he (owner) always had a
nice sense of humor. Over the delicatesan counter was a large sign,
apparently due to complaints in the past: Entitled "Your Assurance of
Kazruth (or Kosher)it said: "When there are at least two employees on
duty at this counter, one will prepare your meat product. The other
will prepare your cheese or other dairy (like potato salad)
product. The products will be bagged separately if you request it. In
the event there is only one employee on duty, then that employee will
prepare your meat product, *then wash his/her hands*, and then prepare
your dairy product. If our employees do not follow this procedure then
your products will be given to you free of charge." The notice was
signed by the chief Rabbi in charge of (Jewish) food sales for Village
of Skokie.
On this particular day, his shop was quite busy. Only one person was
on duty at the deli counter. Two people were ahead of me in line, but
I was known to be a regular customer, getting lunch to take back to
the bus station. The owner himself was working there at the deli
counter, obviously harassed and busy. He asked me what I wanted to
eat that day, and I told him a liver sausage sandwhich (and then as a
sort of afterthought, after pausing a couple seconds) give me an order
of cream cheese to go with it. At first he said, "well, it will be
a couple minutes before I can get to you," and he turned to the lady
who was waiting there ahead of me and _touched_ the meat he was going
to cut up for her. Then he said to her, "Do you mind waiting a couple
minutes while I get Patrick's order ready?" No, she said she did
not mind ... he placed the roast (or whatever she had ordered) back in
its bin, turned around a bit and _touched_ the cream cheese he was
fixing to add to my sandwhich order.
I immediatly made a 'tsk, tsk' sound and he looked at me and said,
"You are not Jewish are you?" ... I assured him I was not. "Well
then," he said, "our laws do not apply to you." I told him that was
correct, they did not apply to me, "but they apply to you, Mr. Rosen,
so I will take my order for free today." He fixed my order at no
charge, handed it to me, and he said "but the only reason I have that
(rabbi-ordered) sign at the counter is because of the young black guys
working here who don't give a damn and my regular customers who moan
and bitch all the time about Kosher requirements. My clerks have to
follow Kosher requirements at all times (even though they are not
Jewish). I gave him his two dollars for my sandwhich and told him 'do
not let that happen again; or I will have to report you to the chief
rabbi for food sales here in Skokie. (smile). His reply was "yeah,
yeah, go ahead and report me, you would not be the first." PAT]
mc (look@www.ai.uga.edu.for.address)