I didn’t know this: over one million applicants have been rejected by eHarmony, the wildly popular online matchmaking service which boasts over 13 million members.

That’s the claim of one of eHarmony’s upstart rivals, Chemistry.com.  And its a claim which has eHarmony’s feathers all a-ruffled.

Of course, eHarmony does not deny that it routinely rejects applicants.  For example, it rejects married people, as well as underage (i.e., under 21) people.

But eHarmony also rejects gay people and people who are under 60 who have been married four-or-more times.  Their argument is that they lack data to match compatability for these groups and it is not, they want you to know, due to discrimination.

Pandagon, however, reminds us that the founder of eHarmony is a friend of James "Focus On The Family" Dobson, who is certainly no friend of the gay community. 

Other people note that they get rejected simply because they are not (according to the test) happy enough.  That must be a real bummer.  For myself, I can’t speak with any authority on eHarmony or any of those services, since I avoid them like the plague.  But I hear good things…

In any event, read about the controversy here.