(Online Dating News Blog) eHarmony announced today that it is designing a new service in order to match gays and lesbians. The same-sex matchmaking site will be called Compatible Partners and will open to the public in the first quarter of 2009.

The announcement came as part of a same-sex discrimination complaint that was filed against eHarmony in the State of New Jersey. To settle the case, eHarmony had to agree to do matchmaking for gays and lesbians and to promote the service through mediums used by same-sex singles.

You can read the full story at Online Dating Magazine, which published an article on it titled “eHarmony to Match Gays and Lesbians”

Online Dating Magazine has also published in-depth details about the settlement agreement.