Rainbow Christians

RainbowChristians.com is an online dating and social networking website that caters to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender/transsexual Christians.

History of Name Change

In October 2005, Justin R. Cannon founded this site under the name ‘Gayharmony’ through the domain www.gayharmony.net. In the website’s debut press release, Cannon explained the rationale for founding the website as follows: “Most GLBTQ Christians are excluded from joining Christian personals sites, and gay and other personals sites aren’t structured to meet their specific needs. The growing gay Christian demographic deserves a welcoming safe place tailored just for them.”

On May 29, 2006, Cannon applied for a trademark for the term Gayharmony through the United States Patent and Trademark Office. After Cannon’s trademark application was denied on grounds of “likelihood of confusion” with eharmony’s respective trademark, Cannon abandoned the trademark for Gayharmony and changed the name of his site to Rainbow Christians.

Cannon then gave the domain name to eHarmony. "In 2005 I actually launched my site under the domain Gayharmony.net, but in 2006 changed the name and gave the old domain to eHarmony. I'm, actually, quite surprised that they did not use it for this new service," explained Cannon, in a press release AbOUT eHarmony's new matachmaking service for gays and lesbians.

Services

Features of the site include:

  • Comprehensive user profiles
  • Photo uploads
  • Internal email and chat system
  • Simple and advanced search
  • Groups
  • Polls, Articles, & News

Publicity and Honors

  • December 2006 - Cannon was recognized as one of OUT Magazine’s top 100 most influential gay people of the year for his work through both Rainbow Christians and his online ministry TruthSetsFree.net.
  • March 2007 - News10, Sacramento's ABC news affiliate interviewed Cannon and ran a news story on Rainbow Christians.
  • November 2007 - Instinct (magazine) honored Cannon as one of their 25 Leading Men of the Year 2007.

Criticism

  • Small number of registered users compared to other dating sites