A gay couple from Virginia are suing a health club after it denied them and their 2-year-old son access to a swimming pool and revoked their family membership after learning they were a couple.
Will Trinkle and partner Juan Granados have filed the lawsuit against the Roanoke Athletic Club and its affiliate, Carilion Clinic, reported The Roanoke Times.
Trinkle claimed that a club employee told him that although their membership application had initially been accepted, the couple and their son were not recognised as a family under Virginia law.
“Our family membership at the Y has been no problem for the last two years,” Trinkle said Wednesday at the office of his attorney, John Fishwick.
In a statement, Trinkle said he’d been told by an unnamed Carilion representative “they were ‘tightening policies’ so no families like us would ever ‘get as far’ as we had.”
Trinkle told ABC 13 he had been open about his relationship during the application process, adding, “Actually it was like someone punched us in the stomach…it’s from a place we couldn’t imagine that there would be this kind of discrimination and this kind of attack.”
A change.org petition calling on Carilion clinic to change its policy regarding same-sex couple memberships has been launched and has over 33,000 signatures. You can sign it here.
