FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 16, 1999

Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO) issues Reasonable Cause

Finding in Favor of 5 Couples Who Challenged Policy Denying Unmarried Couples the Preferential “Family” Membership Rate at Town

In a ruling of first impression, the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO) has issued a Reasonable Cause Finding in favor of five couples who challenged West Hartford’s policy denying unmarried couples the preferential “family” membership rate at the Town’s pool facility, know as the Cornerstone Aquatics Center.

Mark Melanson and Michael Antisdale, Anne Levie and Stephen Haynes and their child, Carolyn Gabel and Leslie Brett, Sharon F. Heyman and Barry S. Zitzer and their children, and Gloria Mengual and Graciela Quinones-Rodriguez and their child, are all long-term residents of West Hartford. Each family had applied for the family rate, but were told because they were not married, they could only join at the far more expensive individual rate. They filed their complaints with the Commission on Human Rights and opportunities (CHRO) in November, 1998.

According to Maureen Murphy of New Haven, one of the attorneys representing the families, “This is a simple issue of fairness. By requiring a marriage license for family membership, the Town defied the anti-discrimination guarantees of state law.”

The couples had argued two points before the CHRO: first, that the Town has wrongly used marital status as a criterion for equal access to a public accommodation; and second, that the Town place “family” membership out of the reach of same-sex couples who cannot presently marry. In its reasonable cause determination the CHRO found that the Town’s policy explicitly discriminated based on marital status by reserving the preferential rate for married couples only. Three of the five couples are in committed same-sex relationships, and the Commission held that the Town’s policy also discriminated against them on the basis of sexual orientation.

Mary L. Bonauto, the couples’ other attorney from the New England-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, commented, “In 1999, common sense tells us that families come in all shapes and sizes. State law requires that a place of public accommodation like the Cornerstone Aquatics Center define “family” membership in a way that does not single out certain families for different treatment based on their sexual orientation or marital status. This ruling is a straightforward application of state law.”

According to Mark Melanson and Michael Antisdale, one of the complainant couples, “We didn’t want a confrontation with the Town, but we need them to respect our families, too.” We pay the same taxes as our non-gay and our married neighbors. But our families are charged substantially more to use a tax-subsidized facility which is supposed to be open to all.”

These five families remain hopeful that with this action by the CHRO, the Town will finally end its discriminatory policy and afford equal access to all of the citizens of West Hartford to the cornerstone Aquatics Center.