YMCA Refuses Gay Couple Membership

A YMCA in North Carolina refused to grant the family rate to a same-sex couple who applied for membership last month.

According to the Winston-Salem Journal,Mark Maxwell and his partner, Timothy Young, were turned down when they applied to join the YMCA of Northwest North Carolina.

"Maxwell said he was told that the family rate doesn't apply to same-sex couples," reports the Journal. "The rate is only for a husband and wife who are legally married according to state law or those who file joint tax returns.

"The YMCA of Northwest North Carolina is the only large metropolitan YMCA in the state that doesn't allow same-sex couples to get family memberships."

Maxwell and Young are preparing to adopt their third child and are looking to balance their budget with a family membership rate. The head of the Y that refused them says the issue of same-sex membership does not appear often, according to the Journal.

"But Curt Hazelbaker, its president and chief executive, said that the organization is due to review its membership categories, which it does every four or five years. The last time it performed such a review was in 2006."