No family rate for same-sex couple at club

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NORFOLK, Va., Oct. 15 (UPI) -- A same-sex couple that lives together will have to pay individual rates instead of a family rate at a country club in Norfolk, Va., a club member says.

Mallory Country Club member Lynn Tiedge said while Shannon Bowman and Martha Daas may consider themselves married, a proposed measure to grant same-sex couples access to family rates failed to pass a recent vote, the Norfolk (Va.) Virginian-Pilot said Thursday.

"We recognize that heterosexual couples can marry and homosexuals couples can't," Tiedge said.

The club states on its Web site that nearly 180 votes were cast in support of allowing same-sex couples to pay family rates, while roughly 126 members voted against the proposal. A two-thirds majority was needed for the measure to pass.

For Bowman, having to pay the pricier individual rate was not the troubling factor. Instead she told the Virginian-Pilot the issue was the approach to gay marriage in Virginia, where same-sex marriages are not legal.

"It's not the money issue," Bowman said. "It's the principal point that we're not accepted as a family."