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Just not her family.
See, Michelle is a woman with a woman for a partner, and they are parents to a 5-year-old daughter. You know, so they aren't really a family, I mean, two women? Family?
When Michelle applied for the membership, she received a call from Green Valley Swimming Pool & Sports Club owner Russ Jacobs who told her that she and her family would most certainly be welcome at the facility, but she doesn't get the discount based on that whole two-women-aren't-a-family bull shiz.
Russ Jacobs said, in an interview when the story broke: "We don't recognize same-sex marriages."
Oh.
Well then, fuck you Russ, and fuck the Green Valley Swimming Pool & Sports Club, too.
Of course, then he backtracked, you know, because that's what bigots do when they started saying all kinds of bigoted bull, you know, He said the reason wasn't political, at all; it's simply economics. He isn't denying Michelle Gladfelter and her family--or any other family from joining the pool--but, Jacobs says, if he gives the discount to Gladfelter, he'd have to extend it to grandparents, cousins, two sisters.
Um, Russ, the discount is for families. Cousins are family. Grandparents are family. So, your bull shiz argument doesn't fly.
And then he goes on to show more of his intolerance by saying that a heterosexual couple, regardless of whether they're married, would be granted the discount. So, if it';s a man and a woman, they get a discount; but if it's two women or two men, they don't count?
Yeah, you're a bigot Russ Jacobs.
But it's legal.
See, there are no federal or state laws that prevent a business from denying someone a discount because of their sexual orientation. Now there are some places, take York, PA, for example, where there are laws in effect to prevent a business from deciding who would receive a discount. York, for example, has an anti-discrimination law that bars businesses from choosing who gets a discount and who doesn't based on their sexual orientation.
If the Green Valley Swimming Pool & Sports Club were in York, then Jacobs wouldn't be allowed to be a bigot.
Now, at least the Wisehaven Swimming Pool in Windsor Township there is also a family discount. Pool manager Kelly Templeton says, that although it refers to the discount as "husband and wife," same-sex couples are eligible and several couples take advantage. The only requirement for the discount is co-habitation.
I might suggest that Michelle Gladfelter, and her family, and all other families in West Manchester Township who don't practice hate, take their memberships down the road to Wisehaven Pool & Sports Club.
Show Russ Jacobs that it's just about economics.
source
Having been a pool board member (you got to hire all the cute life guards...) you need every penny!
ReplyDeleteMr Jacobs has obviously swimming in the very shallowest end of the gene pool... You know... the one that also lacks a bigotry filter!
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ReplyDeleteWow, what were they thinking?
ReplyDeleteTHIS is why I moved out of Central Pennsylvania.
ReplyDeletePine Ridge Swim CLub also allows same sex couples to Join as A family
ReplyDeleteI am a member of this pool (1st year) because all I wanted was a pool membership for my family (me (Female), BOYFRIEND (NOT MARRIED), his daughter, and my son)....however, I got the discounted price. WE'RE NOT MARRIED!! Our children are not related what-so-ever!! So why did we get the discount while same sex couples don't?? If it's "economics", why aren't we in the same boat?? HOWEVER...let me state this (aside from this HORRIBLE display of bigotry which sucks because the pool really IS a great place!), Jacobs is an ASSHOLE! My son is enrolled in swim classes there that Jacobs' young (late teens/early 20's) daughter is in charge of. Last week, my son's class (and 5 other classes) were shoved in a corner of an already small pool so that the water zumba fatties could take over the ENTIRE pool! When I went to ask him if he could speak with the zumba instructor to see if she could help herd her cattle (no, I didn't say that, but I thought it!) to their allotted side and allow the children to swim, he told me it wasn't his resonsibility and that I needed to talk to the swim director because it was her program. I understand wanting to teach your child responsibility, but a simple "Yes, I will speak with the swim director to see what we could do" would have been the APPROPRIATE business approach to this matter. No...he back peddles and tells me that maybe they could take down one of the lap lanes and section it off; I told him that this was already done, but the cattle unhooked the line to make more room for them. He told me I was wrong and obviously didn't know what he's talking about...except I'm a nationally placed swimmer, former lifeguard, and swim director myself...I apparently know nothing. He's a pompous asshole and as awful as I think it is that he descriminates against someone's sexual preference (because they'd drop trou and start doing it right there in the middle of the baseball field, right?), I think he descriminates against women as well. I wonder if he's an equal opportunity employer?? Because if he is, then he cannot descriminate against a GLBT individual, right?? He's a prick! His daughter and wife are super nice which sucks because it's him who will be the negative backlash of this otherwise great establishment. I will NOT be taking my family back to this pool next year!!
ReplyDeletePS...Jacobs...you're a prick!
As of August 2014 NOTHING has changed. He is still a discriminating, money hungry, nasty PIG!!!!
ReplyDeleteAs of June 2015, NOTHING has changed. He is rude, inconsiderate, and greedy. I could explain several instances that prove why i say so. Its a shame because the pool is very nice and his wife is nice as well. I am sorry i did not read this before i joined because i would not have joined. I will NOT be joining next year!!! Not to mention, the bathrooms there are awful!!! and the concession stand sucks! I hope the health department gets them! And i hope people get to know the truth!!!
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ReplyDeleteI believe instead of arguing or lashing out with "F*ck You" we should all give him the same respect to his opinion as those opinions that differ expect. If he doesn't acknowledge same sex relationships, that's his right. We all have the right to be different and not agree...
ReplyDelete@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteYes, we are ALL entitled to our opinions, though you seem to think I cannot express mine, but what we are NOT entitled to is to discriminate against people.
Asshat.
West york school district had a PRO swimming party at Green Valley tonight. The school sent home a flyer that said admission was $4 and with one paid admission you got one free. Myself and my 3 boys went, when we got there they tried to charge us full price nonmember prices. Jacobs and his wife said that my boys weren't really my boys because we are all diffrent races! They are adopted, wtf! Never again will I go back there and it's sad because it is an awesome place and the boys love it there. But I refuse to to give amy type of profit to ignorance. The owners are disgraceful!
ReplyDelete@ Kristin J Graham All your comments on discrimination, yet you discriminate against the "fatties", and "cattle". You Ms. Graham are no better than he. The fact that you are a lifeguard, and swim director would definitely keep me from joining a place you had anything to do with. Oh btw, your placing as a national swimmer certainly doesn't help you when it comes to spelling.
ReplyDeleteMy 1995 visit to Green Valley Swimming Pool & Sports Club.
ReplyDeleteI'm 70+ years old. Back when I was in high school in the 60's, this place was known, I think, as Zimmerman's. "Zimmie's" wasn't a sports club then, just a public pool. I went with friends a few times, before I graduated from Dover High in 1967, then went out of state for college and stayed.
Almost 30 years later, one August, just for nostalgia's sake, I came back to visit my parents, and, one day, drove around, just to see if "Zimmie's" was still there,and found Green Valley Swimming Pool & Sports Club. I tried to pay the admission and use the pool, but the folks there explained this was now a member's-only club, and that membership was available by "recomendation" only. I said thanks and started to leave, but then, one nice fellow said, "Well, heck, I'll recommend you just for today, c'mon in," so I gratefully paid around $5 and went in.
It was a scorching, humid day, the main pool was huge, and crowded, filled with at least a hundred folks just like me, wanting relief from the hot, muggy south-central PA summer. Folks just like me. I swam and sunned for about an hour around all those strangers just like me.
And then it dawned on me. Folks just like me. Every one. White. Just like three decades before, in 1967, even though the racial makeup of the surrounding communities had since changed a lot over the past thirty years, during which came civil rights laws, no more enforcement (since 1962) of racially-restrictive covenants in home sales, and more minorities having moved into previously all-White Dover, Weiglestown, Shiloh, and other places. And yet, the local pool was still all-White. Why? Just one of those things? People consciously or even unconsciously self-segregating? Or one of those formerly open-to-all businesses, now turned into "social clubs" to evade civil rights laws under First Amendment "freedom of association" exceptions? (Full disclosure, yes, I'd become a lawyer.)I still wonder today.