Monday, December 9, 2002

A story published today by the Tennessean reports that efforts by the YMCA of Middle Tennessee to ensure that couples obtaining a family membership are married with children have angered activists who view the policy as discriminatory and have drawn praise from conservative groups that say it promotes the traditional family.

While the definition of family has not changed at any of the 21 centers in Middle Tennessee, YMCA officials say they decided to step up enforcement of the policy this year, when they noticed membership ''inconsistencies.''

However, while all of the centers are open to all, unmarried heterosexuals do not qualify for membership as families or couples, said Phil Newman, a spokesman for YMCA of Middle Tennessee.

''The definition of the family is rooted in the YMCA's historical mission, our community's traditional definition of a family and the state's definition of a family,'' Newman said. ''But we are open to everyone and want to exclude no one.''

Officials at the YMCA national headquarters say individual YMCAs and associations of YMCAs are free to create any policy regarding family membership. Some YMCAs define families broadly as two or more adults with children, while others specify marital status, said Arnold Collins, YMCA spokesman.

''All 2,400 of our YMCAs are created community by community, and they reflect the values of those communities,'' Collins said. ''We usually advise the centers to start a dialogue with the community and come up with a definition that fits.''

''The YMCA's motto is 'We build families' but what they're really building is exclusionary families,'' said Mark Lopez of Nashville, a member of Human Rights Campaign, a national advocacy group for homosexuals. ''If you are excluding people based on your own personal beliefs, that is discrimination. It's not the role of a fitness center to tell me what a family is.''

But officials with the YMCA — formerly known as the Young Men's Christian Association — said they do not intend their definition of family to be a condemnation of homosexuals or unmarried couples. ''It's hard to define family as society changes, and we're keeping an eye on that,'' Newman said. ''It's not our intention to judge anyone, but we have to have some kind of membership categories and set standards.''