Although a change in policy ensued, the damage had already
been done after Roanoke Athletic Club[1]
revoked a gay couple’s family membership after the club realized that the
family was made up of a son and 2 fathers.[2]
The couple’s family did not meet the club’s definition of a family.
On Thursday Carilion Clinic, the parent company of Roanoke
Athletic Club, announced on its Facebook page that it will offer household
memberships to cohabiting couples and their dependent children under 22 years
of age who live with them.
While the Carilion Clinic made the right move in the
aftermath of revocation, the issue highlights a remaining tension in Virginia
and throughout the U.S. between classical liberal (libertarian) and
conservative values.
Classical liberal values are the foundation upon which the
United States was built[3]
and essentially allows for all individual thoughts and behaviors that do no one
else any physical, and in some cases psychological, harm. Thus, if you “wish”
to be gay, that is your own business. If your gay and want to start a family
and buy a gym membership, that is your own business as well.
But the Roanoke Athletic Club obviously had specific ideas about
who their clientele should not be, reflecting a conservative bent that
disapproves of same-sex relationships or families.
Everyone has probably heard the line, “Marriage is between a
man and woman.”[4] This
is of course a conservative belief because it attempts to hold old social
institutions in place like marriage between a man and a woman and the
traditional family.
While conservatism was the original philosophy of the
American colonies[5],
it was superseded by classical liberalism in no small part because conservatism
is a stifling force that inhibits individuals from expressing “their true
nature.” Thus, in a sense conservatism is “un-American.”
Conservatism still has its place in Virginia and the U.S. as
a whole. But if America is to be true to itself, we must learn to accept the
differences that each of us as individuals manifest and shake off the
propensity for intolerance. That means individual freedom for everyone, not
just selective groups.
Virginia still has a ways to go in the sphere of tolerance,
but overall I think that Jefferson would be proud at the progress that has been
made in Virginia.
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