Ohio public pool denies family passes to same-sex couples

GALION, Ohio — There’s no gum allowed at the Heise Park pool in Galion. And no snorkels, no dunking, no smoking and no rough play.

Oh, and apparently, no families headed by gay or lesbian parents.

Galion, a city 60 miles north of Columbus, is reviewing its policy on family passes at a city-owned swimming pool after two women and their four children were denied a pass reserved only for “a mother, father and … dependent children.”

City Council members met Tuesday night and referred the issue to their parks and recreation committee, according to The Telegraph-Forum of Bucyrus.

Galion resident Melody Mohn posted a message on Facebook in June about her denial of a family pass. A family pass that includes four children would cost $115. Mohn said she would have to pay about $200 for individual passes for her partner and children.

“Thank you City of Galion for your choice of wording for OUR city ordinances,” she wrote.

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Several Galion City Council members said last night that they supported a change in policy to expand the definition of families, according to the report in The Telegraph-Forum. The policy also appears to exclude single parents.

Jon Kleinknecht, a council member whom the newspaper said is a self-described conservative Christian, called himself “open-minded” about the issue.

“[The children] are the ones who will be hurt if we take a hard stance on this,” Kleinknecht said, according to the paper’s report.

One Galion resident spoke against changing the family-pass policy, according to WMFD-TV, saying: “You’re forcing us to agree with a definition of family that didn’t exist in the past.”