The New Family Values

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch explains what it means to be Pro-Family:

Olivia Shelltrack finally has her dream home. Her family moved into the five-bedroom, three-bath frame house in Black Jack last month. But now she fears she and her fiance face uprooting their children because of a city ordinance that says her household fails to meet Black Jack's definition of a family.

Shelltrack and Fondray Loving, her boyfriend of 13 years, were denied an occupancy permit because of an ordinance forbidding three or more individuals from living together if they are not related by "blood, marriage or adoption." The couple have three children, ages 8, 10 and 15, although Loving is not the biological father of the oldest child.

"I was basically told, you can have one child living in your house if you're not married, but more than that, you can't," she said.

The couple appealed the denial of an occupancy permit last week at a hearing before Black Jack's board of adjustment. Shelltrack said board members asked her and Loving personal questions about their relationship, their children and their previous home in Minneapolis, from where they moved, for nearly an hour. Then the board denied the couple's appeal. The case now goes before Black Jack's municipal court.

At the hearing, Shelltrack said, one board of adjustment member, Norma Mitchell, even pointed at her and asked, "I don't understand why you as a woman didn't exercise your right to marry that man," before being hushed by another board member.

Mitchell refused to comment. She referred all calls to Black Jack Mayor Norman McCourt, who defended the ordinance.

"This is about the definition of family, not if they're married or not," he said. "It's what cities do to maintain the housing and to hold down overcrowding."

Overcrowding? Bullshit. Definition of Family? Right on. If you don't fit what the Wingnuts think is the appropriate definition of 'family' they'll do everything they can to force you to accept their model. At its root, this is about conformity. Everybody must fit the mold that they say is the 'right way to be a family.' And the 'right' way to be a person. And to love, and think, and feel. And if you don't, you'll suffer their wrath.

Pro-Family Conformity Right Wing