Florida Museum Denies Two-Mom Family a Family Membership

The Hands on Children’s Museum of Jacksonville, Florida, has told a two-mom family that they must pay a higher membership rate than that of a family with a mom and a dad.

When Karen Lee-Duffell went to renew her family’s membership, she was told by an employee she could no longer do so at the lower family rate, reports First Coast News (via The New Civil Rights Movement). The Museum Director later said in a statement to First Coast News that the memberships “are very specific and do not allow substitutions.”

Outraged? Sign the Change.org petition asking the museum to change its policy. Also, if you live in Florida, write to your elected officials and ask them to support nondiscrimination laws and ordinances. (A few cities and counties have them, but far from all—and not Jacksonville.)

[Update: The New Civil Rights Movement informs us the museum has responded by changing its $49.50 family plan from “Mom, Dad, & Children under 18″ to “1 Named Parent & Children under 18,” and charging all families an extra $10 for an additional person. Yup. That’s right. Their reluctance to acknowledge two-mom or two-dad families will now cost all families. One more reason discrimination hurts us all.]