Missouri town refuses to let couple move in to thier new house because they aren't married.

[TheMightyFavog]

http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/639188.html

BLACK JACK, Mo. | Another unmarried couple is being told by a suburban St. Louis town they’re not welcome.

A man, his girlfriend and her three children recently bought a house in Black Jack in north St. Louis County. But because Toi Pruitt and Joe Pulliam and the children don’t meet the town’s definition of a family, they couldn’t get an occupancy permit.

In 2006, Black Jack revised its definition of a family after initially refusing a permit for Fondray Loving, Olivia Shelltrack and their children. That family had filed a federal lawsuit.

The new ordinance allows unmarried couples as long as the children are related to both. None of the children are related to Pulliam.

You gotta read the comments section. Some of those comments sound like they are straight out of The Colbert Report. The only trouble is that these people actually believe what they are saying.

[murielm99]

1. What? Again?

I read a magazine article about the first couple over a year ago.

[depakid]

2. Some of the comments are classic.

"When the wagons were going west on the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails, only the weak, fat, and stupid got off along the way. Hence the start of Missouri and Kansas. These people are your ancestors...."

:rofl:

[TheMightyFavog]

3. That might have been a Farker.

Fark linked to this story a while ago.

[alphafemale]

15. !

:rofl:

[Indenturedebtor]

4. Hah take the hint people. You don't wanna live there anyways..

There's clearly something like lead or plutonium, or maybe even Dioxy Stupidfundy Carboxyl #9 :P

[noonwitch]

14. St. Louis is a big city with lots of nice areas to live in

Why live somewhere you're not wanted? Why spend money at stores and restaurants in a community that doesn't want you?

[Selatius]

5. It almost makes you wish a tornado would wipe that town off the face of earth...

...almost.

[EV_Ares]

13. Not a funny comment at all, eom.

[and-justice-for-all]

6. It is 2008 or am I mistaken?

Those comments are grand, looks like the rethugs are getting raked across the coals.

[pop goes the weasel]

7. occupancy permit?

What the hell? I've never heard of having to get such a thing. If the building is zoned residential and meets the building code, that's all I ever heard was necessary to move in.

[bean fidhleir]

9. No, courts have upheld occupancy laws. For example, those that limit the number of

persons per room. So even a crazy occupancy law like that town's could be judged reasonable...for fundy values of "reasonable".

[pop goes the weasel]

16. explain how this works

Does one have to go to town hall and pay for a permit? That seems like it is designed to increase homelessness. I can understand zoning restrictions and authorities filing charges or evicting people after a complaint has been filed, but making people get a permit before they can move into the house they bought in a neighborhood zoned for family residence seems discriminatory and ill advised.

[bean fidhleir]

19. No, it's just that if you get turned in, the town prosecutes you (or can)

and you get fined and told to stop. And depending on the town you might spend time in jail. So they make it hard on you. But it starts with someone turning you in, there's no permit as such.

[HeeBGBz]

8. Hmm. I live in Missouri and I used to know a girl named Toi

I wonder if it's the same one? If it is, she may kick that town's ass.

[liberal N proud]

10. Why do people feel the need to force their views on everyone else?

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

11. I bet they wish they were told about this BEFORE buying!

Sucks being stuck with a house you can't even live in.

[HawkerHurricane]

12. Time to hit them up with a 'takings' lawsuit...

Libertarian types will tell you that a town preventing you from using your property as you wish is 'taking' your property from you, and that you should be allowed to sue the town for the lost value/income. They'd like to do it for enviormental laws, but I'd think this would apply.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

17. Meanwhile, the married brother and sister next door breathe a sigh of relief

Happy their children won't be associating with such unmarried gutter trash.

[kevinbgoode]

18. Since I'd wager that town receives federal, state, and county

funds, and Missouri might not have any special protection based on marital status, I suggest all of the unmarried, single, divorced, widowed/widowers, and gays file a lawsuit against the county and the state refusing to allow their tax monies to be used for this town. It would be a hoot if unmarried people of all varieties refused to do business with any company located there - in fact those companies should be pressured to move because many of their employees will not be able to live near their work.