Thought 1984 Was So Over? Think Again.

The town of Black Jack, Missouri, got its name from the variety of oak tree that once grew nearby. 'Those stately trees represent who and what we are today, a proud city with strong roots, providing the safety and respite of community,' its promotional literature explains. It is the kind of place where family is valued - just as long as the family in question meets certain criteria. Olivia Shelltrack and Fondray Loving's family, it seems, do not.

The couple could face fines of $500 a day, and Black Jack is already facing the unwelcome glare of national attention, as a result of a local regulation that bans unmarried couples with more than one child from occupying homes there.
In a country increasingly riven on issues of social morality, housing regulations represent an easy way for towns to try to give their definitions of acceptable lifestyles the force of law.

Comments

Statcounter