AAA South extends spousal memberships to married gay couples
AAA South, the country’s fourth-largest affiliate of the automobile lobby and insurance group, has taken an unprecedented step toward recognizing same-sex relationships with its recent decision to extend spousal membership discounts to married gay and lesbian couples.
The decision comes on the heels of a meeting between AAA South’s upper management and representatives of Equality Florida, the state’s largest LGBT advocacy organization, which announced the news in a press release last week. The release said AAA’s Associate Membership program will now recognize "all spouses, regardless of gender or sexual orientation."
"We had not talked about this issue very much at all until [Equality Florida] reached out to us, and that has caused us to talk about it quite a bit," Tom O’Brien, president and chief executive officer of AAA Auto Club South said. "Our policy does include gay and lesbian spouses, wherever they were married. Whether in other states or countries, they qualify."
The meeting was sparked by Equality Florida upon hearing news from same-sex couples around the state who said they were being denied requests for associate membership discounts. Under the adapted policy, gay couples applying for associate memberships only need to state they are married. They don’t need to produce any documentation. And the policy should be uniformly implemented by early August.
"We talked thoroughly about the issues, the challenges that we both had and the real uneasiness in our community with the policy," Equality Florida spokesperson Brian Winfield said. "It was a very friendly meeting."
Winfield further described the decision as "very significant." He further noted AAA South management also welcomed discussions around further expanding its definition to include domestic partners in the future.
"We don’t know of any other AAA affiliate in the nation that officially recognizes marriages for gay and lesbian couples," Winfield told EDGE. "AAA is one of the most famous brands in the world, particularly in this nation, and to have this formalized policy in place is huge."
Not everyone was as enthused with the news. The Florida Family Association posted a "Web alert" on the topic. It said Equality Florida had "pressured" AAS South to make the decision. The FFA further urged its members to contact O’Brien and other management to encourage them to rescind the policy.
"AAA South policy contradicts the law and public policy of the states in which it operates," the alert, which reinforced voters in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee had all approved bans on same-sex marriage, read. "[The policy] allowing same-sex couples to only need to state that they are married in order to receive Family Membership trivializes the institution of marriage."
Neither Equality Florida nor AAA South; which boosts more than 4 million members in Florida, George, Tennessee and Puerto Rico; has yet responded to the FFA’s campaign against the policy.
While other AAA affiliates allow gay and lesbian couples to apply for shared memberships under "Friend and Family" programs, they do not explicitly open associate memberships to them as AAA South’s new policy does.
