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Suburb rebuffs couple's request for occupancy permit

By AP/KWMU

Black Jack, Mo. – Another unmarried couple is being told by a suburban St. Louis community 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 another unmarried couple and their children. That couple had filed a federal lawsuit.

The new ordinance allows unmarried couples as long as the children are related to both. In this case none of the children is related to Pulliam.

The Black Jack city attorney said he's willing to defend the ordinance in court, if need be.

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