>tell me what you think

>Marathon Wins Wheelchair Ban

The Appellate Division of State Supreme Court ruled Thursday that wheelchair-bound competitors need not be admitted to the New York City Marathon.

The court ruled on a suit brought by the State Division of Human Rights, which had charged the New York Road Runners Club, the race’s organizing body, with discriminatory practices in barring the disabled.

Fred Lebow, the club’s president, had cited safety factors, arguing that wheelchairs posed danger not only to runners but also to the disabled, because the chairs often speed downhill at 35 to 40 miles an hour.

In Thursday’s ruling, Justice Francis T. Murphy Jr. held that, since the marathon is historically a foot race, the Road Runners Club was not discriminating against people bound to wheelchairs.

By UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Published: April 11, 1981

This particular article reminds me of many articles that are overcrowding the newspapers ever since November 4th, 2008. Wheelchair-bound competitors are NOT banned from the New York City Marathon (and MANY others) anymore. The banning of wheelchair-bound competitors WAS unfair and wrong, just like Prop 8. Time will tell if gay marriage rights prevail. Perhaps the Church was responsbile for whispers against wheelchair-bound competitors.