Saturday, August 15, 2009

Utah Paper Rejects Gay Couples Wedding Announcement

Spencer Jones and Tyler Barrick were married at San Francisco City Hall on June 17, 2008 and will be living in California which recognizes their marriage which was performed before the passage of proposition 8 which eliminated gay marriage. They are holding a ceremony in their hometown of St. George, Utah for their friends and family and wanted to make that announcement as many couples do in their local newspaper, The Spectrum.

The newspaper first agreed to post their ad under celebrations if it did not show the couples picture. The couple refused and were then told by publisher Donnie Welch that they would run no ad at all because Utah law does not permit same-sex marriage.

GLAAD encourages you – particularly those who live in Utah – to reach out to The Spectrum’s Donnie Welch, and urge him to publish Spencer and Tyler’s announcement and all future gay and lesbian couples.

Donnie Welch
President/Publisher, The Spectrum
435-674-6222
dwelch@thespectrum.com

4 comments:

Jess said...

Dear Mr Welch,

It is my understanding that your newspaper, The Spectrum has chosen to not publish the marriage announcement of Spencer Jones and Tyler Barrick because their marriage is not legal in your state. I would imagine that your newspaper, like many others, frequently publishes articles that concern things which are not legal in your state - bank robberies, car theft, assault, murder, rape, etc. These items are reported on without endorsement. So, it just seems like this argument is quite weak. Next time you may want to speak the truth and simply say, "Gay people scare me so I'm not going to acknowledge they exist by publishing this announcement."
Jess

Haunted Visions said...

That's so messed up! I never want to live in Utah until they change how they view LGBT people, if they ever do.

ByTheSea said...

Unfortunately, things like this are going to occur more and more, slowly but surely. Prop 8 gave the "haters" just a wee bit more reason to think it OK to hate. I've seen/experienced this in LA and no doubt so will go the nation. Hate groups are growing daily since the elections and the gay community is idling by allowing this to happen. Kudos to the couple for standing their ground.

Merlyn said...

This is sad but, sadly, not unexpected.Prop H8s being upheld just gives these people the signal that it's fine to hate and denigrate us.

We need to get our act together before we see more hate from these bigots, hate that will be considerably more devastating than a paper refusing to run a marriage announcement. I am glad, though, that the couple is staying strong.

I suspect that people will, in future, realise that Bush and his right wingnuts may be gone but they have not forgiven nor forgoten.

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