How 1 Missouri Couple’s Iowa Wedding Got a Newspaper to Change Its Policies

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What happens when your local newspaper is published in a state that doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage, but you get gay married in a state that does? Well, you get the paper to change its wedding announcements policy.

Missouri’s Michael and Chuck Hewitt road tripped to Iowa on May 17 for their marriage license, but when they contacted the Kansas City Star to share the good news with the paper’s readers, they were turned down. Missourians, after all, amended their state constitution banning same-sex marriage in 2004; that means the newspaper never had to deal with the issue of gay weddings.

But after the Hewitts were quickly turned down by the Star, editors there decided to chat about their policy — and ended up reversing it, reports Fox 4. As of last week, the Star now publishes same-sex wedding announcements. According to reader’s editor Derek Donovan, “We couldn’t come up with a compelling reason why not to.”

As for the Independence Examiner, to which the Hewitts also submitted an announcement? Says publisher Steve Curd: “This decision was in no way a political statement of any kind. The Examiner‘s policy is to follow the law of the State of Missouri.” So, uh, that’s a no.