Southern Utah newspaper The Spectrum will only run marriage announcements that are legal, not made up in your pretty little head! Or merely legal in some other state of this here United States! Got a problem with that?
Tyler Barrick and Spencer Jones do! They got hitched in June in San Francisco where they live, pre-Prop 8, and received plenty of media coverage. So they wanted to share the good news with their family before everyone gathered back in Utah for a party. But Spectrum publisher Donnie Welch, who originally considered running the announcement without a photo, ultimately chose not to publish it at all. Why the final call? “As our policy is to run marriage announcements recognized by Utah law, I have made the decision not to run the announcement.” Welch added in a follow up: He was “making a business decision.”
Interestingly, the couple was willing to let the issue go; Barrick “didn’t want to be the poster couple for gay marriage.” But GLAAD wasn’t satiated! It got involved, asked Welsh to reconsider (he didn’t), and then blogged about it.
The pair did score a wedding announcement in the Salt Lake Tribune, which is owned by MediaNews. The Spectrum, meanwhile, is owned by Gannett, a newspaper group where, according to GLAAD, 70 percent of papers run wedding announcements of any kind. But Utah isn’t like the rest of the U.S., of course.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Is this such a big deal? Sure! Newspapers are supposed to serve some lofty function in a democratic society. But they’re also free to print, or not print, whatever they want. And we’re perfectly fine with that; it’s their right, and it’s one we’d fight to uphold. The solution, then, is to not support business that don’t support us. If The Spectrum‘s version of a free press does not include equality, then they don’t deserve our dollars. Stop buying the paper. Don’t visit its website. And let the newspaper’s advertisers know you won’t support companies that support such ridiculous policies. That’s always more effective than a letter to the editor.
You might’ve heard the newspaper industry is in an irreversible decline. If The Spectrum‘s “business decision” includes the outright exclusion of our community, then let ’em fall on its sword.
Bill
Perhaps you should have listed some of those advertisers so that those few of us non-Utah gays will know which companies to ‘stop supporting.’
Make a list a post it guys.
Your article stops short of being effective if you don’t.
Forrest
While I disagree it’s an objective fact their marriage does not exist in Utah. I wonder if the paper would run committment announcements?
extrabatteries
a newspaper – whats that?
Dirty Ol' Bastard
And furthermore, they will refuse to run birth announcements of illegitimate children. If they aren’t legal, they don’t exist.
John K.
I don’t even need to read past the headline….YES!
rick
the elkhart truth in elkhart, indiana home of a huge mennonite population published a gay marriage announcement. they cought flack a week later (some christian radio guy started protesting on the air) and they published a wonderful editorial on why they published it and why it was right to publish it.
rick
caught flack