wedding hells

What’s Worse For Greg + Aurelio: Newspaper Refusing To Run Wedding Announcement? Or Facing Deportation Separation?

“Hi, is this the New Jersey Jewish Standard? My name is the New Hampshire Union Leader, and I’d like to be friends.” So goes the imaginary phone call in my head between one newspaper that won’t print (again) same-sex wedding announcements and another that … does the same thing!

Greg Gould, a New Hampshire native, and his Venezuelan partner Aurelio Tiné wanted to share with their local community their upcoming special day, so they opted to place an announcement in the Union Leader. No dice. Writes Kate Parker on her wedding planning blog:

The wedding is this Saturday and I received a phone call from Greg yesterday letting me know that he tried to get their wedding announced in the Union Leader, since Greg was from the Manchester, NH area. He was told that they don’t allow gay weddings to be announced and he asked to talk to the editor. The editor simply told him it has been the “policy of the newspaper” and that as the editor, he has the write to print whatever he’d like. This immediately outraged me, as Greg and Aurelio are legally allowed to marry in NH, NH has anti-discrimination laws in place that include sexual orientation, but because of the 1st Amendment, they were out of luck.

I’m sure they will have a fantastic ceremony this weekend. And just think: Not getting printed in the Union Leader means you scored the attention of tens of thousands of gays online right here. But that’s not the end of their battles:

The final touches are in place for their late October wedding by the sea: the marriage license, the red and orange orchids, and the matching gold rings. But the honeymoon will be different. After they exchange vows, Greg Gould and Aurelio Tiné will immediately go to battle with the US government. Gould said he will formally apply for legal residency for Tiné, a native of Venezuela, even though he fully expects to be rejected, to lay the groundwork for a possible legal challenge to a federal law they say discriminates against gays. The US government offers a path to legal residency for immigrants who marry Americans, but it does not recognize same-sex marriages. The couple would rather honeymoon in Italy, but with Tiné facing deportation, Gould says that is not an option.

What a clusterfuck it is to live in a state where gay marriage is legal, but your own newspaper won’t print you announcement, and your own country won’t recognize your relationship as valid enough for immigration.

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