www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com
February 12, 2010
GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
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Cambridge paper refuses couple's wedding notice
by Eric Resnick
Cambridge, Ohio-A daily newspaper is refusing to publish the marriage announcement of a same-sex couple.
While it is not the first time an Ohio newspaper has refused to honor gay and lesbian couples, this time the pair are legally married.
Bryon Humphrey-Elkins, 36, and Darrell Humphrey-Elkins, 23, were married in Connecticut on December 11. The couple lives in Columbus and wanted to run the announcement in their hometown newspaper in Cambridge, about 60 miles east, where both have family.
Bryon said his sister Tina Elkins called the Cambridge Daily Jeffersonian to place the announcement shortly after their wedding and spoke to the paper's lifestyle editor, Pam Harmon.
Harmon made arrangements with Elkins and asked for a photograph.
After the information and photograph of the couple was sent, Humphrey-Elkins said Harmon's attitude changed.
"She became rude," Humphrey-Elkins said, "and they refused to run the announcement."
Harmon did not respond to requests for
The Cambridge Daily Jeffersonian refused to run a wedding announcement for Bryon Humphrey-Elkins and Darrell Humphrey-Elkins.
newsbriefs
comment. No one at the Daily Jeffersonian would verify aspects of the paper's policies, but Humphrey-Elkins says they run basic wedding announcements for free, and charge a fee for more elaborate ones. In this case, they refused to run either type.
The Jeffersonian is owned by Dix Communications, a family-owned chain of six daily newspapers, several radio stations and internet service providers, mostly in Ohio.
The family and its company are known for their conservatism and advocacy for Republicans, Dix's flagship newspaper, the Wooster Daily Record, is chartered as Wooster Republican Printing, LLC.
The newspaper's publisher, Andrew Dix told the Chronicle, "We have the right to edit and accept material as we see fit."
Dix said they consider wedding announcements to be "news features," and "we have different policies for different features."
"We set our policies as a private company," Dix added.
Other news reports of the matter speculate that the newspaper was relying on Ohio's ban on same sex marriages as justification for not running the announcements.
"I'm aware of what Ohio law is," said Dix. "It has no effect on what we accept."
Asked if the newspaper publishes wedding announcements from couples married out of state, Dix abruptly ended the conversation, apparently sensing where it was leading..
"I decline to answer any more questions at this time. I have no more comments," Dix said.
Another Ohio daily paper, the Canton Repository, caused a fracas in 2008 when it refused to publish an engagement announcement for a lesbian couple.
In a letter to their church, Repository editor Jeff Gauger wrote "Given the current state of the law in Ohio, the Repository does not currently intend to publish same-sex engagement and wedding announcements. We also don't intend to address this topic on our editorial page or in letters to the editor."
The Daily Jeffersonian did print a letter by Humphrey-Elkins protesting the paper's decision. The majority of the public comments posted on the paper's web site side with the couple.
Daily newspapers in most major Ohio cities publish announcements of same-sex couples, as do a growing number in conservative rural areas, including the Lima News. Ironically, the Alliance Review, also a Dix publication, accepts same-sex engagement announcements..
Amendment would overturn lowa marriage ruling
Des Moines, Iowa-Eighteen Republi'De-gaying' the movies
cans in the Iowa Senate introduced a resolution putting forward a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage in the state.
The move is an attempt to override the state supreme court's ruling last year that made lowa the only Midwestern state among the five that allow same-sex nuptials.
Sen. Merlin Bartz argued that the resolution now gives Iowans the chance to contact their legislators on the issue, although he admits that it is unlikely that it will pass.
Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, a Democrat, has expressed opposition to the measure, and believes that its passage would write discrimination into the Iowa constitution.
Gronstal said he will not bring it to a vote in the Senate.
For the third time, no vote on rights Washington, D.C.-For the third time, the District of Columbia Board of Elections rejected a ballot measure barring same-sex marriage in the city.
It was the third try for foes of same-sex nuptials to overturn the district's new marriage law, set to take effect in March.
The February 4 ruling again found that the measure is improper because it would violate the Human Rights Act for Washington, D.C.
While the board ruled in favor of the law against anti-gay Maryland clergyman Harry Jackson, it did not accept the arguments of the city council's attorney that the proposed ballot measure violated election law by interfering with the budget. The city and the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club argued that barring same-sex marriage could deny the city as much as one million dollars in tax
revenue.
The board ruled that the financial ramifications were not significant enough to justify viewing same-sex arriage as a budgetary concern.
The Superior Court, which has already ruled against one of Jackson's appeals, may face another appeal of this most recent elections board decision.
However, D.C. election law requires signatures to be gathered before congressional review of legislation is complete_Even if the Superior Court ruled in Jackson's favor, it would be virtually impossible for him and his allies to gather the needed signatures by March 2, the end of the review period.
Jackson lives in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C., and established an address in the District to put forward the ballot measure. The legality of that address has also been challenged.
Los Angeles-Hollywood has often been criticized for its inability to handle too much gayness, and the latest episode is the "de-gaying" of ads and trailers for the new romantic comedy Valentine's Day.
In the film, Eric Dane plays Bradley Cooper's closeted boyfriend, a football player.
However, ads for the film instead show Cooper and Julia Roberts together, and in one poster, showing a heart made up of the actors' faces, Dane is missing altogether.
A similar heterosexualization afflicted A Single Man, the directorial debut of Tom Ford. The film is about Colin Firth's character coming to terms with the death of his partner, Matthew Goode. But the trailers made it seem as if the story included a romance between Firth and Julianne Moore. An attractive young student who comes into Firth's life, played by Nicholas Hoult, is barely seen in the publicity.
Hawaii civil union bill dies
Honolulu The Hawaii House of Representatives killed a civil union bill on January 29, the week after it passed the state senate with a veto-proof two-thirds majority.
The House took a voice vote to indefinitely postpone action on the bill. It would require a two-thirds majority vote in the house to bring it back to the floor.
While the House handily passed a civil union bill in the previous legislative session, election-year threats from religious conservatives shook the resolve of some representatives, and while a simple majority might have been mustered in favor of the bill, it would not have garnered the vetoproof majority it would likely need.
This year's measure would have created civil unions for same-sex and opposite-sex couples, while the last bill applied only to same-sex couples.
LGBT advocates were especially angry that the motion to suspend the measure was approved on a voice vote, so there is no official record of who was in favor of doing away with the bill.
House leaders said that suspending the bill cleared the way to deal with important budgetary and fiscal issues.
Still searching for 'ex-gay'mom
Rutland, Vt.-Lisa Miller, the "former" lesbian who absconded with the daughter she was ordered to turn over to her former partner, is still on the lam, and has until February 23 before the Vermont Family Court may issue a warrant for her arrest.
She was ordered to hand Isabella over to Janet Jenkins after repeatedly ignoring joint custody orders enforced by courts in both Vermont and Virginia, where she moved to find courts more hostile to same-sex relationships.
According to Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, Jenkins has not seen Isabella for over a year, and has not spoken to the girl for ten months.
Miller gave birth to Isabella after the couple opted for assisted fertilization. Shortly after, however, the couple split up, and Miller became a born-again Christian, claiming that she was no longer a lesbian.
Courts in Vermont ruled that Jenkins should be allowed joint custody, and the
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Virginia courts upheld the decisions.
"My goal has never been to separate Isabella from Lisa. I just want Isabella to know and love both of her parents. I just want to be with her, like any parent," Jenkins said in a public statement.
Compiled from wire reports by Brian DeWitt, Anthony Glassman and Patti Har-
ris.
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