Posted on 07/06/2003 6:38:29 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Same-sex unions in 'News'Announcements are a 'logical step,' says publisher
07/06/2003
Starting July 6, The Dallas Morning News will publish announcements of same-sex unions. The announcements will run alongside paid marriage and engagement announcements on Sundays.
"The publication of same-sex union announcements is a logical step for The Dallas Morning News to take," says James Moroney III, the paper's publisher and CEO. "We are now in line with practices of most major metropolitan newspapers across the country.
"We convened a meeting of representatives from the Cathedral of Hope as well as four other men and women from various businesses in order to represent a good cross-section of Dallas' gay community," he says.
The paper's parent company, Belo Corp., began offering benefits to same-sex partners of Belo employees in January, and the new policy on union announcements is a natural progression, he says.
Heather Jace of Melissa and her partner, Jandy Jace, are one of the couples running announcements in today's paper.
"We're real happy," says Heather Jace, 25, an office manager. "We want people to know, 'Hey, we're just like you. We've got a house, we've got a job, we have pets, we pay bills.' "
The couple had a small commitment ceremony in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, on June 9, followed by a reception when they returned home. She says she isn't worried about any sort of backlash from the announcement. "I would like to think the community is mature enough to accept it and embrace it," she says.
Vanessa Benavides and Amy Davis, two Dallas attorneys who had a black-tie commitment ceremony in Dallas on June 14, are also buying an announcement. The couple also got married in Canada on June 23, and Ms. Davis took the name Benavides.
"I think it's important to let the community know that we go together, that we have made this commitment," says Vanessa Benavides, 28.
"I think that's the importance of marriages – to have witnesses to know that we've made this commitment together."
The paper's criteria for publishing an announcement are that the ceremony takes place in public, and that somebody officiates.
A two-inch announcement is free, while photos or longer announcements are charged according to size.
The Dallas Morning News joins 205 other papers that publish same-sex union announcements, including 10 in Texas, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Discrimination, or GLAAD.
"I'm so happy and so glad to hear this," says Monica Taher, people of color media director for GLAAD.
She worked last year on the group's project to get additional papers to publish same-sex union announcements.
The New York Times' decision last August to begin publishing same-sex union announcements was a watershed, she says.
Since then, many more papers have begun publishing such announcements, she says.
At some papers, executives had argued that printing same-sex announcements was tantamount to taking a political stand, but GLAAD representatives responded that not running them was also taking a political stand, she says.
Pamela Strother, executive director of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, also praised The Morning News' new policy.
"It's fantastic that The Dallas Morning News has moved forward on this," she says.
"It shows that a newspaper in a region that might be seen as conservative is willing to step out on this."
NLGJA leaders have also been meeting with newspaper executives, including The New York Times' publisher, says Robert Dodge, last year's president and a writer in The Dallas Morning News' Washington bureau.
"Our work was journalist to journalist, colleague to colleague, behind the scenes," he says.
E-mail amckenzie@dallasnews.com
Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/texasliving/stories/070603dnlivsamesex.a86e9.html
Good one. I only wish that I hadn't cancelled my subscription long ago so I could cancel it now.
Seconded.
I still don't follow you.
I think restaurants should be allowed to allow smoking if they wish. Or not if they wish. Or both if they wish.
You can't smoke in my house, though. Poles or cigarettes :)
Didn't say I didn't 'want to be offended'.
I just said I don't like them.
That's the difference between me and Fundie. I can tolerate things I don't like without yelling and screaming for someone to put a stop to it.
And this isn't a Fundie website. (Contrary to all the gay hate postings going on lately...)
Funny, but you haven't impressed me with your tolerance. I would have ignored you except I kept coming across your amazingly intolerant posts berating others for their lack of tolerance.
But I have seen the following here recently :
A call for banning all condoms.
A call for banning all birth control.
A call for banning birth control surgeries.
Jail for doctors who proscribe birth control.
A lack of understanding that heterosexuals engage in oral/anal sodomy.
And just above, a pro-muslim take over post.
Excuse me whilst I just step out of the way and let the lunatics take over the asylum.
Delicensing of doctors. Not jail.
But I don't need to give any of you ideas, I suppose.
Hate gays all you like. In your own house.
Don't attempt to use the force of arms of the government to raid the bedrooms of consenting adults.
Wow. Amazing. Twenty years ago, who would have believed it ? . . .
Yes, perfectly appropriate if you're three years old (except for the fondling part). Your post made me laugh.
I think FReepers were among the few people who followed that case. It was virtually ignored by mainstream media. Contrast that to the huge national attention the Matthew Sheppard case received.
And I hope you tell them in no uncertain terms why.
Same things apply here. The newspaper isn't YOURS.
Spinless, wandering empty shells of a cast off society search for a way to be accepted and there is a never-ending parade of politically correct brain dead air heads waiting to connect with. Their new Lifestyle of packing fudge fits them well!
This pitiful sorry lot of wasted humanity deserves no special provisions or allowances normal society enjoys. Their existence ruptures the gene pool, contaminates and wrecks the blood supply we all depend on, cannot reproduce the species, harbors and spreads virrulent exotic diseases, exactly as Jehovaha God in the Bible warned us about! This sick organism serves only to confuse the young and innocent by forcing their abhorent Lifestyle on society that is already over the edge morally and spiritually!
The Amoral characteristics common to their ilk stinks like the Abyss they crawled out of and will return once again to like a dog returns to its vomit! HELL! is waiting in reserve and is fanned to about 100 degrees hotter to welcome them!
Even as miserable as you are,I won't leave you without hope! You may not believe in Hell and thats fine; but it is a real physical place and you are headed that way if you don't change your ways partner! The un-pardonable sin you have heard of only figures in when you finally,totally die a sinner not accepting JESUS as your only way of salvation! I hate no person individually only the SIN of the Lifestyle. So if you choose to gamble eternity in a firey burning HELL; go ahead punk, do ya feel lucky?
Note:
winker
Since Jul 4, 2003
Good point. And such a law is not compatible with liberty.
There's no reason adults shouldn't be allowed to own/use fireworks.
They look as mentally disabled as many gays do.
...don't forget the "Unintended Consequences"
LOL ! Good catch ! Shoulda known.Upgrade, huh ? Doing repair to their PC [Politically Correct] Servers ??
This diatribe would indicate you are speaking to an individual. Since this post was in reply to post #1, one would assume you were speaking to the one who posted it. If you, in fact, were making a general comment to everyone on this thread, then, as a point, I am the one to inquire as I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, and thus, your diatribe does not apply to me.
Have a nice life.
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Just wait until the Supreme Court sanctions beastiality. The NY Times will probably be the first to announce those unions, as well.
Totally depraved!
hehe !
Does it really say that? LOL...
What - did he get his **** caught in the door or something?
Oh- REALLY? Then why are Christians becoming more and more Christian values and symbols being pushed out of the public realm? Weather it be the 10 commandments, or a simple Cross displayed - these symbols are being removed because of fear that they might "offend" someone. If we don't have the right to "not be offended", then why the recent special considerations for non-Christians?
To be perfectly honest - all gratuitous displays of public affection - regardless of the nature of those doing it, is in bad taste and annoying at the least. The fact that homosexual couples in some cases prefer to flaunt their deviant sexuality by displaying behaviour in public that would be disgusting even if between heterosexual couples only acts as a slap in the face of anyone with a sense of morality.
I have another question for you....
Why are there laws against public indecency? If some freak decides to whip out his privates and wave them at you in the parking lot of the local mall - why would that be illegal? Answer - because such behaviour is extremely offensive. There may be some of that freak's friends who would not be offended, while others might just think it's funny. But the fact remains - it is illegal because it is offensive.
What about laws against nudity? Are these laws just random acts to keep legislators busy? No, they are to protect those who might otherwise be offended by such displays.
I subimit that anyone with a shred of morality left in their body who is not offended by such grotesque demonstrations, both in the "real world" as well as in the majority of "entertainment" venues - ie Television, then I suggest that they are either the appoligists for or are active participants in said behaivior.
I might also suggest that your leftist rantings might be better of on another unmentionable message board with the initials DU -
I needed back up to deal with mental midgets who use hatred and sexual repression as a raison d'etre."
Gerbil Alert for the pot calling the kettle black.
Coward.
Mating season is a year-round thing among the two-legged beasts and I suppose it has its place since even the most fecund are not prolific; but to order one's life around such a practice is so vulgar.
Dunno. They don't have a right not to be offended either.
I might also suggest that your leftist rantings
Yeah, yeah - I'm the one crying to government here. Got it. I'm the one trying to make it illegal for gays to have sex, and I'm the one trying to stop a newspaper from doing what they want with their own paper.
LOL..
You are sadly misinformed.
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