Utah Paper Rejects Gay Wedding Blurb

A newspaper in southern Utah rejected a gay Californian couple's wedding announcement because their marriage is not legally recognized in the state.

Tyler Barrick (right) and Spencer Jones (left) paid The Spectrum newspaper in St. George, Utah, to announce a ceremony and reception celebrating their June 2008 wedding in San Francisco, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. The announcement was to come a week before an August 22 reception with family and friends in Jones's hometown.

Though the newspaper initially agreed to run the announcement, an editor said it would run without a photo, to quell any controversy among readers. When Jones said he would rather run the announcement with a photograph, publisher Donnie Welch balked.

"While that may be the case in some states it is not the case in the state of Utah," Welch wrote August 10 in an e-mail to Jones. "As our policy is to run marriage announcements recognized by Utah law, I have made the decision not to run the announcement."

The Spectrum is owned by Gannet Co. Eighty-five percent of the company's newspapers have been deemed gay-inclusive by GLAAD, including The Spectrum, which was added to the six-year-old list of those that publish same-sex wedding announcements in 2008.