The Omaha World Herald Finds Gay Relationships Unfit For Print

UPDATE: This evening, the Omaha World Herald issued a statement saying that they will be adopting a new policy when it comes to same-sex announcements in their paper. To read the updated statement, click here.

When a couple gets engaged, most folks are all too eager to congratulate the lucky pair for falling in love, and making a commitment to one another. It's a bubbly, joyous time.

Unless you're the Omaha World Herald, the primary daily paper in Omaha, Nebraska. Because if you're a same-sex couple and you want to announce your engagement in the Omaha World Herald, you'll be given a loud, thunderous "No."

Two women, Jessica Kitzman and Kristin Wilke, are getting ready to tie the knot in August 2011 in Northern Minnesota. The parents of Kristin were so excited about their daughter's upcoming nuptials, that they wanted to take a normal, standard engagement announcement out in the Omaha World Herald. But when they got in touch with the paper, the folks at the Omaha World Herald declined the ad. Turns out that, as far as the Omaha World Herald is concerned, love and happiness is really only the domain of heterosexual couples.

"We asked to buy an announcement ad in the Omaha World Herald to share our glorious news with our friends," Kristin's parents write on this Facebook page, which has over 2,000 members now. "I am disgusted to say that the publisher himself, Terry Kroeger, called me personally to say same-gender couples are not allowed to buy announcements in the Omaha World Herald."

Wow. You would think that a publisher of a newspaper would have  other things to do than make personal phone calls to champion discrimination. But this type of policy is just unacceptable. Well over a thousand daily newspapers allow their LGBT subscribers to make same-sex wedding and engagement announcements in their pages. It's time for the Omaha World Herald to change their policy, and show a little respect for the consumers buying their papers.

Kristin and Jessica have issued a joint statement pointing out how this is just one more way that same-sex couples are relegated to a second-class status in many parts of the country.

"This is now an issue much bigger than the two of us. We have heard from numerous couples who have experienced the same discriminatory policies of the Omaha World Herald. Moving forward, please understand that this effort is for ALL same-gender couples seeking this right - not just our family," Jessica and Kristin write.

Indeed, this is but the latest in a series of news blips this year with newspapers telling same-sex couples that they're unfit for print. A newspaper chain in Cambridge, Ohio refused to print a same-sex wedding announcement earlier this year, and the South Bend Tribune in Indiana also told a same-sex couple that their wedding announcement was too controversial to include in print.

But what's so unfit for print about peace, love and a little understanding?

So far, more than 2,000 people have joined with Jessica and Kristin on Facebook to support their push to get the Omaha World Herald to change their policy, and hundreds of emails have been sent via Change.org. Won't you consider joining them?

There's absolutely no excuse for a publisher of a paper to pick up the phone, and tell two parents that their daughter doesn't deserve an engagement announcement. That's mean and callous, not to mention a little unjust. Let's see the Omaha World Herald take a step that so many newspapers have already made, and allow all of their subscribers, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, celebrate their engagements and weddings.

Photo credit: Organizing for America