Dallas Morning News to publish same-sex unions

I currently subscribe to the DMN. This article was in Sunday's paper. Read it and weep.

Same-sex unions in 'News'
Announcements are a 'logical step,' says publisher

07/06/2003

By ALINE McKENZIE / The Dallas Morning News

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

www.dallasnews.com/texasliving/stories/070603dnlivsamesex.a86e9.html

 

There's been quite a lot of "flack" over this. Same-sex unions are not recognized in Texas so why are they getting free announcements? Can't wait for the paper next weekend to see the "Letters to the Editor" columns!! (Mine may be in there!)

I did already!