Omaha World-Herald agrees to print same-sex marriage announcements

After facing scrutiny, the Omaha World-Herald announced Monday it will begin publishing wedding announcements of gay and lesbian couples, provided that the weddings are legally recognized.

According to a statement by Terry Kroeger, the publisher of the World-Herald, "Celebrations announcements regarding legal weddings, engagements for legal weddings or anniversaries of a legal marriage will be welcomed, regardless of the genders of the couple. We will not run announcements regarding commitment ceremonies, partnerships and other non-marriage unions, again regardless of gender."

This change in policy followed an attempt by Jeff and Heidi Wilke, of Omaha, to submit a wedding announcement for their daughter Kristy's upcoming nuptials to fiancée Jessica Sitzman. Soon after, Jeff Wilke was contacted by Terry Kroeger who told him that as a business policy, the Omaha World-Herald would not publish same-sex wedding announcements, said Kristy Wilke.

In protest, Jeff and Kristy Wilke started a group on Facebook, titled "Omaha World-Herald Denies GLBT Equal Rights." The Facebook group provided a phone number and e-mail address for the World-Herald, and encouraged group members to contact the newspaper to protest the policy. The Internet response was immediate.

"We never had any idea that our group would go from no people to about 2,000 people in the space of a few days," Kristy Wilke said.

Soon, the story was picked up by several blogs and websites, including "The Advocate," "Jezebel" and columnist Dan Savage, who remarked, "At least one daily newspaper is doing well enough to turn away ad dollars."

However, Kristy Wilke was quick to say that she only wanted to affect a change in policy, not to put the World-Herald out of business.

"Local papers are important, and the World-Herald is important to Omaha," she said. "Our intention is to grab their attention."

On Sunday, the World-Herald's Executive Editor Mike Reilly posted a statement on the newspaper's official Facebook page in response to the criticism.

The statement read: "We respect the rights of all individuals to celebrate milestones important to them. But our Celebrations advertisement feature, a century old tradition at The World-Herald, is not intended to showcase or debate divisive public issues."

By Monday, however, Kroeger released a statement reversing the policy.

In the statement, Kroeger said, "Our sense is that this change will provide for a public ‘celebration' of important milestones in the lives of people who take the significant steps toward legally sanctioned marriage. Iowa and four other states as well as the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex marriages. We will publish Celebrations announcements of marriages from those jurisdictions."

In addition to announcing the new policy change, Kroeger acknowledged that some would still be unhappy with the new policy, either for allowing announcements of same-sex weddings or for not allowing announcements of commitment ceremonies and other non-legal unions.

"For any gender, it's got to be a legal union," said Joel Long, the World-Herald's director of public relations.

"We're not going to publish a heterosexual couple that's lived together for 15 years and wants their anniversary announced. You have to set the standard somewhere, and the best way is to go by whether it's legal."

Kroeger also defended the World-Herald from accusations of bigotry.

"This news organization is not guilty of hating gays and lesbians," he said. "Should we have seen this issue more clearly? Probably. Have we been too slow in reacting to this matter? Maybe. But hateful? Never."

Unlike the World-Herald, the Lincoln Journal Star does accept announcements of civil unions and commitment ceremonies, as well as same-sex marriage announcements.

"Most announcements like that end up in the Celebrations section," said John Maher, the Journal Star's publisher.

He said that the Journal Star's Celebrations section functions as a forum for readers.

"We accept anything that's appropriate," Maher said. "We don't discriminate by sexual orientation."

Kristy Wilke, for one, is pleased with the Omaha World-Herald's reconsideration of the issue. Wilke, who will be married in a courthouse ceremony in Iowa followed by a wedding celebration in Minnesota next August, can now have her wedding announced in the World-Herald.

"We're pretty excited," she said. "At first glance, we thought it wasn't what we were looking for. But it's an addition that will open doors for a lot of couples. They were willing to listen to us and changed their policy after only four days."

"It's not exactly what we hoped for," she said, referring to the exclusion of commitment ceremony announcements. "But one step at a time."

Now that Wilke has succeeded in her Internet campaign, she plans to keep up the Facebook group she created, under the new name, "United for Equal Rights in Nebraska."

She plans to work with other advocates in Omaha to continue her campaign for gay and lesbian rights in the state.

"This isn't just for us," Kristy Wilke said. "This isn't about Kristy Wilke getting her wedding announced. It's for all couples like us."

KAITLINEK@DAILYNEBRASKAN.COM