Last Monday, the Lincoln Journal Star announced the winners of its Ultimate Wedding Giveaway contest, which awarded more than $20,000 in wedding-related goods and services to the couple with the most votes. The winners were Mitch Lee and Ryan Lowry.
The contest was decided by votes made by readers on the Journal Star's website, where the couple won by more than 2,000 votes.
Lee and Lowry said they weren't trying to make a political statement or push a gay agenda by entering the contest. They simply wanted to win the money so they could have the wedding of their dreams.
"People said we were brave for doing this," Lee told the Journal Star on Wednesday. "I didn't think it was brave. I just wanted a wedding."
Despite the couple's self-proclaimed "greedy" intentions, much of their support came from a group of Facebook users who wanted to show that Midwesterners aren't as closed-minded and conservative as they are often made out to be.
After receiving about 20 comments from readers who opposed the same-sex couple's participation in the contest, publisher Julie Bechtel made a statement supporting the decision to allow them to participate. The rules of the contest only required that the participants be U.S. citizens, with no limitations on the orientation of the couple. After the participating couples were chosen, the selection of the winners was left to the readers.
"It wasn't for us to decide who won," Bechtel told the Journal Star. "We wish them - and all the couples - well."
The Daily Nebraskan would like to commend Lee and Lowry's voters for supporting marriage equality and the Journal Star for sticking by their decision to let the couple participate.
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