Couple's campaign changes newspaper's same-sex announcements policy

Kristy Wilke and Jessica Kitzman
Kristy Wilke (left), and Jessica Kitzman, both 26 of Minneapolis, plan to marry in August. A campaign on Facebook led the Omaha (Neb.) World Herald to partially change its policies on allowing same-sex marriage announcements.
Photo courtesy of Kristy Wilke

A dispute between a lesbian couple in Minneapolis' and an Omaha newspaper became fodder for a heated debate in the blogosphere.

Kristy Wilke and Jessica Kitzman, both 26, planned a marriage ceremony in Hackensack, Minn. next August. When Wilke's parents tried to take out an announcement in their hometown paper, the Omaha World Herald, the Nebraska paper denied their request.

Wilke's father created a Facebook page asking supporters to contact the publisher. Kristy Wilke says she was amazed by the results.

"There was enough support behind this to draw the paper's attention to have them make a response and have the paper make a partial change in its policy in just four days," Wilke said. "It's just blown me away."

The paper has agreed to publish announcements about legal marriages. Wilke and Kitzman also plan to marry in Iowa, where gay marriage became legal after a Supreme Court ruling in 2009.

The Star Tribune began running same-sex announcements in 1991.

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