NH Paper Rejects Gay Wedding Announcement

New Hampshire's Union Leader has gone from reporting the news to being the news after it refused to publish a gay couple's wedding announcement—a move that has become an election issue. As one of five states that recognizes gay marriage, Democratic Senate candidate Paul Hodes is pushing publisher Joe McQuaid to respect the state law. "The Union Leader’s disgraceful policy of exclusion harkens to a different time in this country when people were denied opportunity because of their race, religion and ethnic origin," he wrote in a letter to McQuaid.

A rep for GOP opponent Kelly Ayotte counters that the government shouldn't be meddling with the freedom of the press. In a statement to WMUR, McQuaid wrote, "We are not 'anti-gay.' We are for marriage remaining the important man-woman institution it has always been. While the law sanctions gay marriage, it neither demands that churches perform them or that our First Amendment right to choose what we print be suspended." The couple whose announcement was denied, Greg Gould and Aurelio Tine, were married yesterday.
(More New Hampshire gay marriage stories.)