Ark. Paper Snubs Gay Couple

When Cody Renegar got engaged to his partner, he wanted to shout it from the rooftops—or at least announce it in his hometown paper. No dice, said the Northwest Arkansas Times. "There's a certain amount of validation that comes with putting it in the paper. You know, you grow up with that, you see this, you love to look at these beautiful photos of couples," he tells KNWA. But the Times told Renegar, who is planning a big wedding in June, that the paper only runs engagement announcements for marriages that the state legally recognizes—ie, not gay marriages.

"It's not a law for it not to be put in the paper, it's a choice of theirs, it felt to me like they were making a stance," Renegar says. "You want to be recognized as a taxpayer, as a human being, as a person in love … it's not that complicated for them to print a picture of people in love." The community has rallied around the couple, according to Arkansas Matters: Ads have been pulled from the Times, an online petition has gotten more than 1,000 signatures, and another paper has agreed to publish the announcement. (More Arkansas stories.)