This is the photo Michelle Cooks and Patricia Wrightner wanted the Texarkana Gazette to run with their wedding announcement.
Texarkana couple Michelle Cooks and Patricia Wrightner plan to marry next weekend in Mexico and want their friends in the area to know about their upcoming union.
They tried to have a wedding announcement printed in the Texarkana Gazette, but the paper refused to run it because they are a same-sex couple.
“They refused us because we are a gay couple,” Cooks told KSLA News 12. “We were discriminated against. There’s no other reason not to have our picture in the paper.”
The couple has been together for more than a year and plans to marry in Mexico this coming Friday.
The Texarkana Gazette’s editor released a statement, explaining that it only publishes announcements for weddings that will be recognized in the state.
“The Texarkana Gazette publishes wedding, engagement and anniversary announcements related to marriages or impending marriages that are recognized by states in which it circulates,” read the statement from Editor Les Minor. “This policy have been in place for several years. Neither Texas nor Arkansas allows same-sex marriages or recognize same sex marriages from other states. If those laws change, this newspaper will re-examine its policy.”
The couple says they plan to announce their wedding plans on Facebook instead, but wanted their hometown paper to share in their wedding bliss.
“We live in Texarkana,” Cook said. “It is our Texarkana Gazette and we felt we had a right just like everyone else to announce our wedding.”
The Dallas Morning News refused to publish a Dallas couple’s wedding announcement three years ago. The couple then filed a public accommodations complaint under the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance. The paper later published their announcement.
Texarkana doesn’t have a nondiscrimination ordinance.
