Leave Jesus out of it

In February, Shane Runyan achieved the “greatest accomplishment” of his life. He married the man of his dreams, the love of his life, Daniel Corn. The couple had been together for nearly seven years and wanted to “make it legal,” since now they can.

The Oklahoma City couple came back home after a blissful wedding and honeymoon in sunny southern California. Married on February 3, on the beach at Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, the two came home and wanted to let their friends and extended family know about their, “great accomplishment.” Shane called his hometown newspaper, The Mangum Star to place a wedding announcement.

That’s where the feelings of rejection and discrimination begin.

Shane said, “The editor told me, ‘Well, our readership is not ready for same-sex marriage and I’m not ready to deal with their reaction.’

“I said to him, ‘After you have spent decades writing about my family’s accomplishments. The stories about my dad and my sister, and now I achieve the greatest accomplishment in my life and you won’t print it?’”

But nothing Runyan could say could make the Star editor change his mind. The announcement of him marrying his partner, Daniel, was never published in his Mangum hometown paper.(Mangum, OK had a population of 3,010 at the 2010 census. It is located in southwest Oklahoma).

The Gayly called the editor of the Mangum Star, Casey Paxton who said, “I can tell you part of why we couldn’t publish the announcements, but I can’t tell you all of it. There have been things I have been asked not to say about this.”

Paxton went on to say, “First off, I want it to be known that I don’t judge what people do. It’s just my religious conviction on same-sex marriage. I understand that people don’t understand that.

“I don’t understand same-sex marriage because of how I was reared; these are just my personal convictions and I will not compromise them.”

Paxton went on to say he has a deep love for every human being.

“The readers in my town are over the 70 year old age bracket,” Paxton continued. “They really would not approve of a same-sex announcement, mainly because it is not legal in Oklahoma.”

Paxton went on to explain some of his experiences being the editor of a small town newspaper, appeasing his readership and some of the issues he faces running his business when we asked, “So if same-sex marriage were legal in Oklahoma, would you run the announcement of a same-sex couple?”

Paxton took a deep breath and answered, “I would like to say I would reconsider it, but my personal feelings on the matter come first. I would pray very heavily on the matter and give it deep thought.”

Apparently, there is another part of the story that will remain a mystery. The portion of the story where Paxton said he couldn’t tell us “all of it.”

Another Oklahoma City couple with ties to Mangum had a similar experience.

René Wilson and Mark Rhodes were married on November 2, in Seattle, WA. “We chose Seattle because we have a close friend in Seattle so we stayed with them and he had someone he knew who could perform the service,” said Rhodes. “It was just a perfect place for us to go.”

Washington passed same-sex marriage in November 2012, so their marriage was performed legally. Rhodes is a federal retiree, so this was important to them for many reasons.

“René is already on my health insurance, my life insurance and retirement and, if I were to die he would get my survivors annuity because we are legally married – and it’s recognized federally.”

This couple has been together nearly 34 years.

“René was born and raised in Mangum – his whole family,” Rhodes continues. “After we got married, I wanted to put an announcement there. I sent an announcement to The Mangum Star. I sent them an email about cost and procedure. They wrote back and said it was $10, ‘Email us the info, we’ll get it done as soon as we can.’”

“I sent them a little announcement and a picture and didn’t hear back from them. I waited a week or so and then wrote them back and I heard back from Paxton. He wrote back and said at this time we decline to print your wedding announcement.

“He didn’t say why.”

Rhodes then looked up The Mangum Star on Facebook and posted their announcement and picture on their page. Within an hour it had been taken down. He said he went through just about the same thing with The Altus Times (Altus is a larger city nearby).

“I think it’s unfair. It was a factual event that happened, it is newsworthy and I don’t understand why they couldn’t print it. It seemed like they didn’t have a problem printing it until they found out we were a gay couple. I mean that is his [René] hometown, where he was raised. He still has a lot of family living there.

“This has nothing to do with Jesus or any kind of religion. This has to with equal rights; leave Jesus out of it.”

by Robin Dorner, Editor in Chief

The Gayly – April 15, 2014 @ 2:25pm