The marriage announcement for Dean Hamer (left) and Joseph
Wilson prompted a
dozen readers to cancel their subscriptions to the Derrick & News Herald.
Falling death was one of three such cases in 2004
D.C. Human Rights Office nominee reaches out to gays
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Gay
By ADRIAN BRUNE
Friday, July 09, 2004
The same-sex wedding announcement was brief and was published with little
fanfare in the April 11, edition of the Sunday New York Times, the hometown
newspaper of geneticist, Dr. Dean Hamer. It began simply: “Dr. Dean Heilman
Hamer and Joseph Hall Wilson were married yesterday. Johanna Hickey, a marriage
commissioner in British Columbia, Canada, officiated.”
Still, just two years following the decision of New York Times editors to
publish same-sex marriage announcements, supportive letters began arriving
at the home of the Washington, D.C. couple.
Because of the outpouring, Wilson petitioned his hometown newspapers, the
Derrick & News Herald of Oil City, Pa., to publish it. Without any wringing
of hands, theirs became the first same-sex wedding announcement to run in the
newspapers’ history. The Herald publishes a morning and evening edition.
“It couldn’t have been a smoother process, much to my surprise,
and actually easier than submitting to the Times,” Wilson said. “I
just e-mailed the editors the announcement — a little longer version — and
they said, ‘Of course, we’ll publish this.’”
The response that followed proved quite different from what the couple received
after the Times piece was published. Since the announcement ran in early May,
more than three dozen letters from both sides of the issue have poured into
the newspapers’ offices, revealing how small towns are now confronting
the same-sex marriage debate that has slowly trickled down from larger cities.
“After seeing the direction that even our community might be going,
I know how imperative it is for the Federal Marriage Amendment to be passed,” wrote
Clarisa Zacherl, an Oil City resident. “All Christians need to stand
up for what they know is right in God’s eyes, and stop this atrocity.
The Bible was written as a set of rules for us to follow, not a set of general
ideas for us to interpret however we want to fit our own lifestyles.”
But others in Oil City, which bills itself as “the valley that changed
the world” for its role in the modern oil industry, backed the couple’s
union.
“It still surprises me to this day that people can get so worked up
over who another person chooses to love,” stated Scott Zelinsky, of Oil
City. “We are still talking about love after all. Two people who have
pledged their commitment to each other is hardly a reason to be moved to a
shaking anger, as one reader wrote.”
The number of responses to the announcement didn’t surprise Glen Mohnkern,
the managing editor of the papers, but the even split in the socially conservative
city of 11,500, nestled in the mountains of Northwestern Pennsylvania, certainly
did. For Mohnkern and the publisher of the family-owned company, however, the
paper’s nondiscrimination and fairness policies outweighed any question
of whether the wedding announcement should run.
“The marriage was legal, and the newspaper doesn’t condone a policy
of discrimination,” he told Knight-Ridder News Service.
Newlyweds from Oil City must pay for their announcements in the local papers,
just as they do in the Times or the neighboring Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which
ran its first same-sex wedding announcement in 2001. But some people have still
drawn a conclusion that the Derrick & News Herald condoned same-sex marriage
by running the announcement.
The 26,000-circulation newspaper has not published an editorial about its
position on gay marriage or the decision to run the announcement.
On May 10, the day the Wilson/Hamer announcement was published, the Oil City
papers received about 15 phone calls, and a dozen people canceled their subscriptions,
company officials said. Since then, both the contentious and the conciliatory
letters have run, almost daily except those that are unsigned.
Most invoke the same arguments: The Bible says homosexuality is wrong; or,
good Christians do not judge one another. Some of those who have written even
take personal aim at their neighbors who might espouse what one called the
beliefs of “self-righteous hypocrites.”
Age: 53
Education: Trinity College, Harvard University, Ph.D. in biological
chemistry
Employment: Geneticist, National Cancer Institute, focusing on
HIV/AIDS
Background: Published study suggesting genetic predisposition
for male homosexuality
Age: 40
Education: University of Pittsburgh
Employment: Program officer, Public Welfare Foundation
Background: Peace Corps volunteer in Mali |
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“We think it’s been a good debate,” Mohnkern told Knight-Ridder.
Mohnkern did not return Blade phone calls by press time. “We think our
readers are interested.”
Wilson, who hasn’t lived in Oil City since 1982, said that in taking
out the announcement in his hometown paper, he primarily wanted to try to reach
out to gay youths to show them they aren’t alone and should be proud
of who they are.
“This was my way of showing … people leading positive lives,” Wilson
said. “They could hopefully see their own stories finally reflected in
the newspaper.”
Wilson, who has made a career dealing with social justice issues, currently
works for the Public Welfare Foundation in Washington.
“I worry about people who can’t defend themselves, and young people
who need to learn and be guided,” he said. Though he knew he was gay
at age 4 or 5, Wilson did not come out until college. Throughout high school,
he said he was often asked if he was a “faggot” because he did
not date girls.
“They were easy and hurtful words to throw around, and they have a deep
and lasting impact,” he said.
Wilson met Hamer, a Harvard-educated geneticist and author of two books, in
1996 while working at a National Gay & Lesbian Task Force event celebrating
the inclusion of sexual orientation as a protected class in South Africa’s
constitution. They’ve been together for five years.
Hamer and Wilson had long planned for a commitment ceremony, but decided to
officially wed after Canada made it a possibility, opting not to wait for the
Massachusetts ruling to take effect legalizing same-sex marriage there. Wilson
said he and Hamer saw the marriage and its announcement as an important personal
commitment, but also as a way to open up dialogue about gay rights.
“The Times was more concerned about lineage and place in society; the
Derrick editors wanted to know who we were, where we met, and how we belonged
in the community,” Wilson said. “Our announcement gave the people
of Oil City a small look into the ongoing story of gay liberation.”
Adrian Brune can be reached at abrune@washblade.com.
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