Social Media Onslaught Causes N.D. Daily to Rethink Same-Sex Wedding Announcement Policy

(Photo credit: DaKohlmeyer)When the Fargo (N.D.) Forum said it would return the $25 publication fee to 31-year-old Fargo native Allison Johnson and declined to print her same-sex wedding announcement of her upcoming nuptials to 27-year-old Kelsey Smith, it touched off a social media firestorm, CNN reports.

After a four-year-long relationship, Johnson & Smith plan to marry in New York on August 1 and hold a reception August 4 in Fargo (parking is easier and those meaty smorgasbords and potato dumplings are hard to pass up). Johnson forwarded a screen shot of the Forum's e-mail rejection of her announcement to an online reporter buddy who posted it on Facebook, Twitter and other digital forums, according to the CNN story. The image was shared more than 600 times and triggered a petition on Change.org.

The couple has since met with the editor and publisher of the North Dakota daily, and the Fargo Forum's Facebook page indicates that its same-sex announcements policy is under review. Johnson has posted on Facebook her open letter to the Forum and Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker, which asks: "...WHY, in a city we call home, where we are days away from becoming homeowners in Fargo, where we support every person that does good for their community, are we excluded from being able to announce our wedding celebration? What makes two women or two men any different from other taxpaying married citizens of  Fargo, N.D.?"

It remains to be seen how far the Fargo Forum will go and whether it will forgo its policy which would go far toward answering the foregoing.