Small-town newspaper shrugs off flak from homophobic readers

Same-sex marriages are not exactly commonplace (or legal) in Mississippi. Earlier this month, Crystal Craven and Jessica Powell, two women from the small city of Laurel, exchanged vows. It was all the more touching because Craven has brain cancer. The local paper, the Laurel Leader-Call, published a story a story about the union with the headline “Historic Wedding” — accurate, since it was the county’s first same-sex wedding. The paper soon received angry messages from bigoted readers, with some canceling their subscriptions. The paper’s response? Haters gon’ hate. Jim Cegielski, the paper’s owner, published a mic-dropping editorial that explained in a thoughtful manner that “our job is to inform readers what is going on in our town and let them make their own judgments.” [Source]

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