Frontiersman welcomes all weddings

The news arrived this week that a series of legal maneuvers invalidated a constitutional amendment Alaskans passed in 1998 that barred same sex couples from marrying.

Even before we arrived at the office Monday, photos of happy Alaska couples beginning the matrimonial process were pouring into our Facebook feeds. The Palmer courthouse reports a trickle of couples registering there, too.

Whether they intend to marry or not, this court ruling is personal for many Valley families, as well as some members of our staff. It won’t change how we do business though.

We’re for everyone — so long as you live in the Mat-Su Borough, anyway — and that won’t change.

What we hope will change is the faces in the wedding photos you see on our pages. If you can legally marry your partner in the state of Alaska, you are very welcome to send in your wedding announcements, engagement announcements and news of anniversary celebrations to us for publication at news@frontiersman.com. There is no charge and you are welcome to include photos. We print one photo only with wedding and engagement announcements. But for anniversaries, if you want to include your wedding photo and a current photo of yourselves, we will print them both. We only help celebrate the milestones, like 25, 30, 50 or 60 years.

While the state of Alaska says it will appeal this ruling, so long as same-sex weddings are legal in Alaska, their announcements are welcome in the Frontiersman — because we are for everyone.

To us, this is a about equality. None of our employees are second-class citizens and neither are our neighbors. This is about treating everyone with dignity and respect. It’s about treating other people as we want to be treated ourselves. And, yes, it’s about civil rights.

Alaska has a history as a civil rights leader. Before Rosa Parks, ElizabethPeratrovichpaved the way for passage of Alaska’s Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945. We prefer to honor this chapter in our history rather than focus on the footnote that will say Alaska was first to pass marriage discrimination laws in 1998.

Equality is always to be preferred over discrimination. Those who do not believe this, or share our zeal for basic human decency winning the day, are in a shrinking minority.

But ultimately, this is only about the rule of law. Based on the rule of law, the rules for marriage in Alaska have changed. We join more than 30 other states — and the majority of residents of the U.S. — in living in a state that no longer has the practice of discrimination against gay people written into its constitution.

So send us your wedding announcements, and we will help you celebrate. Congratulations to our friends and neighbors directly affected by this ruling. We look forward to seeing your smiling faces in our pages.