Starting Saturday, same-sex couples around the state will be eligible for civil unions. But you won’t see any of them in the Waterbury Republican-American.
That’s because the Brass City’s independently owned daily is the only major newspaper in Connecticut to decide against running civil union notices alongside its marriage announcements, according to Love Makes A Family, a gay rights advocacy group. LMF had been at the paper all summer asking whether it would run the announcements, the group’s president Anne Stanback said. But the newspaper did not respond to phone calls.Finally, the Rev. Sarah Verasco, a United Church of Christ minister in Waterbury, called the paper earlier this month because she planned on officiating a civil union ceremony. At that point, an employee with the paper told Verasco civil union notices would not be printed. Republican-American managing editor Bob Veillette did not return a call for comment. The Republican-American is well known for its far right wing editorial stances. Stanback said it has developed a national reputation for printing some of the most “offensive” comments regarding homosexuality. For instance, LMF cites a quote from the paper’s April 15, 2005 edition: “Homosexual agitators will not rest until the state fully endorses their unnatural relationships.”“I can’t say it’s a huge surprise to find the Waterbury Republican is the only one of the major papers to refuse to do this,” Stanback said.