CHARLOTTE, NC (AgapePress) - Members of a national homosexual advocacy group are asking The Charlotte Observer to publish announcements of same-sex unions along with its wedding announcements.

Observer publisher Peter Ridder plans to meet September 25 with representatives from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and Equality North Carolina PAC, two groups that promote homosexuality.

Each Sunday, The Observer's advertising department runs paid announcements of weddings, engagements and anniversaries under the banner "Celebrations." The department took over the page from the newsroom in the mid-1990s. The Observer also runs ads for topless bars and for massage parlors which many believe are little more than fronts for prostitution.

The Observer does not release revenue figures for these types of ads, but media observers familiar with the advertising rates of The Charlotte Observer and other Knight-Ridder publications estimate that Knight-Ridder, a publicly traded company, generates millions of dollars from the adult entertainment industry.

The Observer doesn't have a formal policy about homosexual union notices, but the paper doesn't print them "because they are not recognized by the state,'" Ridder said.

The paper's unwritten policy is under review, said Ridder and David Thompson, vice president for advertising. Ridder said he's hoping his meeting with the groups will help him weigh the arguments.

"Clearly, some people will be offended" if The Observer changes its policy, Ridder told Associated Press.

Charlotte World publisher Warren Smith said The Observer has a responsibility to the community to have an explicit policy on this issue. He adds, though, that "The Observer is in a difficult spot. The paper’s editorial content is unabashedly pro-homosexual, so if they refuse the announcements, they’re hypocrites. On the other hand, if they accept the announcements, their pro-homosexual ideology will be officially out of the closet."

He added: "What will be really interesting will be how the community responds, especially advertisers. It was troubling to me that readers and advertisers in Fayetteville responded with a deafening silence when the newspaper there started publishing same-sex announcements."

Smith said that Christians should speak out calmly and logically, but forcefully, on this issue. He also said that subscribers and advertisers must vote with their wallets if Knight-Ridder is to get the message.

"Organizations such as Belk, Food Lion, Coca-Cola Consolidated, and Harris Teeter carefully promote their community and family values," Smith said. "Some of them even give a few dollars to pro-family causes in North Carolina. But then they spend tens of millions of dollars with The Observer and other papers that actively hold pro-homosexual editorial positions."

"Christian business people have got to learn that they simply can't segregate their business decisions from their moral views," the publisher said. "They can't say, 'Well, this is business.' Ultimately, that kind of compartmentalization corrodes both of them -- their organizations, and the communities they say they serve."

The Fayetteville Observer made national headlines when it published its first homosexual union announcement July 21. At the time, Smith wrote an editorial saying that "the response of the Christian community to the Fayetteville decision would have an impact on newspapers around the country."

It took only a couple of weeks for The New York Times to change its policy. It ran its first same-sex couple announcement just three weeks after the Fayetteville decision.

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