HALIFAX (CP) - A photo of fiddler Ashley MacIsaac kissing his same-sex partner at a surprise wedding last month has touched a nerve with some newspaper readers in Halifax, sparking a debate on its editorial pages.
MacIsaac married his partner Andrew Stokes at an East Coast Music Awards event in the city on Feb. 18.
The following day, a photo of the couple kissing at the unannounced wedding ceremony appeared on the front page of the Halifax Daily News, prompting a mix of outrage and praise from readers.
The newspaper has featured letters to the editor almost every day since.
Last weekend the Daily News ran a copy of the front page that a reader sent after scribbling out images of MacIsaac and Stokes with black marker and writing messages on the page, including "How disgusting!
" and "Almost made me vomit.
A handful of the letters have been critical, demanding someone from the newspaper be fired or urging same-sex couples to keep their "lifestyles to yourself and out of my face."
But most have defended the paper and MacIsaac, while brushing off the negative reactions as childish, backwards and homophobic.
That's also the attitude in most of the 75 comments on the subject that appear on the newspaper's website.
On Thursday, MacIsaac weighed in with his own letter, thanking his parents - who spoke out after receiving a harassing anonymous phone call about the photo - the Daily News and letter-writer Edward Watt, who first complained the photo was immoral but later apologized.
"In the end, it is my partner Andrew whom I respect the most," wrote MacIsaac, 31, an often outrageous figure whose letter was unusually muted.
"I married him for that reason, and would only ask due respect be granted for my partner and myself, as anyone else would expect."
The editor of the Daily News, Jack Romanelli, said the paper ran the photo because it was part of a legitimate news story about a well-known Nova Scotian.
He said he was surprised by the response.
"We knew we'd get some reaction, but we didn't expect this much," Romanelli said in an interview.
"It obviously hit a nerve of some sort, but I really wouldn't want to generalize about Halifax or Atlantic Canada, because the response was overwhelmingly in favour."
Romanelli noted that the Ottawa Citizen, which ran the same photo inside the paper, didn't receive the same backlash from readers.
Russell Westhaver, a sociology professor at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, said while Atlantic Canadians' support for same-sex marriage appears to be at the same level as the rest of the country, critics seem more vocal.
"I think that has to do with the lack of exposure to things that are, more or less, out of the mainstream," said Westhaver, who is gay.
"I think there's just a general lack of exposure to diversity, in terms of class, ethnicity, race, and certainly in terms of sexuality.
"
Westhaver also questioned whether the Daily News should have published the letters or the defaced front page.
"There are very useful places for public dialogue and debate; homophobic comments, racist comments or sexist comments don't need to be in our public spaces if we can help it," he said.
"Nothing productive emerges out of that.
That serves nothing but to alienate people."
Romanelli said the newspaper isn't prepared to censor its readers, and provided a representative sample.
MacIsaac, known for his mix of Celtic and punk music, has gained notoriety in the past for his eccentric behaviour off-stage.
Last year, he considered running for the leadership of the federal Liberal party, though he never entered the race.
And he has a history of calling up media outlets with tips about his life, including telling a Calgary newspaper in 2004 that he planned to have a same-sex wedding in Alberta, which never happened.
A year later, he called a Halifax newspaper to throw his unlikely support behind Stephen Harper, who was then the leader of the Conservatives in Opposition.
He called a newspaper in Toronto the next day to say he made the whole thing up.
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