Brokeback Sun-Star

That's what one of our readers called the Sun-Star, following a wire story the paper ran on the California Supreme Court's decision to overturn the ban on gay marriage. The story showed a photograph of two men kissing.

As a reporter, it's a given that stories that involve either homosexuality or abortion will attract some sort of response from readers -- both negative and positive.

Two weeks ago, I wrote a story about how more gay Mercedians are "coming out" than ever before. The next day, someone dropped a copy of the newspaper in the mail slot, with all of the faces of gay couples in the photographs scribbled out in black marker. Written across the top of the paper were the words "DO GAYS AND LESBIANS WORK AT YOUR NEWSPAPER?"

We also received several phone calls Friday, the day after the story about the court's decision ran. Here's one of them, from a reader in Dos Palos. As a reporter, I actually welcome the phone calls -- whether they are positive or negative. It's always good to know what's on our readers' minds.