Bad news from North Carolina

Political machinations have put a marriage amendment on the ballot in North Carolina in May 2012. Pam's House Blend has followed much of the story for us (Pam lives in NC). Pam writes,

For the first time in a long time – I just bawled driving home; I’m not one to cry easily, either. The North Carolina General Assembly has declared that I’m subhuman – but they’ll gladly take my lesbian tax dollars, thank you very much.

. I know exactly how she feels.

The scheming in this whole thing has been disgusting. The date of the election was chosen to match the Republican primary, thus facilitating the turnout of the most rabid right-wingers and depress the turnout of those in favor of equality.

Public Comment was not allowed from the house nor from the Senate

The Religious right-wing helped draft the text.

Open letters have exposed the medical and scientific lies used by the advocates, and have pointed out that this bill would potentially eliminate any protections that gay couples have:

The bar on “domestic legal unions” would clearly ban relationship rights beyond same-sex marriage: at the very least, it would also bar recognition of civil unions, as well as the domestic partnerships now offered to public employees in some municipalities. The vagueness of this language and the absence of its use in prior law, however, mean that courts might interpret it far more broadly to upend completely the very minimal legal rights, obligations, and protections now available to unmarried couples, whether same-sex or opposite-sex.

And the Charlotte Observer tells us that business leaders also react with dismay, knowing that high-tech entrepreneurs and desirable employees don't want to locate in a state of hate.

More than 75 business leaders signed the letter, which says, in part, "We write to oppose this extreme amendment because of the significant harm it will cause our state's pro-business environment, its major employers, and efforts to spur job-creation in North Carolina."

Progressive Faith Leaders have also come out against this bill.

This amendment is a cynical ploy from right wing Christianists and known hate groups to damage LGBT people as much as they can. We'll need to hear from everyone and work to Get Out the Vote to defeat bias and bigotry, fear and ignorance.

It becomes very hard at times not to return hate for hate to these awful, awful Christianists. If I weren't married to a woman of devout Christian faith, I'd have an even harder time of it.