Today, North Carolina will vote on a draconian "Amendment 1" to its constitution that will not only outlaw marriage between same sex couples (which is already illegal there), but will outlaw civil unions and any sorts of rights shared by unmarried opposite couples. It is driven by vicious anti-gay rhetoric--not just the usual bleats about "saving marriage" but actual vicious lies about the lives and loves about gay people, and a desire to hurt us (see here, here, and here for examples.) And its effect will definitely be to deny gay people protections, hurt our children, as well as children and families of unmarried straights, elderly people with domestic partnerships, and so on. Business is against it, so is the governor.
From Joe.my.god, the final polls don't look good:
I don't know if the majority is ignorant, or uninterested, but it's pretty sad that with all the effort, the majority of people don't even know what the hell they are voting for.
…Constitutional amendments should be about law, not about religion, and not about the social agendas of conservative or liberal politicians. They should be solidly constructed to protect rights and weather the test of time, like cornerstones. They should stand for all the people. This one, instead, is bitterly divisive. Even one of its prominent backers, the speaker of the state House, has said he doubts that, if passed, it will stand beyond another generation.Amendment One meets none of the criteria by which a constitution can properly be modified. It is motivated by politics, driven in some cases by a vindictive attitude toward groups of people not approved of by those who believe themselves to be in the “mainstream.”
Marriage is far too strong an institution to have phony “protections” like this one.
Sadly, that falls on deaf ears in NC. The naked animus of Amendment One has been driven almost exclusively by fundamentalist "Christians", who invoke the most disgusting lies about gay people, may be racist, and advocate hitting gay children to "beat teh gay out of them". The damage they have done to the Christian "brand" is immeasurable. I can't imagine any young person in NC daring to tell his friends he's "Christian" when this is now burned on their brains as what "Christians" stand for.
As for me, if this passes, the most I'll be doing in North Carolina is changing planes. My rainbow dollars will be spent in places that don't actively hate me.
Update:From the Huffington Post: (because suppressing votes is one way to win)
All, we're getting reports here in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Raleigh (which are base areas for us, e.g. anti-Amendment 1) of precincts handing out INCORRECT ballots. In North Carolina, 17-year-olds can vote in the statewide primary (e.g., for governor, etc.) if they turn 18 by November 6th. However, they CANNOT vote on Amendment 1 in this primary -- they can only vote for candidates -- therefore they are being handed ballots WITHOUT Amendment 1. That is proper election procedure.
The problem is, the reports we are getting are that people OVER 17 are also being handed these ballots WITHOUT Amendment 1 in what would normally be heavily anti-Amendment 1 precincts (Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Raleigh).... call 1-866-OUR-VOTE if you experience this in NC, or know someone who did.
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