North Carolinians Work to Stop Anti-Marriage Amendment

This September, the North Carolina’s state legislature may consider an amendment to ban marriage between same-sex couples, a law that is already in affect in the state. However, marriage advocates across North Carolina are mobilizing to stop the legislature from adding and additional discriminatory amendment into the state’s law.

Equality NC has been collecting postcards signed by supporters of the freedom to marry in North Carolina, postcards asking for that state’s legislators not to support the anti-marriage amendment. Volunteers collected over 500 cards alone at this weekend’s NC Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in Durham. Equality North Carolina’s goal is to have at least 50,000 signed cards to deliver to legislators in September.

Also, yesterday the Charlotte Observer, North Carolina’s largest daily newspaper, published an editorial stating the paper’s opposition to the state’s anti-marriage amendment. In over 500-words, the Charlotte Observer explains that this amendment is not only unnecessary, given the existing law banning marriage between same-sex couples, but also on the wrong side of history. The Observer cites studies that show that allowing the freedom to marry in North Carolina is not against the will of the majority, but is also a good economic or moral decision.

The article ends with:
“Those business leaders [who support the freedom to marry] should speak up, along with faith leaders and other who can remind legislators that North Carolina already has a law that bans gay marriage—and that change is coming. Laws can and should evolve as citizens reconsider their values and the rules that codify them. A constitutional amendment would be a wasteful, and ill-timed, roadblock.”

Change is coming. People are standing up in North Carolina to fight for the freedom to marry. Visit Equality NC's website to learn how you can help stop this discriminatory amendment from being passed into law.