By Tom Curry, msnbc.com National Affairs Writer
North Carolina voters Tuesday approved a proposed amendment to the state?s constitution which would limit marriage to traditional one man-one woman marriages.
The amendment says: ?Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State.? In effect, it would bar the state from giving legal recognition to civil unions between same-sex couples.
Under North Carolina law, same-sex marriages are already banned.
And opponents of the constitutional amendment did not make the argument that defeating it was a prelude to changing the law so that same-sex couples could legally marry in North Carolina.
?This is not a conversation about a possible change of law down the road,? said Paul Guequierre, a spokesperson for the Coalition to Protect All North Carolina Families, the main group rallying opposition to the amendment, on Monday.
By approving the amendment, North Carolina joins 28 other states that have state constitutional provisions limit marriage to man-woman unions.
On Monday Peter Sprigg, the senior fellow for policy studies at the conservative Family Research Council in Washington said, ?Marriage remains an essential social institution which unites men and women to provide for the reproduction of the human race and to provide mothers and fathers for children. We trust that the voters of North Carolina will recognize and protect this vital public purpose of marriage."
But President Barack Obama had opposed the amendment. "While the president does not weigh in on every single ballot measure in every state, the record is clear that the President has long opposed divisive and discriminatory efforts to deny rights and benefits to same sex couples," Cameron French, Obama's North Carolina campaign spokesman, said in March.
A Gallup Poll released Tuesday showed the American people split on the same-sex marriage question: 50 percent think marriages between same-sex couples should be recognized by the law as valid, but 48 percent think they should not be recognized as legal. Among Democrats, 65 percent say same-sex marriages should be recognized by the law as valid, but among only about one in five Republicans hold that view. Among independents, 57 percent think sex marriages should be legally recognized.
Thirty-eight states have prohibitions of same-sex marriage in their laws. Six states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriages.
Re: North Carolina voters OK constitutional same-sex marriage ban
Boo! Hiss!
Not surprising, but not to worry. It will eventually be struck down (some day...)
Anything you can achieve through hard work, you could also just buy.
Banning gay marriage (which was never legal in NC in the first place) seems to be the least of problems with the bill . . .
From HuffPo (written before today's vote, and apparently didn't reach enough people):
More: http://ncamendmentonetruth.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/the-domestic-violence-debate-on-amendment-one-you-be-the-judge/
It's basically a "no skittles for poor people" bill disguised as a bill against gay marriage.
Yeah, this was pretty much the polls today:
This sucks. When we went to vote tonight, the lines were insane (all the old folks coming out to support hetero marriage). We had the kids with us, so the curbside lady told us we could pull up and do curbside voting. We saw lots of people go in to vote- and lots of young people turning around to leave once they saw the line. I died a little with every 20s/30s voter that left because they were impatient (says that girl that got to wait in my car because the lady liked my kids).
This probably won't make anyone feel better, but the majority of my NC friends are very strong Christians. Many are pastors, or work in churches/ministries. Not one person on my FB wall today was for the amendment. I was excited to see so many of my minister friends being vocal about loving ALL people.
One of the many reasons it shouldn't have passed......it makes people and businesses not want to move here.
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having lived in the little liberal bubble of Chapel Hill, I forget that much of the rest of the state is backwards as hell :-( (kind of like Virginia vs. Northern Virginia)
boo, NC!!!
I find this interesting considering our discussion the other day...
This. This makes me so sad.
The one about how the Repub party isn't against same-sex marriage.
ditto
my read shelf:
This is so messed up. Shame on everyone who voted for this shiit.



<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home Dif one professes to be a strong Christian you can still love all people but be againist something that the Bible is very clear about. If a pastor beleives the Bible he will be againist this-no wiggle room there.
This is not about discrimination is is about protecting liberties and proves that the majority of people still believe in marriage. Remember too, homosexulaity is not a bigger or worse sin than anything else like lying, cheating, whatever.
Did NC also ban divorce to protect the sanctity of marriage? I hope they also banned marriage between cousins.
Above Us Only Sky
So do you think a new law should be passed that only allows Christian men and women to marry?
Oooh goodie! She is over here too. I paged her on MM because of a comment she made there.
First, did you learn how to spell in church as well?
Secondly, you, your pastor, and your church can believe whatever you would like but why do you feel that should be imposed on everyone else who may not believe as you do?
But since when does the Bible govern everyone in the whole damn country (or state)?????
People can feel free to believe what they want but when it comes to affecting other people it is NOT RIGHT.
It is absolutely discrimination, what the hell else would it be? What are people protecting? How does 2 people of the same sex getting married ruin anything at all? I really don't get understand if you could explain.
Which liberties, specifically, is this protecting?
The right to gooooo toooooo churrrrccchhh and be forgiven for being a hypocrite. That makes it ok you know.
Granted, it's been several years since I walked away from the church, but since when is homosexuality a sin? I remember being taught that engaging in homosexual acts was a sin, not homosexuality itself (which, either way, is bullsh!t).
I can't wait for the vote on banning marriage between liars.