US/NC/2011/SB/514
About
North Carolina Senate Bill 514, otherwise known as "Amendment One", is an attempt to further restrict same-sex marriage through an amendment to the state constitution. The bill submits to public vote the question of whether or not the state constitution should be so amended.
This bill is part of the political right wing's ongoing and pointless war on gay marriage.
Although same-sex marriage is already illegal in North Carolina, Amendment One would revoke many existing benefits conferred by city/municipal governments as well as hamper federal benefits to unmarried heterosexual couples, gay couples married out of state, and others.
It would also remove some benefits received by children of such couples, demonstrating that Republicans are quite willing to harm children for the sake of a Parthian shot against gay couples, showing the hypocrisy of their arguments that homosexual marriage is bad because it supposedly harms children.
Notes
Apparently state Democrats agreed to let the bill go to a vote sooner (May) rather than later (November) in exchange for budgetary concessions from state Republicans. The Republicans, for their part, were apparently expecting a high Republican-to-Democrat turnout at the polls in May because it is also a Republican primary and there were no Democratic seats being contested. That plan was thrown somewhat askew by the announcement of state governer Bev Purdue that she would be stepping down at the end of the term, leading to a contest for her seat.
The issue itself, of course, has also generated considerable furor, and many liberals are expected to show up at the polls primarily to vote against the amendment.
Conclusions
This bill is a bad idea even for those who are opposed to gay marriage.
Also, there are no known rational reasons to oppose gay marriage in the first place.
Links
Reference
News
- 2012-03-20 Amendment opposition chorus grows
- 2012-03-12 Russell and Sally Robinson Speak Out Against Amendment One: Russell's grandfather, North Carolina Supreme Court Justice William B. Rodman, authored the 1868 North Carolina Constitution. Both Robinsons are active Republicans, and have been married 58 years. News release about the video is here.