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Loading ...NC community supports gay marriage
12.04.2008 2:38pm EST
(Carrboro, North Carolina) The Carrboro city council has passed a resolution supporting gay marriage and sent copies of it off to the state and federal government.
The city of about 19,000, not far from Chapel Hill, is considered one of the most liberal in the South - sometimes dubbed The Paris of the Piedmont. Once a sleepy farm community It now is the home to a growing number of artists and musicians.Alderwoman Jacqui Gist introduced the motion after California voters passed Proposition 8 which amends that state’s constitution to block same-sex marriage. North Carolina law bars gay marriage but GOP attempts to enshrine it in the state constitution have failed.
Gist said her resolution is critical of the more than 1,000 state and federal rights and benefits of marriage that are denied to gay couples.
“Whereas, the denial of such benefits has been demonstrated to have significant psychological and social impact on the physical, social, and economic well-being of gay and lesbian couples and their families; and whereas the U.S. Supreme Court recognizes marriage as one of the ‘basic civil rights of man’ fundamental to our very existence and survival” and “one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men … [be it resolved] that civil marriage for same-sex couples must include all the benefits commonly bestowed upon opposite-sex couples, including, among other rights, healthcare coverage and related decision-making, privileges under immigration and naturalization law, survivor benefits, inheritance rights, and child custody.” the resolution says.
The measure had the support of Mayor Mark Chilton who signed it.
Carrboro has had a long history of being gay-friendly. It was one of the first communities in North Carolina to offer health benefits to the same-sex partners of municipal workers. Openly gay former Mayor Mike Nelson served five terms and is now an Orange County commissioner.
North Carolina is one of the fast growing states in the country as many Northern businesses move South. That growth has seen a major increase in Democrats in North Carolina.
Despite a ban on same-sex marriage, hospitals in the state revised the Patients’ Bill of Rights in April to ensure patients can receive the visitors who matter most to them regardless of the legal status of their relationship.
The statewide rule will help ensure that same-sex partners and other loved ones will be treated the same as immediate family. The regulation, however, does not provide same-sex partners the right to make medical decisions.
Wow, the land of the late pathetic Jesse Helms passed this? There is hope afer all!
Great news! And Obama might be appointing a “damned lesbian” — North Carolina’s truly evil Jesse Helms’ term for Clinton appointee Roberta Achtenberg — as Labor Secretary.
We need to start making inroads in the South. Opening up communication lines and getting the ball rolling with discussion is the first step.
Homosexuality was an unspeakable subject for many years. Once this is broached, it is all downhill. The opposition just dies off (unfortunately usually quite literally and this takes a generation or two).
The very same state that several times would not pass its own antigay marriage amendment. Unlike the surrounding states.
Just never give up. All of us involved in this historic human rights / justice battle must resolve to continue fighting, smartly, not just ranting (I do sometimes I admit), until the battle is won enough that it reaches the ‘tipping point’ and the momentum is unstoppable.
Don’t forget, back about 2002 Cal passed a law outlawing gay marriage by a 60 - 40 vote. This latest campaign was lost to the good but misled people, and the conservative u know whats by 53-47%.
Nex time it will be a different result.
I just wanna be able to marry the woman that i love in the state that I’ve grown up in. I’ve grown up in a small town in NC and people definately don’t talk about “gays”. It’s like they’re scared they’ll get the “disease”. It’s ridiculous.
I grew up in the state of NC in a small little backwards town called Morganton. Don’t be shocked if this move doesn’t push all the talibangicals (that happen to make up a huge majority of the population) to start pushing for an amendment to our state constitution. Being gay isn’t well tolerated except in small little oasis’s spread across the state. I am afraid the people of NC aren’t ready to be as open to same sex marriage as the people that live in Massachusetts or Connecticut