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Loading ...NC GOP again tries for anti-gay amendment
02.25.2009 11:47am EST
(Raleigh, North Carolina) North Carolina Republicans once again are trying to get an amendment put before voters to ban same-sex marriage.
The state already has two laws limiting marriage to opposite sex couples. One says that marriage licenses can be issued only to couples comprised of a man and a woman. The other prevents the state from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in areas where they are legal.GOP lawmakers say the laws are not sufficient.
“It only takes one liberal judge to overturn our statutes and usher in same-sex marriage without a vote of the legislature and without a vote of the people of our state,” state Sen. Jim Forrester told a news conference at the Capitol to announce the latest attempt for a constitutional amendment.
Forrester was surrounded by the state’s two Roman Catholic bishops and evangelical pastors. Bishop Michael Burbidge of Raleigh and Peter Jugis of Charlotte said traditional marriage is being threatened by “activists.”
But how far the amendment will go is uncertain.
Republicans has been thwarted in similar attempts since 2004 in the Democratically controlled legislature.
In 2007, House Speaker Joe Hackney allowed a proposed amendment to go to committee. When it passed the committee, Hackney refused to bring it to a vote in the House.
This time Hackney has sent the measure to a different committee – Ways and Means, a committee that is chaired by a Hackney lieutenant and which has not met since 2001. Political observers at the Capitol saw it as a move to kill the bill before it can get started.
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.
Last December, the Carrboro city council 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.
Got to wonder why with the economy in the toilet, this is what these people worry about? Head in the sand or what? Yeah for the Catholic Church, and Evangelicals, Why do they not spend this energy helping people? None of my strait friends feel any less married in Ca since 18,000 same sex couples got married in Here.
Tom in Long Beach
NC Sucks
Catholics and conservative Republicans are laughable… anyone who doesn’t agree with their idiotic views are “activists”, while they themselves are activists for their own views.
It has failed two time before.
Rich:
North Carolina is the First southern state to elect openly gay officials to city, county commissions, the general assembly and was the first state to have elected an openly gay mayor. Then, his city elected the former mayor’s partner as mayor subsequently. The cities of Charlotte, Greensboro, Wilmington,Raleigh, Durham, Asheville, and Chapel Hill are becoming increasingly gay friendly.
I grew up in NC and am a proud Tarheel in the traditional sense. And I will give you that there is a lot of redneck and conservative people in NC. I have a lot of family that goes that way. But there are a lot of good people in NC and they are changing. So, don’t say that my home state sucks.
Unlike the liberal and progressive states of FL and CA, NC defeated the amendment two times before.
How nice to know that everything else in this state has been solved so the Republicans can waste more of the Legislature’s minimal seating time for this kind of grandstanding nonsense. It’s crap like this that’s the reason they lost big time in the last election, and they just havent figured it out — and yet they seem to think they’re in some kind of position to govern again?
What a bunch of maroons…..
“NOT ENOUGH?” “NOT ENOUGH?” WHAT THE HELL,,,,,,,,, IS WRONG IN NORTH CAROLINA??
North Carolina is choking on growth. It’s becoming less backward and is assuming a leading role in the South. All the NC GOP has to say, with foreclosures and job losses and all our other needs, is that they have to stop those pesky gays from marriage? At this time, in any state, that kind of move makes you irrelevant. And the crazy thing is, many of these wingnuts would rather be defeated, marginal, wingnut true believers with no pull in the system, then to acknowledge somebody else’s basic right to exist on terms the GOP didn’t craft. If they’re so certain they’re about to be raptured, could they at least stay off 485 from now on so they don’t leave everybody else stuck behind those empty cars?
Yet another reminder to anyone who erroneously believes Election Day is what settles all issues.
I have some North Carolina relatives. Some of the North Carolina people I’ve talked are nice folk, friendlier and than some of the Northern folk I’ve met.
I am an advocate for diversity and gay rights and marriage blah blah. And I as think that this bill is not needed. What will we gain? People will still date who they want. We make law against all kinds of thing and they still happen. You cant monitor EVERYONES life. COME ON! When are we going to learn that we cant dictate everyone’s life? Ugh. I just don’t see the problem. If they get marriage what is going to happen to YOU. It doesn’t effect you. And people can throw around the dumb argument about homosexuals and AIDS and STD’s blah blah. Wake up call. Heterosexuals have THE SAME DAMN PROBLEM. Get over it. Will live in the land of the freedom. If you believe gays go to hell, at least there not Raping little children or slaughtering hundreds of people on a college campus. If you are so worried about sparing peoples lives and helping them find Christ help the people with the REAL SINS like MURDER.
And North Carolina, worry about all the kids who are living in the streets and the parents who can’t provide for them. Focus on the thousands of people out of work. Make strict law on companies getting over on their workers and cheating them out of health care and insurance. Im sure, out of all the crisis in North Carolina you can find another law to pass.
I think that we as a community are wasting our time fighting against local governments controlled by the Republican Party. Our quest for equal rights should instead be ventilated in the United States Congress. We as American citizens deserve the same privileges. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual communities are also tax paying citizens, a fact that the religious right wing is obviously not acknowledging. I am sickened, tired and angry that we must shout to get the position in society that we rightfully deserve. When fabulous becomes permanently furious at this system we will get results for our cause.
I disagree. North Carolina is the perfect place to make our stand. It is not as backwards as it used to be. And the number of Universities in NC make it a viable candidate for spreading the truth. Furthermore, it would be the most incredible thing to take the state of Jesse Helms and Billy Graham for our own.
If more queers move to a smaller state like NC, then we aren’t as diluted. And we have more political might.
i dont care let them beat the dead horse til they all are completely broke! if the american public is that STUPID to keep letting lawmakers WASTE TIME on US (didnt realize i was so important) then it will be their own demise!
GAY PEOPLE SAVE YOUR MONEY, BANKRUPT THE ECONOMY, LET THEM STAND in FOOD LINES and THEN SAY TO THEM, “This must be God’s Punishment” All the money they spent on Prop 8 and other Special interests and their “Agenda” they could be feeding and clothing all the starving ppl. in this country and around the world. their God will have his Wrath on them just as they preach!
Thats what they say about us.
For the person that says he has “nice” NC relatives… I have lots of “nice” relatives accross the south, like most of them that is to your face, until they get in Church and the Voting booth, right shoog or aint that right HoN?