Pam Spaulding's blog

You'd think the Democratic Governor of North Carolina would have been well ahead of a Tea Party-affirming Republican member of Congress from our state (Renee Ellmers) in declaring opposition to the marriage amendment, but we had to wait until Friday for this tepid statement from Bev Perdue:

Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, in an interview with The Washington Blade, has opened the door for the party - it holds its convention in Charlotte in 2012 - to assist North Carolina and Minnesota in their upcoming marriage amendment battles.

Wasserman Schultz, also U.S. House member representing a district in Florida, said state party groups are now focusing on defeating amendments banning same-sex marriage and the national Democratic Party would consider sending resources if asked to do so.

"I know that the party in each of those states will be combatting them," Wasserman Schultz said. "And if they ask for our assistance, like any other state party request, we'll certainly consider it."

Surprise, surprise. It's so predictable with these fundamentalist, ignorant gay haters.

As you know, the Blend broke the news that NC State Senator James Forrester has been falsely touting himself as a Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine. Correspondent Scott Rose's communication with Executive Director Michael Barry (R), showed that Forrester was not a fellow and the ACPM contacted Forrester to tell him to remove the false information from sites where the lawmaker touts the designation.

Matt Comer at QNotes has found that, well, it's probably easier to state which of Forrester's credentials are true, since others are now up in the air.

NOTE FROM PAM: It's sad that a lawmaker, namely North Carolina State Senator James Forrester, is so blinded by ignorance and bigotry that he embarrasses himself -- and his cause (to amend the state's constitution so that NC recognizes the "only domestic legal union" in the state as a marriage between a man and a woman). He went on the air with Mike Signorile, who asked Forrester to cite his "facts" - something mainstream media almost always fails to do with these bigots -- and lo and behold, the lawmaker scrambled and came up with a goose egg.

Equality supporter Scott Rose has written an open letter to the Senator, and exposes the fact that Forrester, also a physician, lied repeatedly during that broadcast -- and is also peddling false credentials about his qualifications. The Blend has the correspondence with the American College of Preventive Medicine, where Forrester claims to be a Fellow. Let's just say the ACPM was not happy to hear what the lawmaker is pimping about himself.

This eloquent piece by Jacob Tobia gets to the heart of the pain and sense of disenfranchisement that pro-equality residents in North Carolina have felt over the last couple of weeks. I first met Jacob when he was one of the cast of Duke's production of The Laramie Project several months ago, and met up again at the Point Foundation conference honoring its scholars, past and present. On September 12 we, along with hundreds of other members of the community, attended the Duke and Durham: Love=Love Candlelight Vigil , just before the NC Senate voted to place the discrimination amendment on the May 2012 ballot. When he emailed me about his piece I knew that I would want to share it with you...

An Open Letter to the NC General Assembly

By Jacob Tobia

Dear NCGA,

Hey, it’s me. I don’t know if you remember me or not, but we used to be pretty good friends. Do you remember that awkward high schooler who stood at the dais of the Senate back in 2007 when he was a Senate page? You remember, the one who had just gotten a haircut because his father said that he should look presentable at the legislature. The one who had long, brown, curly hair before then. You don’t remember me? But I stood right at the front of the Senate sessions, just to the right of the now-governor Beverly Perdue.

Big kudos to friend-of-the-Blend Michelangelo Signorile. He somehow convinced NC Senator James Forrester, the sponsor of the job-killing, anti-LGBT amendment that we face, to go on the air with him (big, big mistake, Forrester).

The man, obsessed with homobigotry, filed an amendment bill 8 years in a row, only to watch it die in committee under Dem control in the NCGA. But now, under GOP leadership, Forrester finally he got his chance on the big stage and the measure passed without public debate, and no challenge from legal scholars. That's transparency at work.

As you might have predicted, the interview lays bare just how ignorant and lacking in facts that pro-amendment forces are, and they are led by Forrester, a retired physician who hasn't any grasp of the facts at hand, and who recently said ‘We need to reach out to them and get them to change their lifestyle back to the one we accept’.

It's time to boycott North Carolina

"Different things can be treated differently if the things or people are in a very different relationship."

--North Carolina House Majority Leader Paul "Skip" Stam (R), referring to gay and lesbian same-sex couples and their eligiblity for civil equality, at a debate at UNC-CH Law School, 9/21/2011

Well, Skip this "thing" (a native North Carolinian, who pays her taxes and is in a legal marriage not recognized by my state already) is calling for a boycott of this great state. We have a state economy in the crapper (10.4% unemployment), a state budget in crisis, and quite a few pro-LGBT companies and institutions located here that don't deserve to be punished by a boycott.

Breaking: Debate discussion reveals that the NC marriage amendment ballot initiative will not contain GOP's bogus last-minute additional language meant to appease business community's concerns.

(Photo: Rep. Paul “Skip” Stam (R-Apex), Moderator Professor Michael Gerhardt of the UNC School of Law, House Minority Whip Rep. Rick Glazier (D-Cumberland).

The debate on the topic of North Carolina's discriminatory, job-killing marriage amendment was really over before it began when bill sponsor, the bigoted State House Majority Leader Rep. Paul “Skip” Stam (R-Apex) passed out two documents to the attendees at UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Law today. In his opening remarks he gleefully referred to the "Act Concerning Marriages (1669)" handout (below) as if it were some holy text representing law in North Carolina. He seems to have forgotten that in 1669, blacks were slaves and they couldn't even marry one another. That's a real tradition to uphold.

Two events of significance are coming up this week in North Carolina's fight to beat back the discriminatory, job-killing marriage amendment measure that is going to go on the ballot next May.

It's a natural question to ask, of course, after being told by your state lawmakers -- pissed away $150K paid with our tax dollars -- to hold a special legislative session to specifically stroke off their inner bigot. Actually, for most of these pro-amendment politicians, there was nothing "inner" about their full-time, fact-free, disgusting bigotry.