LGBT

Democrats for Equality is an exciting new project of the Young Democrats of North Carolina. We're launching this campaign because the Executive Committee of the Young Democrats of North Carolina voted unanimously to make defeating the pro-discrimination Constitutional Amendment our foremost priority during the primary season.

With five simple words, Mecklenburg County Commissioner Bill James revealed the true purpose for a constitutional amendment filed in North Carolina’s legislature in 2011 that would ban all relationship recognitions for same-gender couples.

“We don’t want them here.”

The “them” the amendment proponent referred to with the Raleigh News & Observer was easy to identify.

The “them” was me.

I have spent a number of years complaining about the interactions between Democrats and Republicans, but after the recent events involving the Keystone XL and civil liberties cave-ins, I’ve decided it’s time to stop complaining and embrace the madness.

But I also feel like there’s an ugly edge to all this…that hasn’t really been fully exploited.

I mean, Republicans have tried to force through a lot of disgusting ideas this Congress as they’ve held various bills hostage, but it seems like, if they really tried, they could do so much more.

But I’m not here to complain, I’m here to help; that’s why today we’ll be trotting out a few ideas of our own that Republicans can attach to bills throughout 2012, with the assistance of certain errant Democrats.

It’ll be fun, it’ll be festive, but most of all…it’ll be an exercise in Civic Responsibility, and in these difficult times, that’s something we could sorely use.

Today was National Coming Out Day. An event that was started over 2 decades ago. Today at NCSU hundreds of students got their I <3 Diversity shirts from the NCSU GLBT CA and about 100 of them came over to my Democracy NC table and registered to vote. The free expression tunnel was painted in recognition of this event. There are a whole week of celebratory events. It was a good day for democracy and equality.

National Coming Out Day (NCOD) is an internationally observed civil awareness day celebrating gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, etc. people and communities. The name coming out describes their process of publicly identifying their sexual orientation. It is observed annually by members of LGBT communities and their straight supporters on October 11.

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."

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.

The annual North Carolina Pride Parade happened today as it has now for many, many years. In addition to the celebration of the diverse community that Pride always represents, there was also a special urgency created by the recent passage of a bill to put the marriage discrimination amendment on the ballot this coming May. This was a moment to both enjoy how far we've come, and organize for the challenges ahead.

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.