Protect NC Families

Listening to the rhetoric from progressives around the constitutional amendment that will be on the ballot in May, one might think the amendment has nothing to do with marriage, equality or the LGBT community.

Instead I see tweets like this

#Amendment1 will harm children. Period. #a1harmsnc ar.gy/0Daw

— Protect ALL Families (@protectNC) March 8, 2012

This has been the tone of the anti-amendment campaign since its beginning. It has focused on the conclusions drawn by UNC Law Professor Maxine Eichner in her paper on the broader effects of Amendment One. I have the utmost faith in Eichner’s scholarship and I am fully prepared to accept her conclusions. In a rush to appease their far-right financial backers, the GOP hastily pushed through an amendment that is vague and will certainly have unforeseen consequences, no doubt harming families and children.

But that’s not why the amendment is bad.

It’s bad because it enshrines hate and discrimination into our constitution. It's bad because it sends a message that members of the LGBT community aren’t welcome and aren’t equal in North Carolina and it's bad because it drags us back to the days of separate water fountains and segregated lunch counters. Not to mention that within a generation it will certainly be repealed.

At least two county chapters of the NC Libertarian Party have stated their opposition to Amendment One.

Protect NC Families, the leading coalition working to defeat the amendment, had their launch event today in the North Carolina Legislative Building. It was a good reminder that, though some legislators may want to write discrimination into our Constitution, it is we the people who hold the true power. It was a diverse crowd of community and faith leaders that reminded us all of that power which we hold.

Follow me below the fold for more discussion of this event, discussion of the amendment, photos, and this week's Marriage News Watch video.