Reflections on the passage of NC's cynical Amendment One
By Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, President, North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP
... The NAACP does not have a position on same sex marriage. But we have always held a strong position against laws and constitutional provisions that take away rights of minorities. This Amendment authorizes the government to take legal action in matters of personal conscience. It defines a marriage between a man and a woman as "the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state." By upgrading the state's existing law against same-sex marriage to a constitutional ban, the Amendment can be used as a basis to prohibit state recognition of other unions, including civil unions and the domestic partnerships now offered to public employees in some municipalities.
Constitutional amendments almost always expand the rights of people against the power of the State. This has been the noble historical trend of constitutional amendments in America. We prohibited slavery. We stopped Jim Crow. We expanded the right to vote for freed slaves, for women, for young people. This is the first such discriminatory amendment placed in the NC Constitution since an amendment in 1875 that outlawed interracial marriage. This trick Amendment reverses the noble trend of constitutional amendments. It curtails family rights. It places a matter of conscience and personal belief in the hands of the state. It sets a precedent to allow a majority to vote to curtail the rights of a minority.
This cynical Amendment was hatched in the backrooms of right wing extremist think tanks, organized and funded by billionaire right-wing corporations and foundations. As African Americans, Latinos and other racial minorities carefully build progressive alliances with white workers and other progressives to improve the lives of the 99%, the right-wing strategists decided to use Jesse Helms' old "wedge" issue. One of the right-wing think tanks, the National Organization for Marriage, said in a document recently released by the courts, the aim of the Amendment was to "drive a wedge between gays and blacks -- two key Democratic constituencies." ...
The troubling nature of the vote last night is that North Carolinians were led by the divisive National Organization for Marriage and other organizations affiliated with groups identified as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center, such as the Family Research Council, to vote on a Trick Amendment that now places hate, discrimination and division in our Constitution. This is an amendment that violates the fundamental protections of equal protection under the law and sets up the precedent of majorities voting on the rights on minorities. Furthermore, this was done in a way that will hurt children and unmarried couples, both heterosexual and homosexual, under the watch of a ultra-conservative leadership in the NC General Assembly that has refused to address real issues of unemployment, educational equality, poverty, and voting rights, which we all know will devastate the families and future of our State ...
http://www.southernstudies.org/2012/05/voices-reflections-on-the-passage-of-ncs-cynical-amendment-one.html
