The dynamics of democracy has taken a turn for the worse in North Carolina. For the sixteen years I have lived in this state polling was always at a government building with long waiting lines, but, not this year. This year I received a new voters registration card in the mail and my polling destination changed to "Oak View Baptist Church." I had to follow signs directing me to the the back of the church where there was a door leading into a meeting room. The voting machines were inside. Voting in a church would give pause to some people. Definitely.
Since, 2010 the North Carolina legislature has a strong majority of Republicans. The first time in over hundred years. This amendment was their idea. After I cast my votes yesterday including a ballot choice for President Obama, I knew there was coercion involved in this vote. Most of the people I spoke to did not understand the law at all, so the media did not do their job either because voters were uninformed to the dynamics this law imposed on society.
The entire law is intended to be coercive. It is designed to put pressure on people to marry and marry in heterosexual relationships. It won't work. If unmarried couples are together it is their own choice as the laws of marriage and divorce in North Carolina are not hurdles to those decisions. The state has become biased to 'life style' since 2010. There is an air of self-righteousness about the law these days.
It was interesting watching voters come and go yesterday. It was easy to pick out the Republicans over everyone else. They were scowling, the men were, the old white men were. They are simply angry about everything.
So, the effort to save the constitutional soul of North Carolina continues.
Gay NC couples resume protests of marriage ban (click here)
Published: Wednesday, May 9, 2012 at 4:30 a.m
.Last Modified: Wednesday, May 9, 2012 at 4:01 a.m.
The results are in from the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in North Carolina, but gay and lesbian couples are still demanding the right to marry.
Same-sex couples will ask for marriage licenses in Wilson and Durham on Wednesday, the start of a week-long campaign protesting their inability to wed.
The "We Do" campaign's protest against the state's gay marriage ban made news last fall. Two demonstrators were arrested in Asheville after they refused to leave a county office building where marriage licenses are granted.
The campaign is spreading to eight North Carolina counties in the next week. The demonstrations involving local couples spreads Thursday to Forsyth County, then to Mitchell, Madison, Buncombe, Randolph and Mecklenburg counties.
The "We Do" campaign's protest against the state's gay marriage ban made news last fall. Two demonstrators were arrested in Asheville after they refused to leave a county office building where marriage licenses are granted.
The campaign is spreading to eight North Carolina counties in the next week. The demonstrations involving local couples spreads Thursday to Forsyth County, then to Mitchell, Madison, Buncombe, Randolph and Mecklenburg counties.
