To date the state of North Carolina has resisted the efforts of the Christofascists to enact an anti-gay marriage amendment. Nonetheless, now the North Carolina Republicans - in full self prostitution to the hate merchant allies among the Christianists (many of whom use anti-gay hysteria as a money making cash cow) - are putting on a push to write bigotry and discrimination into the North Carolina constitution. The good news is that new polls show that a majority of North Carolina's residents oppose the measure. Unfortunately, those who support equality and a separation of church and state are less driven that those motivated by religious extremism and hatred of others. Thus, voter turn out will be critical if the measure makes it to the ballot box. Here are some highlights from Pam's House Blend on the new poll results:
I hope the elected proponents of bigotry are taking note as the short session nears in North Carolina’s General Assembly. Via Equality NC:
Fifty-six percent (56%) of North Carolina voters oppose or strongly oppose an amendment to the state constitution that would ban same-sex marriage, a five-point jump in the last two years, according to a February 2011 Elon University Poll, a non-partisan polling service.
The poll also showed a strong majority (57%) of North Carolinians support marriage or civil unions for same-sex couples, revealing a dramatic 9% increase in public support for marriage equality in only two years. This result mirrors two separate polls conducted by Public Policy Polling in March and July that also reveal majority support of legal recognitions for same-sex couples.
And what about opponents of equality? You may not be surprised that they cling to one poll that is carefully crafted to avoid language that THEY KNOW is a loser for them. The lying liars brigade…
The unbiased Elon polling data aligns with two additional North Carolina polls from Public Policy Polling and six national polls released in 2011, while also countering recent assertions from anti-gay amendment supporters like the N.C. Values Coalition’s Tami Fitzgerald, who have pointed to a single poll from the conservative Civitas Institute in Raleigh, which says “a large majority” of North Carolina voters support holding a vote to rewrite the state constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman. However, the right-wing think tank’s poll uses misleading language to falsely inflate support for Senate Bill 106, the most extreme version of two proposed bills being considered.
By its wording, Civitas carefully avoids telling voters that this type of revision to the state’s founding document would also ban civil union and domestic partnerships, legal recognitions which most North Carolina voters surveyed by Elon University and Public Policy Polling do support.
In fact, the Civitas query purposefully leaves out many of the amendment’s most apparent harms, including:
** not only banning marriage to same-sex couples, as state statute already does, but also prohibiting any other form of relationship recognition, such as civil unions or domestic partnerships.
** stripping public benefits for same-sex partners of city and county employees and potentially jeopardizing private benefits such as health insurance for same-sex couples, unmarried opposite-sex couples, and their children; and
** removing even the most basic protections currently available to same-sex couples, as well as challenging private contracts between these couples.
Newspapers across the state, large and small, have published editorials opposing the amendment. It’s no surprise either. With unemployment high, and a state budget in crisis, it’s offensive to anyone in the reality-based community that the Republicans who claimed they had some sort of mandate in 2010 to get people back to work, are wasting so much precious time and effort to foment institutionalized bigotry.
The incessant dishonesty of those who wear religion on their sleeves yet have hatred of others as their principal stock in trade is amazing. Once again the term modern day Pharisees springs to mind.
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