A Defense of Marriage constitutional amendment (DOMA) will be placed on the 2012 May primary ballot for voter approval. Each side spoke extensively about their position on the bill when it was debated in both the House and the Senate. President Pro Tem Phil Berger also specifically commented, “We look forward to eight months of healthy debate before voters decide this issue at the polls,” indicating that just because it has been placed on the ballot, the time for debate has not ended.
As the debate went on inside the General Assembly, two rallies were held outside. A pro-DOMA rally was held yesterday with support across political and cultural boundaries. An anti-DOMA rally was held today even as the Senate made its final vote.
SB 514, Defense of Marriage, passed the House Monday with a final vote of 75-42 and the Senate today with a final vote of 30-16. Each chamber needed a three-fifths majority to pass. This legislation seeks to confirm existing law by putting traditional marriage in the state Constitution, making it more difficult for future legislatures or courts to change DOMA, or allow gay marriage, down the road.
It now rests with the will of the people to determine if DOMA will make it onto the state Constitution.
The Republican’s promised us jobs. We get unwanted legislation. Someone in the state house on the right side of the aisle needs to read the Constitution!!! and Where are the jobs? Can someone ask Mr. Pope of Real Jobs NC where the jobs are? No jobs and unemployment at record levels since conservatives swept state govt. Our jobs outlook went from bad to worse under conservatives. from bad to worse -the Republican slogan in 2012!!!
Mtn Girl, Government does not “create” jobs. they can set the conditions that encourage private companies to prosper and hire people. They can also take money from the private sector and give it to friends or hire people but that is not creating economic growth that is sustainable.
The new legislature has STARTED to set the conditions for an economic turnaround. It will take a while and will have to battle a negative national economic climate. Passing the “Energy Jobs Act”, vetoed by Perdue, would be another great step forward.
I have several comments on the “Defense” of Marriage Amendment that I’d like to share. First of all, it’s bad for business – a JobsKiller, if you will; and many business leaders are letting that be known. Secondly, it advances further government intrusion into individuals’ personal lives, something the Republican Party has continually criticized. Thirdly, this amendment goes FURTHER than the DOMA statute to prevent/invalidate ANY legal union (not just marriage, but civil union, domestic partner benefits, etc.) between same-sex partners, so it doesn’t just “confirm” the existing law, it makes it even more discriminatory. Fourthly, marriage can easily be seen as a “conservative” choice; why would the Republican Party, and conservatives in general, want to prevent gays & lesbians from making that choice rather than encouraging such a commitment? I think the constitution should be amended to expand, not diminish, rights. I urge concientious conservatives to prevent further government intrusion into the lives of its citizens and vote NO on this misguided constitutional amendment!
For Joe Trostel;
I believe the voters in several New England states agree with your views. Perhaps you might consider moving up there to be among kindred spirits. I have a truck. I’ll be glad to help you move.
Joe how about you stay and Mr. Madison moves? I am a lifelong resident of NC; unlike most of our new politicians. My family has lived in WNC for centuries and we do not practice hate. The bill is bad for NC. We as a people are just not that petty. Mr. Madison where do you hail from? I know it cannot be from my neck of the woods; but if by chance it is I also have a truck to help you move on out!! There is a reason why NC has been so solidly blue the last 100 years! We are not embittered or full of hatred but many who have moved here bring their issues with them- I for one wish they would not… but freedom is what freedom is and you can’t cure stupid.
Privitization always and I repeat always costs taxpayers more than public services. Research prisons, charter schools, transportation virtually anything that is privitized -then costs us much, much more.
The Project On Government Oversight found that the federal government pays private contractors on average 1.83 times more than it pays its own employees for the same work, according to the group’s study released yesterday.The POGO report stands in contrast to a study published in 2010 by conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, which advocated hiring more private contractors because government workers earn more than private sector workers performing the same services, even when accounting for skills differences. One is a real study, the other is a NEOCON study by the Heritage Foundation. I really hate when people knowingly lie- it is despicable and this website needs a serious fact checker!
James Madison (is that your real name, or are you just ‘borrowing it’ from our 4th President?)- I’m sorry your reaction to my comments is to invite me to leave my home state, rather than address the substantive issues this amendment raises. Anyway, I think I have a number of kindred spirits right here. So, though you may be disappointed, and even though New England is beautiful, I’m not leaving. As a matter of fact, I’ll stay around to vote on this amendment and perhaps we’ll defeat it, respecting ALL North Carolinians.
mtn grl – thanks for your hospitality to me, though I’m not surprised. I’m originally a mtn boy, but have lived in the piedmont for 20+ years.
And by the way, I’m a life-long Republican; one who makes his own decisions without simply following the party line. Sometimes this lands me voting with and for Republicans – other times not. But it always leaves me satisfied that my vote is my own!
DOMA is about assuring that activist judges and/or legislators will have a more difficult time allowing gay marriage. Marriage between one man and one woman represents the only relationship and union to support the natural order of the human race. It enables the very existence of our specie. And as such, deserves every effort to secure it as the only union supported by our laws.
If you think that is a ridiculous argument you don’t know your history or the current struggles of indigenous populations in Europe to replace themselves. Whole peoples are disappearing, Germans, Italians, etc….. Their poor support of traditional marriage, support of alternate lifestyles and promiscuity as recreation are dooming them to extinction.
Traditional marriages and families and the lifestyles they embody are the basis for a successful and fruitful culture. Any support of a perturbation of the natural order is simply unhealthy and deadly to the human race.
Ano-recto-colonic-philofellatio is NOT to be affirmed, endorsed or promoted in any fashion in any time. Conduct that serves practitioner and fellow citizen so egregiously must necessarily meet with societal opprobrium.
The reason people do not have large families anymore is out a necessity for women to work and support the family. Directly related to Corporate schemes to drive down wages, increase hours and otherwise grind the working people down. So save the pomposity for someone so ill-informed as to believe you.
To everyone in the forum,
I honestly wasn’t aware that marriage was a requirement to sustain the human race. People marry, and don’t have children, and yet our species lives on. If marriage was merely made for that, then there are many people who probably wouldn’t qualify for marriage right now. Marriage does act; however, as a bond between two people that love each other and encourages a couple to contribute positively to society.
Germans and Italians are not disappearing, it just seems that our world is becoming a global community that celebrates the diversity of all of the peoples that live in this world. Nobody forces people to intermingle with other cultures and gone are the days where it is required that you only have relationships with your own people.
In all honesty, this change that is taking place in our society does nothing but encourage and strengthen the role of a family and good values. A marriage that is based in love and devotion to each other doesn’t yield promiscuity as a recreation, it actually discourages it.
In regard to family, a true family is one that is supported by unconditional-love and creating unbreakable bonds between family members that encourage values that will allow them to grow as positive influences on our community.
Everyone seems to make it sound like people who live these lifestyles will destroy the world that they themselves live in; rather, it’ll hardly have any affect on them at all. For those who think that marriage affirms specific sexual acts, I hardly think that married couples currently only have sex to procreate. So to limit the meaning of marriage to sexual practices sells the meaning of it short in itself.
What is deadly to the human race, is to be intolerant and to create a hostile divide between people who really just want the same thing, save for a small different characteristic. History shows that the deadliest times in world history existed when people couldn’t treat one another with equal respect.
To respond also to those people telling each other to leave the state and go elsewhere… that definitely doesn’t do much in the way of telling the world “Welcome to North Carolina.” That’s never good for business, and never good for a state that wants to be a leader for a better America. We should be attracting the best the world has to offer here in our beloved state, and creating walls against people that aren’t really asking THAT much just isn’t very North Carolinian to me, where’s our belief in southern hospitality there?
I write this not to put anyone’s belief’s down, everyone has a right to their own opinion, but consider really what we’re looking at here. These people are good people, take a chance and actually meet these people and you’ll find they love this state and country just as much as you do.
mtn girl said
” Joe how about you stay and Mr. Madison moves? I am a lifelong resident of NC; unlike most of our new politicians. My family has lived in WNC for centuries and we do not practice hate. The bill is bad for NC. We as a people are just not that petty. Mr. Madison where do you hail from? I know it cannot be from my neck of the woods; but if by chance it is I also have a truck to help you move on out!! There is a reason why NC has been so solidly blue the last 100 years! We are not embittered or full of hatred but many who have moved here bring their issues with them- I for one wish they would not… but freedom is what freedom is and you can’t cure stupid.”
You are not embittered or full of hate yet your comment has quite a bit of bitterness and hatred including an insult or two in the content.
If I were not already living here but merely thinking about doing so after reading your comment I’d look elsewhere.
Have you forgotten we have something called freedom of speech even in N.C.?
We can agree to disagree with each other with civility. That’s the difference between us and other nations who have no such freedoms.
I am proud of my state and I make no apologies if I offended Mr. Blackman. I do think it is stupid for our legislation to focus on this issue simply to bring in homophobic Republicans next election. And as a proud hillbilly I must say I practice free speech but not free hatred and I am within my rights to call stupid -stupid and ignorant -ignorant. And as for attracting new residents that was not my purpose I was defending the people of this state by stating we are not all intolerant; just the conservatives- NC will be Blue again just hold out against the hate!
mtn.girl, Amen to the homophobic Republicans! I would like my representatives to focus on education in NC, and infrastructure (our roads are a mess)just to name a couple of issues. I would like them to stop dallying and I would appreciate a reply when I write or call. I personally do not care if gay persons get married. That doesn’t affect my marriage and it is not my christian duty to judge (nor is it the legislators).