Defeat in North Carolina: Amendment One passes
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Seattle Gay News
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posted Friday, May 11, 2012 - Volume 40 Issue 19 Defeat in North Carolina: Amendment One passesby Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer North Carolina's Amendment One, which bans same-sex marriages, civil unions, and domestic partnerships, passed by an overwhelming margin on May 8. Although opponents of the measure outspent supporters by two to one, the amendment passed 61% to 39%. President Obama publicly opposed the amendment, even before his interview supporting equal marriage rights for Gay and Lesbian couples, and he said he was 'disappointed' in the result. '[The president] believes the North Carolina measure singles out and discriminates against committed Gay and Lesbian couples, which is why he did not support it,' Obama spokesperson Cameron French said in a post-election statement. 'President Obama has long believed that Gay and Lesbian couples deserve the same rights and legal protections as straight couples and is disappointed in the passage of this amendment.' Pre-election polling showed the measure would pass easily, although opponents were somewhat encouraged that the margin seemed to narrow as election day approached. The final poll before the election showed 55% in favor, 39% opposed, and 6% undecided. Evidently the undecided voters broke heavily in favor of the amendment. Support for the anti-Gay amendment was not uniform across the state. Seven North Carolina counties voted no, with the largest margin in Orange County, home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There the amendment lost by an even bigger margin than it won in the state as a whole - 79% of Orange County voters rejected the measure. In Durham County, home of Duke University, the vote was 70% against Amendment One. On the other hand, in Robeson County, on the South Carolina border, 86% voted in favor of the amendment. In Carteret County, on the coast, 81% were in favor. Support for Amendment One came from the usual suspects. Roman Catholic groups gave nearly $400,000 - a third of the total funding for the campaign. Most of the rest came from assorted Evangelical groups and individuals. Many local activists said the LGBT community itself was not united around the campaign to beat the amendment back. 'I think the movement is fragmented,' said Pam Spaulding, of Pam's House Blend blog, a North Carolina native. Spaulding devoted space on her site to point out prominent LGBT donors who failed to contribute money to fight the amendment, and she is just one of many activists who have expressed disappointment in what they are calling the lackluster show of support by traditional allies of LGBT rights. Even Freedom to Marry President Evan Wolfson, one of the country's leading marriage equality advocates, came in for criticism. Freedom to Marry initially tried to pressure state legislators to keep the amendment off the ballot, but when that approach failed, they backed off from the election campaign. 'There are many battles underway this year,' Wolfson said, adding that his organization was investing resources in states like Maine, Minnesota, and Washington, where marriage equality is either on the ballot or up for a possible referendum. Disagreements over how to message the anti-amendment campaign also caused some potential allies to sit out the election. Mitchell Gold, a Gay North Carolina businessman who has given substantial sums to other campaigns, said he could not support the way the anti-amendment coalition was framing the issues. The Coalition to Protect North Carolina Families wanted to 'de-Gay' the campaign, Gold charged, noting that their ads warned that Amendment One could harm women, children, and domestic violence victims, but made no explicit reference to Gay rights at all. 'They didn't want to talk about the fact that this is hurting Gay people,' he said. 'Part of their whole thing was, 'We're going to do this campaign and even if we lose we're going to educate people,' Gold added. 'So what did you teach people in the state? What you taught people in the state is that this law might hurt heterosexuals in a domestic relationship. What did this campaign teach the North Carolina community about Gay people?' Gold thinks that groups should teach people about 'religious bigotry' against the LGBT community, and said he plans to donate money to that effort. Jeremy Kennedy, campaign manager for the Coalition to Protect North Carolina Families, replied that it would be a bad strategy to focus on Gay marriage and religion. 'We're not asking you to make a religious or moral decision about marriage,' Kennedy said. 'We're asking you to make a decision about whether this amendment will hurt people, and it will.' |
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