Tweet
Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, Executive Director of the Campaign for Southern Equality is ready to roll with an equality action following the results of today’s primary. Its WE DO Campaign involves LGBT couples in Southern communities requesting – and being denied – marriage licenses in order to call for full equality under federal law and to resist unjust state laws. During these actions clergy, family and friends stand with them. She shares her feelings about passage of Amendment One.
This is a hard night. As I sit in Wilson, N.C. I’m thinking most about the LGBT youth across the state who, for months now, have been hearing increasingly vitriolic messages that they are less than. My heart is heavy for them, and heavy with the news that Amendment One has passed.
But that’s not all that I feel. Looking forward, I feel deeply hopeful about what is possible – tomorrow and in the years to come. This hope comes from knowing people like you and from knowing that we are building a new southern equality movement that, I truly believe, can accelerate the path to full federal equality.
We can’t change the results of this vote, but we can determine what comes next. Tomorrow when kids across the state wake up, I want them to know that this story isn’t over.
Starting the morning of May 9, we will run the next stage of the WE DO Campaign in eight communities across North Carolina, from small towns with populations of less than 500 to cities of more than one million. Across the state, over 40 LGBT couples will request marriage licenses, knowing they will be turned down and yet taking this action in order to resist unjust laws and call for full federal equality. They will be joined by hundreds of family members, friends, clergy, and elected officials who will stand with them in support. In select towns, trained volunteers will conduct peaceful sit-ins after the denials of marriage licenses occur, as a form of civil disobedience. At every turn, we will express love and empathy towards those who oppose LGBT rights and those whose job it is to enforce unjust laws.
But there’s another, more urgent reason why we’re starting these actions on May 9. We want to send a clear, simple message to LGBT youth across our state, especially those who, for months now, have been hearing increasingly vitriolic messages condemning them. We want them to know that there are people all across our state – and all across our country – who are ready to stand up for their full equality. We want them to know that this story is far from over.
If you live in North Carolina, here are three things you can do:
1) Vote against Amendment One and bring your friends with you (early voting runs through May 5; Primary Day is May 8);
2) Send a message of support to participating couples;
3) Help us amplify the story of the WE DO Campaign by forwarding this email and posting WE DO updates on Facebook and Twitter.
If you live outside of North Carolina, here are two things you can do:
1) Send a message of support to participating couples
2) Help us amplify the story of the WE DO Campaign by forwarding this email and posting WE DO updates on Facebook and Twitter.
Here are the dates and locations of these actions:
May 9th in Wilson – 9:00 a.m
May 9th in Durham – 3:00 p.m.
May 10th in Winston-Salem – 3:00 p.m.
May 11th in Mitchell County (Bakersville) – 9:00 a.m.
May 11th in Madison County (Marshall) – 12:00 p.m.
May 11th in Asheville – 3:00 p.m.
May 14th in Asheboro – 9:30 a.m.
May 15th in Charlotte – 3:00 p.m.
18 Comments
Sorry, but the next step should be a suit filed in federal court citing the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal treatment under the law — with an injunction to stop Amendment 1 from implementation. Applying for marriage licenses that you know are not going to be issued is only the first step, and you’re going to get nowhere without the courts: in a court of law, you can make the case that equal marriage rights are not subject to individual religious beliefs and make it stick.
I realize it’s a matter of changing hearts and minds, but it seems that hearts and minds, for the vast majority of people, change a lot more easily if the the law is a guide to what’s acceptable.
I don’t disagree, Hunter, but it doesn’t mean one path at a time. Addressing the wrongs here can be done in myriad ways. The over-reach of A1 does call for a legal challenge.
Absolutely — I’m always in favor of a multi-pronged approach on these issues, but unless there is a follow-up with teeth, sit-ins become empty gestures.
Another issue that needs to be raised through the courts is whether civil rights can be subject to popular vote. There is Supreme Court precedent that says otherwise (the Colorado Amendment 2 case, and I’ve blipped on the actual name at the moment), and I think it’s something that needs to be tested on anti-marriage amendments. NC might be the perfect case on that one.
I think the campaign Pam is describing is a means to create real plaintiffs with standing.
Hunter, all lawsuits require standing. Applying for the liscene and being denied creates standing, simply being a citizen of the state does not unless the challenged law effects all- which this law does not. The federal lawsuit you advocate would likely be thrown out on standing and without the merits of the case even being heard.
How about this….STOP FOCUSING ON MARRIAGE!
Its this myopic obsession with marriage that is hurting you. How about pusing for something that actually has a chance of public support…like employment non-discrimination.
The marriage uber ailles crowd is sabotaging the larger cause of LGBT equality by prematurely pushing an issue that A) lacks public support and B) really on helps a privelledged few with in your community.
Here’s a novel idea, instead of making more empty symbolic pushes for marriage, use that vast network of support built for this boondogle to push for real and inclusive employment protections. That is a far better message to youth than saying that the only way they are equal is if they get married.
I swear, if LGBT activits put as much energy into getting (G)ENDA laws on the books as they’ve wasted on marriage there would probably be federal protections in place covering all 50 states. But no its OMG MARRIAGE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD AND THEY HAVE TO DO IT NOW OR ELSE…!
Romer vs. Evans.
This is a multi-faceted struggle. Marriage is one part of it (the one most visible right now). ENDA is another piece of it. DADT was another. I used to think DADT was the wrong battle, but it certainly wasn’t the only one. I really hate using the other side’s rhetoric, but we’ve lost a battle, but not the war – Norway may have fallen, but that doesn’t mean the war is over.
Another analogy is the battle to end segregation. There were several battles going on simultaneously – schools, public transportation, housing, voting rights, the military, etc., and it continues to this day.
More a commentary on the human condition and how we fight our more base instincts of tribalism.
Guess you didn’t read my reaction post to the Amendment One outcome. Employment protections were always at the forefront of my focus. The GOP in NC made marriage front and center each and every time they put that bigot bill on the table. It ended up on the ballot only because that party took control in 2010.
I don’t know, the law passed 61% to 39%; seems quite a few people in NC might have supported such a law no matter which party brought it forward.
Yes, and it seems a good way to proceed. A plantiff WITH STANDING will be needed for every clause of that law, because it was written such that it is severable. Thus anything that isn’t challenged would remain in force.
Boxturtle (Civil rights should not be subject to majority vote)
Sadly correct. And true of most Red States. Even if the average NC voter understood the law, it would still have passed.
Whatever came of the GOP platform of keeping the Government out of private lives?
Boxturtle (yeah,yeah, I know. There is a morals exception)
By red state you mean the North Carolina that went for Obama in 2008, or perhaps red state Minnesota that went for Obama in 2008, both of whom ban same-sex marriage by law or statute?
I knew the sun wouldn’t set again before law suits would be designed and prepared.
So, won’t the state now have to determine if a man and if a woman are indeed a man and a woman if they apply for a marriage license? An oath to an affidavit can hardly be sufficient now. Seriously. A legal challenge to prohibit fraud seems worth pursuing as another avenue, to expose the absurdity of the amendment. Precedent? Check out the Gender Policy For The United States Golf Association for transgender applicants to their men-only and women-only championships and the kinds of documentation the USGA accepts.
Indeed, the hypocrisy of the republicans is that they want the government out of their lives, but they want it totally controlling YOURS.
You do not have a fucking clue, do you.
To codify religous beliefs is against everything the US Constitution is about…….it should be presented in that manner.
Each citizen can have whatever religous based view they want, however I cannot abide turning those views into laws.
Equal under the Constitution should be self evident….
I’m very aware of that. My comments assume the establishment of standing by applying for marriage licenses that won’t be issued — hence my description of it as a “first step.”