North Carolina loses rhythm as Amendment 1 passes

The recent news that North Carolina passes Amendment 1 now adds a constitutional amendment that bans gay marriage.

This Amendment has put North Carolina in the International spotlight today but not in a positive way, “Dear North Carolina” became a Worldwide Trending Topic on twitter minutes after it was announced that the Amendment had passed.

With a parody account of Lord Voldemort from the fictional Harry Potter series saying, “Dear North Carolina, Dumbledore does not approve.”

While some people had a dark sense of humor about the defeat most of the International reaction towards the news was negative and brought up old stereotypes about North Carolina that makes the state look bad.

Some even viewed the passage of the Amendment as a challange to President Obama winning the battleground state in November.

Talk show host Ellen Degeransa tweeted, “Getting married was one of the greatest things I have ever done. I hope everyone in North Carolina gets the same opportunity someday.”

The supporters of the amendment argue that Amendment 1 protects the sanctity of marriage, but Elizabeth Keniston who is a graduate student at Loyola University in Maryland says, “the institution of marriage is diminished by divorce, not gay marriage, which couple is more legitimate? Ellen & Portia or Kim K and Chris?”

Supporters against the amendment get the blues

A public reception was held by the Protect N.C families project against the Amendment at the stockroom in Raleigh.

Nearly 500 people showed up to the event including N.C Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, Former U.S Senate Candidate Ken Lewis and Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane.

The night got off to a bad start with a Johnny Cash cover band saying after they finsihed their preformance, “Let’s hope we don’t get the blues tonight.”

Jeremy Kennedy who is the Director of the protect N.C families project addressed supporters at the rally saying, “We will not go down without a fight, this is just a skirmish, we will win.” He went on to add, “We walk away knowing we fought this fight with dignity and grace.”

Mr. Kennedy believes that the Amendment was a distraction from issues of far more importance in North Carolina, particularly unemployment.

Given that N.C has the 5th highest unemployment rate in the U.S and it does not help that the General Assembly is spending more time and money looking into unemployment fraud than trying to create jobs in the first place.

Oddly enough, the areas in N.C that have the highest unemployment rate voted for the amendment.

Voter I.D law

One other aspect that Republicans in the General Assembly have fought hard for is the passage of a voter ID bill that would require voters to show their ID at the polls. While some people support this measure, critics say the new laws keep the poor from voting.

As a 57-year-old homeless man who preferred not to be identified tried to vote for the first time in his life but was told he could not vote yesterday because he did not have any identification on him and was not registered to vote.

But while N.C has one of the highest unemployment rates in the U.S both Democrats and Republicans will only talk about the unemployed when it means setting them back.

As more energy is being put into investigating unemployment fraud instead of creating jobs to prevent fraud in the first place.

Change.org has started a petition against Amendment 1 that hopes to get 1 Million signatures so far there are 40,000.

At the end of the reception in Raleigh, the organizers sang, “We shall overcome” the iconic song that was used in the civil rights marches in the 60’s. Supporting the idea that this will not be the last time North Carolina talks about Marriage equality.

Written By: John Smith

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