Next Tuesday, May 8, the citizens of North Carolina will go to the ballot to participate in the state’s 2012 primary elections. But they’ll also have the opportunity to vote for or against a proposed state constitutional amendment that begins, “Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State.” Though gay marriage is already illegal in North Carolina, proponents suggest that the measure will prevent its future legalization.
Predictably, faith communities have been at the forefront of the struggle. On one side, Patrick Wooden, Jr. of the Upper Room Church of God in Christ, has welcomed this latest offensive against LGBT people in the state. Amendment supporters have used him in a cynical attempt to reach out to socially conservative Christian African-Americans. A good friend to Christian Right outfit, the National Organization for Marriage, Wooden has made many hysterical assertions about LGBT people such as his claim that gay men “have to wear a diaper or butt plug just to be able to contain their bowels.” Beloved North Carolina evangelist Billy Graham has meanwhile tried to lend a veneer of respectability to the cause, saying, “Watching the moral decline of our country causes me great concern.”
But North Carolina also has a history of progressive faith-based activism, so many clergy within the state are fighting the Amendment. More than 200 faith leaders have pledged to vote against Amendment One. And William Barber, Disciples of Christ pastor and President of the State NAACP, has spoken out strongly against the racism informing pro-Amendment activism. In a video for anti-Amendment group Protect All North Carolina Families, Barber says, “Far-Right wing forces are trying to roll back Civil Rights. They’ve come up with a new trick to attempt to divide us. They know that many African-Americans are church-going, religious people, family oriented, but we must understand what this trick is…no matter how you feel about same-sex marriage, personally or religiously, what you should always be against is any attempt to codify hate, discrimination or division into the sacred document of our State’s Constitution.”
Of course, North Carolina is a deeply religious place, and this is true regardless of politics. That’s why faith has been the site of so much political struggle throughout the State’s history just as it is now. That’s why it would be a mistake to assume that every North Carolina resident who is speaking out on the basis of faith is in league with the Christian Right. Christians here are incredibly divided on the issue. And it isn’t a new battle. Since at least the 1950’s, people of faith have been fighting each other to figure out which Christianity – the discriminatory or progressive one – best exemplifies who we want to be as citizens and religious believers. At the end of the day, it is simply impossible to argue that this is a struggle between secularism and faith. Rather, it’s a struggle about what kind of faith we North Carolinians want to live.
The very idea of gay marriage is not something that all North Carolina believers are going to settle any time soon. This is just the unfortunate reality of living in the Bible belt. However, the Amendment carries several potential harms that have nothing to do with the LGBT population and that all people of faith should be able to rally around. After all, more than 85% of couples who could be seriously harmed by the Amendment are unmarried heterosexual couples. So, we should all be skeptical that this is really about gay marriage in the first place.
In fact, its scope is extremely broad and could have many devastating consequences. Two of the most likely are also the most troubling. First, the Amendment could prevent employers from providing health insurance benefits to the children of unmarried parents. According to the Coalition to Protect All NC Families, that’s the children of nearly 90,000 couples, the sum total of all unmarried couples with children in the State. There is simply no religious justification for harming children.
Not only this, but the Amendment could also invalidate existing domestic violence protections for all unmarried women in the state. It would almost certainly weaken the State’s already minimal domestic violence statutes. When it comes to domestic violence, Ohio’s similar amendment to ban gay marriage is very instructive. When Ohio’s amendment became law, 27 domestic violence convictions were overturned or dismissed. So no matter what anyone thinks of gay marriage, all people of faith should agree that there is no justification for any law that could reward domestic abusers.
The mainstream media consistently casts the debate as one about the issue of gay marriage, but this is a deflection. It is in fact about far more than that. At minimum, it is really about just how much we value the very lives of women and children in our State. Polls show a healthy 14% lead among Amendment supporters, but I am convinced that it wouldn’t stand a chance if all of us knew just how broadly it could be interpreted once it becomes law. But not everyone knows, so we need to take the next few days to ensure that they do.
North Carolina was the final – and most reluctant – Southern state to join the Confederate States of America. Now it is the final – and most reluctant – Southern state likely to pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The state has always been a strange – and contested – mix of Old South politics and progressive populism. It’s a fascinating state, politically speaking, because it has always been the site of intense political struggle between regression and progress. It has all of the elements of every other Southern state, but far more political diversity than many. This was reflected in the 2008 presidential election when the state helped elect President Barack Obama by a narrow margin.
We might be defeated in our attempts to stop the Amendment this time around. But the debate about Amendment One has thrust the idea of gay marriage into North Carolina politics in an unprecedented way. None of us were talking about it before, but now it’s a defining discussion in our State’s political discourse. Opponents have waged an impressive and well-funded campaign against the Amendment, and they have a lot of momentum on their side. If Amendment One passes, a galvanized public will continue to fight it, and marriage equality may be achieved even faster than it may otherwise have been. A few years ago, I’d never have dreamed that this could be a reality of my lifetime, but with 40% of the population on board to fight LGBT discrimination and a lot of momentum, more and more people will soon realize that this isn’t about gay marriage. It’s about the struggle for the soul of North Carolina.