Marc Solomon Debates NC’s Anti-Marriage Amendment on Fox News

Yesterday, our National Campaign Director Mark Solomon appeared on Fox News to debate the National Organization for Marriage's Brian Brown about Amendment One in North Carolina. Amendment One, which will be put to a vote tomorrow, proposes a constitutional amendment banning the freedom to marry across the state. North Carolina already has a state statute banning the freedom to marry, but the proposed constitutional amendment — which also bans civil unions or any legal recognition of non-married couples — would embed discrimination against gay and lesbian couples in the state's constitution. 

Marc shared the dangers of Amendment One in the Fox News segment, explaining:

Putting this in the Constitution stops a conversation that the people of North Carolina are having about why marriage matters to gay and lesbian couples. But this amendment isn't just about marriage. It also takes away civil unions, it takes away domestic partnerships, and it takes away the right for kids of lesbian moms to have health coverage. I don't know what Golden Rule everyone else was taught, but the Golden Rule that I was taught is that you should treat people like you want to be treated. 

 

Amendment One will be brought to a vote tomorrow, and activists in the state have worked hard to express the negative impacts that the amendment would have on North Carolina's families. Polls consistently demonstrate that as more North Carolinians have learned about these impacts, support for the amendment has drastically fallen. It is absolutely crucial that every fair-minded voter in North Carolina cast their vote against the amendment. 

Conversations about Amendment One and the importance of winning the freedom to marry have been taking place throughout the country. Just this weekend, Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education, publicly endorsed the freedom to marry, and Vice President Joe Biden stated that he is "absolutely comfortable" with gay and lesbian couples having the freedom to marry. We have also seen a growing majority support for the freedom to marry nation-wide. 

As we continue to talk about the values of love, commitment, and fairness that are essential to marriage, we come closer to ending discrimination in North Carolina and throughout the country. We hope that North Carolina residents can see how Amendment One threatens each of these values - and that they continue to push against discriminatory measures like this amendment.