Married same-sex couples ‘record their love’ in North Carolina

This week, legally married same-sex couples across North Carolina approached their local county clerk's office to record their love - registering their marriage licenses in North Carolina as a protest to anti-marriage laws in their home state. 

From Mecklenburg County to Buncombe County, from Durham to Winston-Salem, married same-sex couples paid the $26 required to register their marriage licenses, speaking out against Amendment One, the 2012 law passed in the state to outlaw any form of family status for same-sex couples and their families, including marriage, civil union, and domestic partnership.

The new initiative is organized by the Campaign for Southern Equality, which works toward full equality under the law for same-sex couples and LGBT people in the south. CSE wrote about the new action on their website.

This action is a stand against Amendment One, an immoral and unjust measure that bans same-sex marriage. This action also creates a public record that legally-married same-sex couples do live all across North Carolina. Our goal is to have couples take this step in as many North Carolina counties as possible. 

One of the couples is Barb Goldstein and Ann Willoughby, who married in Kingstno, NY last year and registered their marriage license on Tuesday with the Durham County Register of Deeds. The couple had previously participated in CSE actions by requesting a marriage license and provoking a denial in their home state. 

Aaron Sarver, a Campaign for Southern Equality spokesperson, talked about the action with the News Observer. He said:

It’s a way for them to say, ‘We’re legal strangers in North Carolina, and we feel that’s unjust. That valid document that says we are a legal couple [in another state] doesn’t mean anything in North Carolina. Obviously, these couples don’t feel that way.

Read more about the Campaign for Southern Equality HERE