Wake, NC, school board endorses gay-marriage amendment

[Ceist]

Originally Posted by box_of_zip_disks

A large chunk of the economy in the Triangle is in the high tech sector and most employers in those industries offer same sex partnership benefits. The proposed amendment would keep them from doing that which would hurt recruiting.


It's government interfering with the private sector by telling employers which benefits they can and can't offer.

They also could not recognise heterosexual defacto relationships under this Amendment.

[SNEwx_46]

Kind of embarrassing.

[hooligan]

Originally Posted by NCfolks

Marriage should not belong in the government, local or otherwise. The governments should be neutral on marriage. It should not recognize it or regulate it in any fashion. This applies to straight or gay marriage.

I agree, but this is not our current reality.

Until it is, I'll support equality in legal marriage.

[Francois]

Originally Posted by noexcuseforignorance

Ahh, why would that stop you from bringing good employers there?

Because the amendment goes far beyond "Defining marriage"; it overreaches to ban all "domestic legal unions" in the state, including private contracts. Mnay employers such as SAS Institute, Duke University, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and Cisco offer domestic partner benefits, and the wording is vague enough that these could be challenged, even when offered by private companies. Companies that offer DP (domestic partner) benefits would think twice about locating here if the state went on record as being one opposed to any sort of legal recognition of private relatinoships other than marriage. Many business leaders have already spoken about this.

The easier thing would just be to get rid of the word marriage. That's what gets people emotional. They don't really care much about the implications of two people being contractually bound.

Apparently the Republicans in the NC Legislature right now DO care, because they specifically added the "only domestic legal union" language when they could have left it simply at "marriage shall be one man + one woman", but that wasn't far-reaching enough for them. The ironic thing is that same-sex marriage is already forbidden by state law, so the "hot button" part of the Amendment is redundant! But the real danger is the part the Amendment Supporters are trying to gloss over and hope nobody notices, which is "only domestic legal union". Your post shows that you weren't aware of this much more 'Big Brother'-y clause which will have the real impact on this state and its reputation nationwide.

It is NOT about "redefining marraige"; it is about banning private domestic contracts between consenting people--this language was specifically added when it could have been left out (and given the Amendment much higher likelihood of passing, actually). If you don't want government telling you what kind of contracts you can form, you must vote AGAINST this amendment on May 8. Same-sex marriage will remain outlawed in NC, regardless.

[desertdetroiter]

Local issue. Their business. If they think it's better for their little corner of the world, then good for them. If they like it, i love it.