North of Unequal

NC gay marriage divide
Divided unequally – Original image found at ABC News

Another state takes the side of the majority and uses fear and prejudice to divide on a social and civil issue.

North Carolina became the 30th state to enshrine discrimination in it’s state constitution. I was not aware that any constitution – state or federal – could or should be used to take away or restrict the rights of it’s citizens. I was taught in school that the idea of including, not excluding, was the basis for how this country was originally founded. I guess that’s not how the majority sees it.

Never mind the fact that North Carolina – like several other states before it – already had made same-sex marriage illegal through legislation. But just to make sure it REALLY was illegal, they passed this amendment so they could show the rest of the nation and the world that “no, we don’t want anyone different than us to be married.”

Not The First Time

Amendment 14
amendment 14
Original images found at North Carolina Miscellany

Of course, this wasn’t the first time they passed an amendment to ban a group of people from marriage. Back in 1875, interracial marriage was banned and didn’t get removed from the state’s constitution until it was rewritten almost 100 years later.

Waiting On History

History has shown that eventually, the minority are given the rights and civil liberties that the majority has so often taken away. So it shall be for North Carolina. I just hope they don’t have to wait almost 100 years for equality to once again write another chapter in history.

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