The battle for equality is not over in North Carolina

by Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, October 9, 2014.

Any day now gay couples in North Carolina will finally be able to get married, a basic right long denied thousands of people in the state simply because of who they love. It will be an historic and overdue occasion worthy of the celebrations that will ensue.

It will also be a boon to the state’s economy. A new study from UCLA predicts that more than 9,000 same-sex couples will get married in North Carolina in the next three years, generating more than $64 million in economic activity.

As welcome as that is, marriage equality is not at its core a statewide economic issue, it is a moral one. It’s about civil rights and allowing gay men and women the same protections and advantages in our laws and society that straight married couples take for granted, from tax preferences to adoption rules to hospital visitation and dozens more.

It is about the ability of people to live their lives like everybody else, free from the emotional toll that discrimination inevitably inflicts.

Good for the lawyers and advocacy groups that have worked so hard to make the day possible, and the judges and justices on federal courts across the country that ruled in favor of human rights and equality.

But credit too goes to thousands of gay North Carolinians who have lived with dignity every day in the face of discrimination that goes beyond the denial of a marriage license.

That’s an important thing to remember on the day the marriages and celebrations begin, that the battle for civil rights and basic protections is not over in North Carolina, where you can still be fired from your job simply because you are gay.

The battle for equality continues and it will not be easy, as wonderful as the victory on marriage equality will be.  If you had any doubt about that, consider the absurd decision by House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger to waste taxpayer dollars and intervene in the marriage case before the federal district court.

There is little wiggle room for the judge. The 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals that has jurisdiction over North Carolina has clearly ruled in favor of marriage equality and the U.S. Supreme Court agrees based on its decision this week to let the ruling stand.

But Berger and Tillis apparently can’t help themselves and feel compelled to use our money in a desperate attempt to stand in the way of a basic right that even a conservative Supreme Court believes people deserve.

The legislative leaders have reportedly hired a national anti-marriage equality “expert” from California to lead the hopeless efforts to deny justice to couples across the state.

It makes you wonder what’s next for the anti-equality two. Will they stand in front of a register of deeds office next week doing their best George Wallace imitation, shouting marriage discrimination today, marriage discrimination tomorrow, marriage discrimination forever?

Sorry guys.  Marriage equality is coming to North Carolina, sooner rather than later. And an end to employment discrimination is coming too, no matter how hard you demagogue and protest and waste our money fighting it.

Wake up. It’s 2014. Folks have had it with your reactionary agenda and ridiculous defense of discrimination.

http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2014/10/09/the-battle-is-not-over-for-equality-in-north-carolina/