I would like to preface this post with a few qualifying statements. I realize that this is my first post in quite sometime, but I've said from the beginning that this blog contains my mini-rants written down mostly for my own benefit - this post is no different. I hope people read it, and I hope that it is helpful and eye-opening to those people who need such things. That said, this blog post is about North Carolina's proposed Amendment One that is going to be voted on tomorrow in the primary elections. This amendment states that the only union that the state will legally recognize is a marraige between one man and one woman. That said, this post is about the many many reasons why one should vote AGAINST Amendment One. I shall list my reasons for you.
1. I am a Christian. Because I am a Christian, I believe that any and all forms of hatred are fundamentally antithetical to Jesus' teachings of love, non-judgement, and the personal, one-on-one relationship that exists between each person and God. In other words, regardless of whether or not someone thinks homosexuality is a sin, that sin is between the individual and God and is not to be judged by anyone but him. Our job is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, or at least as much as we ourselves would want to be loved. Because I am a Christian, I also believe that making the conscious decision to cause or potentially cause others harm is a grave sin in itself. Amendment One will affect hundreds of thousands of North Carolina citizens, gay or straight or otherwise, negatively. Read on for how...
2. I am a citizen of the United States of America and a strong believer in our Constitution and in the Amendment system that allows that Constitution to change with the times if need be. However, the amendment system, for either states or the nation, was not created so that rights could be diminished or taken. Amendment One is a categorical infringement on the rights of anyone living in North Carolina, and by doing so it ensures an increase in governmental power in one's personal life and space. No one who believes in small government, or separation of church and state, or in the ability for any individual to live one's law-abiding life as they please, should also believe in this Amendment.
3. I strive to be tolerant, open-minded, and to be the kind of person people can look up to. I do not always suceed. However, I could never respect myself or ask other people to respect me if I lived up to the hypocritical stereotype that Christians have maintained for centuries. I could not ask anyone to respect my personal decisions if I did not respect those of others - even if I disagree with some of those decisions. This is not to say that I think homosexuality is wrong or that homosexual or other non-heterosexual couples should not be allowed to have a legally recognized union. I think that every person deserves the same right to a legally recognized union as I do as a straight female; I could not expect to be privilege to rights guaranteed by our Constitution if those same rights weren't also available for black people, gay people, the mentally or physically handicapped, the rich, the poor, the tired, the hungry, and those that majored in under-water basket weaving.
4. I am a woman, a devoted girlfriend, and, hopefully, one day a mother and later a happy elderly woman drinking sweet iced tea on her wrap around porch. Because of this, it greatly upsets me that many other women are unaware of the harm that Amendment One will have on society. Unmarried victims of domestic violence may never see justice (27 domestic violence charges have been overthrown in Ohio because the victims were not married and a similar law to Amendment One had caused such ambiguity in the domestic violence laws). Potentially, I might not be about to see my boyfriend or make decisions concerning his health if he were in the hospital and family were unavailable. Children of unmarried couples, heterosexual couples included, would not have access to health care or protection under the law (there are nearly 90,000 unmarried families with children in NC). Elderly widows or widowers may lose access to pensions from previous relationships/marriages. Some cities allow the partners of government employees access to that employee's benefits, and this access would be lost if the two were not married. I want to be married, legally and religiously, but those in NC who have chosen civil unions or domestic partnerships instead, for whatever personal reasons they have, will no longer be legally cognized as a couple, and hence will lose any rights or privileges involving insurance, job benefits, taxes, protection under the law (from domestic violence, for example, or if they have children, laws regarding parental kidnapping could become irrelevant), etc.
5. There are many more important things for our government to be spending their time and money on than on an amendment that harms The NC citizens that those in government are supposed to represent. The education system in NC has been so damaged and defunded that serious and immediate steps need to be taken for its repair. The NC poverty level is still extremely high. The health of NC citizens, as it is with all of America, is rapidly declining, and though one's health is often a personal choice, better school lunches and spreading information about wellness programs for many state employees is a more worthwhile use of government resources than is diminishing citizen rights. The
NC economy and state budget is in a shambles - as a tax paying citizen, I don't wish my hard earned money to go toward the expenses of lawsuits and court cases caused by the passage of a harmful law.
6. Lastly, I am against Amendment One because if it passes, it sets a precedent for future infringement on human rights (it could lead to all kinds of other harm to American citizens - it might even be made law that the government can execute citizens for any reason without a fair trial... Oh wait...). If it passes, thousands of people will be negatively affected, including myself potentially. If it passes, NC will be seen as an intolerant state whose government promotes discrimination and hatred - there goes the tourism industry or the likelihood of new companies coming to NC, stimulating the economy and increasing the job market. BUT, if Amendment One does not pass, then come May 9th, absolutely nothing will have changed. Marriage not between one man and one woman will still, unfortunately, be illegal. Rights of NC citizens won't have improved, but at least they won't have been taken away.
So, logically, voting for this amendment does not make sense. And I hope that morally, religiously, and emotionally, this amendment seems just as nonsensical to you as it does to me. Interestingly enough, when the head and heart come together on something, the world makes a lot more sense.
