Anticipating what is sure to be a rowdy debate, Republican lawmakers held a press conference Tuesday to bolster a state constitutional amendment defining civil marriage as between a man and a woman.
Prompted in response to a push in state governments and the judiciary to legalize same-sex marriage, Republicans and conservative Democrats have introduced marriage amendments each session since 2003. This year is the first time the idea has gotten traction.
“If government is going to sanction marriage, then it needs to protect it,” said House Speaker Pro Tem Dale Folwell, a Republican from Forsyth County. “This issue has strong geographically support across this state. It has strong gender support across this state. It has strong support across racial lines and between generations. It’s time that we put this decision to the people of this state.”
Legislators sympathetic to same-sex marriage have derided the effort. “I would vote against any such amendment based on the equal protection of the laws for all people that is part of the U.S. and N.C. Constitutions because the Constitution guarantees the rights of the individual against the tyranny of the majority and government; it is not to diminish rights,” wrote Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D-Orange, in an op-ed for the Durham Herald-Sun.
Lawmakers are slated to take up the issue when the General Assembly returns to Raleigh in mid-September for a session devoted to constitutional amendments. Proposed amendments must be passed by a three-fifths majority of both legislative chambers before going to a vote of the people for final approval.
Aside from the marriage issue, the legislature will debate amendments establishing term limits for General Assembly leaders and curtailing eminent domain. A fourth possibility is an amendment overhauling governance of the State Board of Education.
Republicans at the press conference indicated that the legislature would vote on the Senate version of the marriage amendment, which could ban civil unions and public domestic partner benefits in addition to same-sex marriage.
Public versus private
House Majority Leader Paul “Skip” Stam, R-Wake, said that nothing in the bill prohibits private companies from recognizing same-sex relationships through their benefits packages. “What it prohibits is the government recognizing that as essentially a marriage,” he said.
“There are lots of companies in North Carolina who have benefits offered to people of the same sex. That’s their business. That’s not mine. And that’s not what this bill does,” Folwell said.
At least seven jurisdictions in North Carolina — Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Durham, Greensboro, Orange County, Durham County, and Mecklenburg County — offer domestic partner benefits to same-sex couples. The amendment could affect them.
The legislature prohibited same-sex marriage in statutory law in 1996. Since then, social conservatives have grown wary because three states have legalized the nontraditional unions through judicial ruling. Supporters of the amendment say that constitutional protections are the only way to prevent the same thing from happening in the Tar Heel State.
At the press conference, Stam pointed that Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue voted for the same-sex marriage ban in 1996 when she served in the state Senate. So did House Minority Leader Joe Hackney, D-Orange, and Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper
“Now, [Perdue] is making calls asking Democrats to vote against [the marriage amendment],” Stam said.
Partisan support
The Senate version has three primary sponsors and 20 co-sponsors, all Republicans. On the House side, two Republicans and two Democrats (Reps. Jim Crawford of Granville County and Dewey Hill of Columbus County) are primary sponsors.
On the House side, 62 lawmakers have signed on as co-sponsors, among them unaffiliated Rep. Bert Jones of Rockingham County, who caucuses with the Republicans. Four of the co-sponsors are Democrats: Reps. Annie Mobley of Hertford County, Tim Spear of Washington County, Michael Wray of Northampton County, and William Brisson of Bladen County.
These Democratic lawmakers also signed on as primary or co-sponsors of similar marriage amendments that were introduced in the 2009-10 session, when Democrats controlled the General Assembly.
One controversy that could play out during the debate is whether the referendum on the amendment would take place at the General Election in November or the primary in May. In other states, marriage amendments have been a major drawn for conservative voters, bolstering the chances of Republican candidates.
That’s not always been the case, though. For example, in California in 2008, citizens voted for Barack Obama as president but also passed a marriage amendment by 52 percent. A strong showing among black voters helped propel both Obama and the amendment to victory.
Other states
Several other states have scheduled votes on marriage amendments or are poised to do so. An amendment will appear on the General Election ballot in Minnesota in 2012; the same could be true for Indiana if an amendment passes the second of two required votes in the state legislature next year. An amendment also is pending in Pennsylvania.
North Carolina is the only state in the Southeast without an amendment. Nationwide, 30 states have amended their constitutions to protect traditional marriage and ban same-sex marriage, typically with the support of roughly two-thirds of voters. Six states have legalized same-sex marriage, half of those through judicial ruling and the other half through their legislatures.
David N. Bass is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.
[Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to reflect that at least seven city and county governments in North Carolina have enacted domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples.]