Published: May 29, 2008 11:58 am            

Tar Heel Dispatch: It's on its way

Gay marriage is on its way, ready or not. Last week California became the second state in the nation to legalize gay marriage. California already has some of the most generous civil union laws awarding all the rights and privileges of marriage to same-sex couples, but the state's Supreme Court said that just wasn't enough.

The Court overturned a state law which defined marriage as being between one man and one woman. The law, Proposition 22, was originally approved by 61 percent of California voters in 2000. It further strengthened a preexisting same-sex marriage ban from 1978.

The Court ruled that the ban on same-sex marriage violated the state constitution's equal rights provisions. This ruling was celebrated by gay-rights activists across the nation.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome, the official who started a firestorm when he began issuing gay marriage licenses from City Hall in 2004, was especially ecstatic when he said, "As California goes, so goes the rest of the nation. It's inevitable. This door's wide open now. It's going to happen, whether you like it or not."

I've said before that I think the government should get out of the marrying business. If it got out, churches would have greater influence anyway. When we allow moral issues to be decided by democratic vote, right and wrong becomes a product of strength in numbers. But we're dealing with activist judges here, not even democratic votes!

As long as the government is going to be regulating marriage, it might as well be done democratically, not by judicial tyranny. The voters of California spoke with a loud voice.

Can you imagine getting 61 percent of those bleach blond, beach heads out there to agree on something? That ought to count for something.

Four judges on the California Supreme Court overturned the law initiated and passed by the people of California. So by a vote of four in favor, to millions opposed, gay marriage was made legal in the state of California.

The only option for the people of the state now is to amend the state constitution to define marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman.

Organizers have collected the signatures and are waiting for confirmation that the amendment will be put on the ballot.

There is a similar constitutional amendment in the North Carolina Senate. Sponsored by Sen. Forrester (R-Gaston) and 18 other co-sponsors, the Defense of Marriage Act would be placed on the November, 2008 ballot. "Would" being the key term - if only the Democrat leadership would allow it.

The Democrats in the Senate have referred the amendment to the Ways and Means Committee. The problem is, as Sen. Fred Smith (R-Johnston, Wayne) tells you in his book "A Little Extra Effort," that this committee never meets. This is where bills are sent to die.

Allowing the Senate to vote on it just wouldn't do. Allowing a vote would put Democrats on the spot as to how they'd vote. Their constituents would cry havoc if they found out their Senators or Representatives voted against the amendment.

But if they vote for the amendment, conservatives will flock to the polls in November, virtually assuring that Republicans will take back the state Senate. So instead, the amendment gets brushed to the side or under the rug, out of sight, out of mind.

And I thought Democrats were all about democracy! Not so, I've discovered, at least in Raleigh. They are denying the citizens of the state of North Carolina the right to vote on this constitutional amendment.

It's a lot easier to convince a few judges to support unpopular policies than it is to fool all the citizens of North Carolina.

But they'll try to fool you all, too. A few years ago the Democrats in Raleigh made judge elections non-partisan. This move ensures that voters have no idea what party the candidates for judge are members of or their ideology. They don't want you to know who the conservatives are. So, half the time the Democrats won't let you vote as in the Defense of Marriage amendment. But when they do let you vote for judges, they want you voting blind!

Too bad North Carolina doesn't have a ballot initiative where voters could do an end-around the state government to force it on the ballot. But the Democrats are too smart to allow a voter initiative because they'll lose their stranglehold on power.

A lot is riding on this issue. At the center of it all is the family. Strong families, traditional cultural values, our children in public schools, are all at stake.

Instead of doing something about it, Democrats are just twiddling their thumbs, waiting for some judge to strike down North Carolina's marriage laws on a whim.

Don't forget the urgency of it all, either. As Mayor Newsome said, gay marriage is "inevitable." The door is wide open, without a constitutional amendment. It's coming ready or not.



Tar Heel Dispatch is written by Tyler Younts, a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Younts, who grew up in Farmer, has a passion for writing and for politics and for writing about politics. E-mail comments to news@randolphguide.com or directly to Younts at younts@email.unc.edu

        

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