CNN has projected that North Carolina voters on Tuesday will pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Sixty-one percent of more than 1.5 million voted in favor of Amendment 1, which alters the state’s charter to say, “marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state.”
In effect, the amendment bans civil unions for both gay and straight couples. North Carolina law already prohibited same-sex marriage, but this measure shuts the door entirely. Republican lawmakers pushed for the amendment out of reported concern that the law banning gay marriage might be struck down by judges. And so the Tarheel State became the 30th to codify a gay marriage ban in the state constitution.
“We are not anti-gay, we are pro-marriage,” said Tami Fitzgerald, the head of Vote for Marriage NC. “And the point — the whole point — is simply that you don’t rewrite the nature of God’s design for marriage based on the demands of a group of adults.”
Some of the more fervent supporters of the ban were not content to go home, have dinner and a smoke, or even high-five the amendment preserving the sanctity of marriage. It called for revelry. Reports CNN: “Its backers prepared to celebrate by serving wedding cake to their supporters in a Raleigh ballroom.”
