Opposition to House Bill 777 Senate Bill 106

Please show your support Monday night at the Town Council meeting for this resolution opposing NC's proposed anti-gay-marriage consituional amendment. This resolution will be introduced by Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and myself. Tell the NCGA we want to stop moving backwards. 

A Resolution in Opposition to Senate Bill 106 and House Bill 777 in the North Carolina General Assembly

WHEREAS, Same-sex marriage is currently a right in ten countries including the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland, Argentina and six U.S. States including Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, and the District of Columbia; and

WHEREAS, there have been no negative or destructive effects as a result of the establishment of same-sex marriage in these countries and U.S. states, and has had the added benefit of affirming families and strengthening communities; and

WHEREAS, In a free society, LGBT individuals are entitled to rights and privileges consistent with all other members of society and deserve the freedom to enjoy these rights free from discrimination that would diminish their humanity and equal status under the law; and

WHEREAS, Chapel Hill proudly embraces the diversity of its residents; and

WHEREAS, the Town of Chapel Hill has adopted and reaffirmed a policy of promoting equal rights and opportunities for employees and citizens of Chapel Hill without regard to race, religion, age, gender, disability, national origin, color, marital status, sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression; and

WHEREAS, Chapel Hill has a history of protecting LGBT rights and has shown its commitment to making Chapel Hill a welcoming community by formally extending health care benefits to same sex domestic partners of Town employees and their legal dependents; electing the first openly gay elected official in the South, Joe Herzenburg; and consistently including the promotion of marriage equality in its legislative agenda; and

WHEREAS, the North Carolina General Assembly is considering Senate Bill 106 and House Bill 777 that would place on the 2012 ballot a referendum to amend the North Carolina Constitution to prohibit marriage between people of the same gender, and further prohibit the recognition of any other form of domestic legal union; and

WHEREAS, the adoption of such a Constitutional amendment is inconsistent with Chapel Hill’s commitment to equal rights and opportunities for its residents and employees and could impact the town's domestic partner registry and benefits;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL, that the Council urges the North Carolina General Assembly to reject Senate Bill 106 and House Bill 777 and affirms its commitment to equal rights and opportunities for Town employees and for all residents of Chapel Hill.


BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this resolution shall be sent to the members of Chapel Hill’s legislative delegation, the House Speaker and Majority Leader, the president pro temp and Majority Leader of the Senate, and the Governor.

Issues: 

Comments

Do you all know about what time you'll be introducing the resolution? We've got our general body meeting at 7PM but we might be able to get some bodies in the room at around 8 or 8:30.Thanks for doing this!

Hi Nathan:Council member Rich let me know that this is the last item on tonight's agenda, so should not come up before 9 pm. You should have time to get there with some bodies. I am hoping to as well. 

Can you remind me who you are again?  It's hard for me to read your post without really knowing who you are.But seriously, as I've said on here before, considering how many avenues there are for people to express their opinion on state, national and international issues and how their is only one body charged with running the town of Chapel Hill, Town Council ought to stick to running Chapel Hill.But it won't.  Because Power does what it wants.And if you question it they'll ask you to remind them who you are again. 

Jose - I don't know you, you don't know me, but why would you not support freedom for all citizens of of our state to be treated equally? If you don't want to do something, don't do it. But it really frustrates me that folks want limit choices for some people but not others. Marry whomever you want, but as a citizen of NC, I request you butt out of the life of other citizens. 

That post, folks.  Read my first post and that response to it  and you will understand one reason why so many outside this area have a dislike for the people in this area. I don't care whether gay people get married, nor did I even imply otherwise, as you must know since you read my post.  But that doesn't matter to you.  Any pretext to misrepresent and demonize another person is acceptable if that person isn't willing to sign on to "any means justify the ends" tactics. If I was against gay people being allowed to marry I sure wouldn't waste my time pursuing the issue on an Orange County politics board.  Do you think CH TC passing a resolution on anything influences state politicians?  Whatever small influence it might have is more than counterbalanced by the knowledge of state politicians that otherwise neutral NC people are so put off by Chapel Hill / Carrboro that they reflexively go the other direction on any resolution passed by Chapel Hill / Carrboro.My post had nothing to do with gay marriage per se.  I've posted before about being against local TCs passing resoultions on issues that state and national politicians have already been elected to address, regardless of the issue involved.

By the way, in case you didn't already know, the first line of my post which you responded to was a verbatim quote of what Penny Rich said to me on here when I dared question the shennanigans of the 2009 election, the deatils of which I won't go into since nobody here wants to drag that up again.  But I just thought you should know that that wasn't a line out of the blue that I came up with but rather was a repeat of something an elected town official said to me when I dared to speak up.

I always love it when our council and aldermen pass resolutions supporting or denouncing various national issues. While they don't have a direct vote on many of these things they do have something even more powerful. They touch the base.

The people who work hard to get State and Federal candidates elected are our neighbors. Local elected officials know these people. Mayors have their fingers on the pulse of issues big and small. That is some very valuable intelligence when determining strategy on a large scale. It's important for local politicians to motivate voters and activists for State and Federal candidates. So don't under estimate the power of the grassroots. We are fortunate to have local elected officials that lobby on our behalf at all levels of government.

Thanks, Brian, for encapsulating so well why the council needs to do this.  I've not always been a fan of such action on issues not in front of the council, but this is an important one and you've stated well why they should support the petition tonight.  The GOP may have skirted the domestic partner rights issue in their 3rd version Friday, but it is still a heinous amendment and shouldn't come up for a vote.  We have no business codifying hate.

The Vietnam War ended more because of small town America than anything that transpired in Asia.  Likewise, though the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act were passed in Washington, the reason they passed was because of what was happening in towns and cities across the South.I introduced Domestic Partner Registration in Chapel Hill in 1994, following Mike Nelson's lead earlier that year in Carrboro.  There were a few people around back then who made the same tired arguments that you are making now, Mr. Galanko.  They said it was useless symbolism, a waste of time, not relevant etc. etc.  But the transformation from a dream into a social movement has to begin somewhere.  And so, in the face of ridicule, Chapel Hill took the step of becoming (something like) the 12th town in America to recognize and sanction Domestic Partnership.  Carrboro was of course the 11th. Now let's take a moment to take stock of how far the issue of same-sex marriage has come in the intervening 17 years.  The combined efforts of hundreds of towns and cities like ours has moved same-sex marriage from laughing-stock to an issue that the President of the United States is compelled to take a position on.  Since 2004, you can't even run for President without a position on this issue.  Barack Obama chose to touch on the issue in his nomination address to the Democratic National Convention in 2008!  Local governments did that, Mr. Galanko.  We put this issue on the map!And when one day we achieve marriage equality in this country, it will very much be because of local governments across America who had the courage to speak up for the rights of their constituents.

You are moving the goalposts.  Things can change on a state or national level because of the sum total of actions at the local level but nothing ever changes on a state or national level because town councils pass resolutions.  The only effect a town council passing a resolution has is to potentially divide people locally on an issue on which they weren't previously divided because it potentially wasn't previously even a local political issue.  It's nothing more than bad local government, which is my I rail against it. People anywhere can speak out on state or national issues.  Nobody disputes that.And if Town X passes Rule Y for the town even if the issue is usually considered to be a state or national issue, then the local politicians are answerable come election time in case the voters don't want that rule to be in effect in their town. But the politicians in Town X saying to state and national politicians "The people of my town, Town X, have opinion Y" even though it's never true that the people of Town X have opinion Y since there is variation of opinion in any town, is nothing more than the politicians of Town X, voted into office on the basis of local issues, sticking their thumb in the eye of the people that don't agree with them on an issue that they weren't even elected to govern on.  Politics is inherently divisive enough already.  We don't need to unnecessarily add even more divisiveness. Oh and by the way, don't think the other subtleties of your post went unnoticied.   Not nice, Mark.  It's the kind of thing that, if it happened in areas with political persuasions different than around here, people around here would rail heartily against.  And rightly so.  But instead nobody here will rail against it at all, as you knew when you posted it.  Not nice at all.

What's not nice about it, Joe Galanko?  That I used your real name? That I called your arguments tired?  Neither of those things seem unkind to me.As for your argument, it seems that you are saying the collective action of many municipalities can and does have an effect on state and national policy, but you think we shouldn't participate if there is anyone in our community who does not agree?Your argument amounts to this: Local residents would be up in arms if we were advocating for state and national policies that, as a group, they don't support. Therefore you say we shouldn't advocate for policies that, as a group, most people in our area do support.  That requires no rebuttal.

The election on the amendment will be Tuesday May 8.  Commencement is Sunday May 13. Classes end April 26. Exams run until May 4. Early voting will run through Saturday May 5.

If there is a lawsuit over redistricting, which is likely, the primary may be moved back, like it was in 2004 when it was held in July.But there will be a primary at some point and with very few Democratic races expected to have contested primaries, this will likely be mostly a GOP electorate, which makes defeating the amendment even more difficult, especially if the GOP presidential nomination is still up for grabs at that point.  

When it was moved back to July in 2004, there were no presidential primaries, they were cancelled and replaced by party firehouse caucuses (meaning a few polling places in each county run by the parties themselves, which were not primaries).

That was the year we had a 2nd primary in August.  I was travelling unexpectedly, and it is the only election I've missed in past 10 or so years

I am not sure, but I believe that was the party's decision and perhaps the GOP will not make the same decision. And even if there is not GOP presidential primary, it is likely that there will be more contested races on the GOP side, especially for Congress. There will be hot GOP contests in the 7th, 8th, 11th and 13th CDs. There are also likely to be more GOP contests for Council of State races too.  

The presidential primary had been delayed so long in 2004 that it did not qualify under national rules of either party and the parties abandoned it in favor of caucuses that were held within the window that party rules alowed for delegate selection.

My understanding is if you will turn 18 by the 2012 November general election, you can vote in May (which would enfranchise about six months worth of people born in 1994 for the May vote).  My son is eager to register and communicate this to his peers who have brithdays after the primary.

Lemme know if I am mistaken.

Frank McBride 

17 1/2 year olds can vote on May 8 for the primary (because it is considered part of the general election) but will NOT get a ballot for the constitutional amendment. This happened before in 1976, 1982, 1984, 1986, and 2002 when constitutional amendments were on the primary ballot.

Somewhat-unrelated, but definitely still on topic. How do you switch part affilations so you can choose to vote in either primary? 

Changing Party Affiliation - deadline is 25 days before the election. (ie, Apr 14th, 2012)
If you wish to change your party affiliation,
you must complete either a Voter Registration Application Form
(downloaded from http://www.co.orange.nc.us/elect/documents/NCVoterRegistrationFormEnglis...) or complete the reverse side of a Voter
Verification Card that has been mailed to you, and return it to the
Board of Elections. All changes must be either postmarked or received in
the Board of Elections office at least 25 days before the election.  Mail Forms to:
Mail completed voter registration applications to: Orange County Board of Elections, P.O. Box 220, Hillsborough, N.C. 27278.

Just a note- you can only choose which primary to vote in if you are registered as Unaffliated. Democrats and Republicans have to vote in their respective primaries.

you may NOT change party status during early voting

You don't have to change your party affiliation to vote against the Marriage In-equality Amendment  Follow me on Twitter @MayorMarkK or on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/groups/91222152476?ap=1 or http://www.facebook.com/mark.kleinschmidt

Thanks for the replies.

You can choose your primary, vote just as you like, and neither of the Corporate controlled parties gets to claim you as a member while they work against your interests.

 

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