Guest Post by Lance McCord

Maybe I am overly swayed by the convincing arguments for children's suffrage laid out on last week's West Wing, but I think that a recent proposal from the Chapel Hill High Civics Club to have a student serve on the school board makes a lot of sense. This would probably be a non-voting position, but I have also heard of students getting elected directly to the board (which is pretty impressive considering few of their peers are old enough to vote).

Locally, students have been active in board discussions -- although not as members. Most recently, Chapel Hill High students complained that they hadn't been more involved in a discussion of changing the high school schedule.

Students have lined up to speak at recent school board meetings, and hundreds attended a forum they planned at Chapel Hill High to tell district officials they didn't want block scheduling.

at Monday night's Town Council meeting if that's what it takes to demonstrate Chapel Hill's commitment to gay and lesbian rights.

My intro is glib but the issue is serious, especially in the aftermath of the recent attack on a gay UNC student. The Herald reports today that "A Christian activist group plans to bring 200 to 500 people to Monday night's Town Council meeting to protest the council's stance on same-sex marriage." Groups like this live off and in turn breed the intolerance that leads to hate crimes.

As I discussed in my Chapel Hill Herald column of 4/3/2004, there are over 1000 automatic federal protections, benefits, and responsibilities that come with a marriage license, many more at the state level. All Americans, and all North Carolinians, should have an equal right to these privileges and responsibilities.

Here is Equality NC's action alert: