Police in Winston-Salem North Carolina put the cuffs on a woman who refused to leave a government office after officials told the woman, who is a lesbian, that the state would not issue her a license to marry another woman because homosexual marriage is against the law.
On Tuesday, the state’s voters approved a constitutional amendment that restricts marriage to a a man and a woman. In passing the amendment, Tarheel voters gave the thumbs down to the Campaign for Southern Equality’s “We Do,” project, which seeks to overturn the traditional definition of marriage, which is rooted in biblical teaching and the natural law.
The lesbian woman sought the license the day after President Obama said he supported the supposed right of men to marry men and women to marry women.
Confrontation
According to The Associated Press, nine homosexual couples went to the office to get a marriage license.
Two homosexuals were quickly rejected, AP reported. “We cannot issue you a marriage license because it is not allowed under North Carolina law,” a clerk told the men, AP reported.
“Can you at least acknowledge on here that you’re denying it and the date?” Brent Morin asked, his ring-bearing left hand trembling. The clerk complied. Other clerks smiled sheepishly or shook the hands extended to them by couples they had turned away.
“I just want to point out that we’re married in the District of Columbia, our nation’s capital,” Morin said. “Thank you.”
“Hopefully, one day you’ll be able to say yes,” said a woman who was the first to request a license with her partner. She and most of the other couples declined to give their names. A group spokesman said most couples feared trouble with their employers or other complications.
After that, Mary Jamis, a 52-year-old lesbian, and a heterosexual friend began making trouble, AP reported.
A county administrator tried to talk the women into leaving and avoiding arrest, but the two insisted they would stay unless Jamis was issued a marriage license for herself and her partner, Starr Johnson, 48.
A half dozen female officers then crowded around Jamis and Bradford, who were seated. The officers asked them to stand, handcuffed them and led them out a side door and into a van to be booked at the county sheriff’s department across the street.
They were charged with second-degree trespass, a low-level misdemeanor, and released without bond, authorities said.
Clerks told two other homosexual women they would not get a marriage license, AP reported, while a heterosexual couple received their license just steps away. That woman told AP she didn’t understand why two women can’t get married.
“Why not? I don’t think it’s really anybody’s business,” she chirped to AP. “I don’t think it’s the government’s business to be telling people what to do with their private lives.”
Will The Law Stand?
North Carolina’s new amendment banning same-sex marriage reads thusly:
Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State. This section does not prohibit a private party from entering into contracts with another private party; nor does this section prohibit courts from adjudicating the rights of private parties pursuant to such contracts.
Although voters in North Carolina loudly and clearly said no to same-sex marriage with a 61-39 margin of victory, they cannot be certain a leftist court will not overturn the amendment as “unconstitutional.”
That’s what happened when Californians, by a 52-48 margin, passed Proposition 8, which also limited marriage to one man and one woman. In February, a federal appeals court struck down the law an “unconstitutional.”
Although President Obama claimed the decision on whether to ban homosexual marriage should be left up to the states, inaction on his part is by no means a certainty if he believes what he says. The leftist Administration has repeatedly attacked states laws the left deems “unconstitutional,” particularly those on immigration.
North Carolina is one of 29 states that constitutionally limit marriage to between a man and a woman. Nine other states define marriage as a matter of the civil code. So 38 states have said no same-sex marriage.
Biden Outed Obama
For his part, Obama came out of the closet on the issue after after Vice President Joe Biden, who claims to be a Catholic, said he supported it, which forced Obama’s hand.
“I’ve been going through an evolution on this issue. I’ve always been adamant that gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly and equally,” Obama told ABC News.
And that’s why in addition to everything we’ve done in this administration, rolling back Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell — so that — you know, outstanding Americans can serve our country. Whether it’s no longer defending the Defense Against Marriage Act, which — tried to federalize — what is historically been state law.
After explaining how important “equality” for sodomites in the military is, Obama dropped the gay bombshell. “At a certain point, I’ve just concluded that — for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that — I think same-sex couples should be able to get married. Now, I have to tell you that part of my hesitation on this has also been I didn’t want to nationalize the issue. There’s a tendency when I weigh in to think suddenly it becomes political and it becomes polarized.
“And what you’re seeing is, I think, states working through this issue — in fits and starts, all across the country. Different communities are arriving at different conclusions, at different times. And I think that’s a healthy process and a healthy debate. And I continue to believe that this is an issue that is gonna be worked out at the local level, because historically, this has not been a federal issue, what’s recognized as a marriage.”
Obama also said that a principal reason for his “change” on the issue was that his daughters had friends whose “parents” are homosexuals. Obama couldn’t, he said, explain to his daughters why those parents should be treated any differently than anyone else.
You know, Malia and Sasha, they’ve got friends whose parents are same-sex couples. And I — you know, there have been times where Michelle and I have been sittin’ around the dinner table. And we’ve been talkin’ and — about their friends and their parents. And Malia and Sasha would — it wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently. It doesn’t make sense to them. And — and frankly — that’s the kind of thing that prompts — a change of perspective. You know, not wanting to somehow explain to your child why somebody should be treated — differently, when it comes to — the eyes of the law.
Some observers say Obama’s declaration is hardly news because he has always supported sodomite marriage. Wrote David Plotz at Slate.com, “In 1996, as a state senate candidate, Obama wrote and signed a survey declaring: ‘I favor legalizing same sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.’ ”
Plotz continued:
When he ran for president, Obama denied support for gay marriage while endorsing civil unions, and circulated an obviously bushwah story disavowing the 1996 survey, claiming someone else had filled it out. (No matter that Obama signed it.) Liberal Democrats accepted his cover story — and his obvious hypocrisy — because they knew that supporting gay marriage would have been politically fatal to his 2008 prospects.
Photo: Forsyth County sheriff’s deputies arrest Mary Lea Bradford of Winston-Salem after she refused to leave at the Forsyth County Register of Deeds office in Winston-Salem, N.C., May 10, 2012: AP Images
