Opinion:   “Same-sex marriage hurts everyone. The people of North Carolina will lose the right to define marriage as the union of husband and wife.



Fact:  The people of North Carolina include gay people, straight people, and people of both orientations who oppose this amendment. These people have the same right to argue for marriage rights as the minority who, according to polls, support this 'defining' amendment.

But even if there were no polling showing majority opposition to this amendment, one's right to discriminate does not trump another's right not to be discriminated against. There is no inherent right to 'define' anything if the definition arbitrarily limits the rights of another.

Does an inability to codify this definition of marriage 'hurt' even supporters of this amendment? Is a citizen harmed or injured when another citizen’s rights are recognized? Did the 14th Amendment harm free white people by removal of their right to define the term "free person"? How can we be sure that the answer to each of these is “no”? Some feel that the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and 200 years of Supreme Court case history are still not convincing, and are suing in the courts for the right to discriminate.

The people of North Carolina have always retained the right to “define” marriage, and to “redefine” it according to changing needs. In our early history, polygamy was considered legal and interracial marriage illegal. Marriages performed by Presbyterian ministers were considered invalid. Interracial marriages were ‘redefined’ as legitimate in North Carolina in 1977 (some years after the Supreme Court required us to). It would be arbitrary to deny same-sex couples their say in this ongoing, changing definition.