North Carolina Vocalizes

North Carolina voters have spoken, and they should have their mouths washed out with soap for what they said.

The message that their gay neighbors are second-class came across loud and clear.  I heard it here in Seattle.  My partner, a native North Carolinian, doesn't know whether to be more upset by the passage of Amendment One or the news that members of the North Carolina men's hoop team enrolled in academically laughable classes.  You can take the girl out of Carolina . . .

North Carolina now joins the other southern states in adding a no-gay-marriage amendment to its constitution.  This brings a whole new meaning to the term Solid South.

North Carolinians think of their state as progressive, but that's compared to the rest of the South, said Andrew Taylor, a political scientist at N.C. State, to The News & Observer.  "This is a socially conservative state," he said.

And how.  After it became clear the amendment would pass, Tami Fitzgerald, the Vote for Marriage chairwoman, took to the stage and announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, through God's great mercy we have won an overwhelming victory tonight."

She said, "As you all know, marriage was not invented by government. Our creator established it as the union of a man and a woman in an exclusive lifelong covenant and it has merely been recognized by government as the key to a strong and flourishing society.”

Government by God.  Or the way some choose to interpret God.  Oh, goodie.