So by now, just
about everyone has heard the news … Girl Scout cookies are going to be sold in
candy bar form! Oh, wait, not that news, this news: North Carolina voted for
Amendment One, which defines marriage as between one man and one woman and
places a constitutional ban on gay marriage and civil unions.
Fortunately,
though, North Carolinians can still get divorced, marry their first cousins and
marry off pregnant children. Not even kidding. Their law states: “Minors between the ages
of 14-16 may lawfully marry if the prospective wife is pregnant, or has given
birth, and intends to marry the father of her child.”
Because marrying
off a terrified, pregnant 14 year old totally upholds the sanctity of marriage.
Going to North
Carolina is just like going to a really bad Waffle House, except instead of
your hash browns, you can get your civil rights scattered, smothered, and
chunked in the trash.
It scares me to
my core that in this day and age, we’re still allowing the majority to vote
away the civil rights of the minority. Isn’t this why we have a Bill of Rights?
The 14th Amendment:
No State shall make or enforce any
law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United
States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the
equal protection of the laws.*
*Unless they like the butt sex.
The last time
North Carolina amended their Constitution was in 1875, when they made
interracial marriage “between a white person and a negro… hereby forever
prohibited.” How’s that workin’ out for you guys?
Winston Chuchill
once said “You can
always count on Americans to do the right thing—after they’ve tried everything
else.” Let’s hope this is the last vestige of “everything else” and that this
country will soon wake up to the fact that codified bigotry is just not okay.
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