North Carolina would add a prohibition on gay marriage to the state constitution under legislation filed this week and met with great fanfare Tuesday by religious and social conservative activists.
However, the fate of the bill filed by Sen. Jim Forrester, a Stanley Republican, and a similar one due to be filed by House backers Thursday is far from certain. Democrats control both the House and Senate and the top leaders in those chambers expressed reluctance to allow either measure to proceed.
“This bill has great meaning to the faith community,” Republican Sen. Jim Jacumin said in a news conference that was well attended by Catholic and Protestant ministers. “This amendment will ensure that marriage will be that which God designed.”
Other backers said there are secular reasons to worry about “nontraditional” marriage, primarily marriages between two women or two men.
It would be possible, they point out, for a same-sex couple to marry in Massachusetts and then come back to North Carolina and sue to be recognized.
“It only takes one liberal judge to overturn our statutes and usher in same-sex marriage without a vote of the legislature and without a vote of the people of our state,” Forrester said.
http://www.news-record.com/content/2009/02/25/article/bill_filed_to_ban_gay_marriage_in_nc
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