North Carolina Marriage Amendment

On May 4 my partner and I took our two boys with us to vote early against North Carolina's Amendment 1. We were not prepared at all for the drama that we encountered as we approached the early voting location.

As of yesterday, May 4, my friend Dominique Beaudry and I are walking from the International Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro to the State Capitol, a four-day journey of over 85 miles, wearing sandwich boards that encourage North Carolinians to vote against Amendment 1.

No matter how hard I squint, I cannot figure out what's so threatening about this little life of ours. I believe in compassion and accepting people different from me, so I have spent a lot of mental energy puzzling over the motivations of people who would vote to invalidate our family.

North Carolina's voters head to the polls on May 8 to vote on Amendment One, a constitutional instrument that would bring the Tar Heel State in line with all its Southern neighbors in codifying discrimination against not only its LGBT citizens but all its residents.

The anti-Amendment-One campaign has reframed the perennial anti-gay "kids" message. According to prominent pollster Celinda Lake, if they can raise the money to air TV ads, Amendment One could be stopped, and this could change the LGBT movement forever.

Students in 2012 don't understand why Amendment One is even happening. And they are harshly aware they're the only people -- a first generation of Southern voters -- who can truly stop it.

It's no coincidence that Equality NC and NAACP-NC are now standing side by side in the Coalition to Protect All North Carolina Families, the state campaign to defeat Amendment One in May and turn the tide on LGBT discrimination in the South and beyond.

For those who believe finishing the equivalent of 13 marathons in five weeks should be a piece of cake compared with the challenge of defeating anti-gay legislation in the South, well, you might be surprised come May. After all, this is North Carolina.

From Jan. 27 to March 2, 2012, I will run 322 miles across the length of North Carolina, from the mountains of Asheville to the coastal city of Wilmington, to raise awareness about the many harms of the marriage amendment.

Gaston County state senator James Forrester had been trying for eight years to push a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage, civil unions and domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples.