Anti-LGBT Amendment Introduced in NC House

Yesterday, Represenatives Moore, Hill, Crawford and Barnhart, along with 58 of their colleagues introduced a bill to amend the North Carolina Constitution to deny equal marriage rights, as well as recognition of civil union, domestic partnership, or any similar relationship for same-sex couples. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate last week.

"Although we are saddened that 62 of our elected Represenatitves chose to sponsor this discriminatory bill, we are pleased this is fewer than the 67 who signed onto the 2004 version of the bill," said Ian Palmquist, Executive Director-Programs "Clearly, we have a long way to go in our work to get legislators and our fellow North Carolinians to understand us and our families, but we are making progress."

The sponsor list includes 53 Republicans and 9 Democrats.

In order to pass, the bill would need to be approved by 3/5ths of both the House and Senate, and be approved by a majority of voters on a statewide ballot. The House Committees have not yet been assigned, and no date has been set to hear the bill.

Equality NC is working hard to stop this bill in both the House and the Senate. Already, hundreds of North Carolinians have contacted their legislators in opposition to these bills through Equality NC's online action center. Stay tuned for future action alerts so you can continue to help us defeat this legislation that would be so harmful to our community.

A complete list of sponsors is below.

Primary Sponsors:

Moore
Hill
Crawford
Barnhart

Co-Sponsors:

Allred
Almond
Blackwood
Blust
Brown
Brubaker
Capps
Clary
Cleveland
Cole
Culp
Current
Daughtridge
Daughtry
Dockham
Dollar
Eddins
England
Folwell
Frye
Gibson
Gillespie
Gulley
Hilton
Hollo
Holloway
Holmes
Howard
Johnson
Justice
Justus
Kiser
Langdon
LaRoque
Lewis
McAllister
McGee
McMahan
Nye
Pate
Preston
Ray
Rayfield
Rhodes
Sauls
Setzer
Stam
Starnes
Steen
Stiller
Vinson
Walend
Walker
West
Wiley
Williams
Wilson
Wray