Amendment One would amend the North Carolina state constitution to include the following language:
Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State. This section does not prohibit a private party from entering into contracts with another private party; nor does this section prohibit courts from adjudicating the rights of private parties pursuant to such contracts.
It would end the possibility of same-sex civil unions but also have dire consequences for unmarried heterosexual couples, families and single women as well.
More here.
The Protect ALL NC Families has released the first two of their television ads, which went on the air starting this morning at 6:00 AM. They are embedded below.
First impressions? I approve.
I love that they are aggressive and that they proactively seize the narrative to define what the amendment does. They are also following the Karl Rove playbook: Hit your opponent where they are strong. The anti-gay crowd's standard line is "think of the children."
Joshua Ulibarri of the campaign's polling firm Lake Research notes that in online surveys, and polling, the ads moved voters to a 50/50 split on the amendment. In addition, among targeted demographics—including African Americans—the move was even more dramatic.
The first ad, Melissa, does the same—it also asks voters to "think of the children."
Melissa
Background: Melissa, along with her partner Libby, have a five year old daughter. Melissa and her daughter are covered under the city of Durham’s domestic partnership benefits plan. If the amendment passes, they are afraid of what will happen if their daughter loses health care as experts believe that she will.
Script: "My fear, with Amendment one is that my daughter would lose her health insurance, and that she would lose it immediately, simply because we're unmarried, and that's really unfair and it is completely arbitrary.
If you look at a classroom full of kids and you said, 'which ones do you not want to cover?' someone would say, 'Why are you even doing that?' But this is, this amendment is doing that. Amendment one will take away my daughter's health insurance, and that's extremely unfair."
Durham currently extends domestic partner benefits to the family members of LGBT employees.
Post-Amendment One, the city of Durham, North Carolina will no longer be able to recognize same-sex partners and provide benefits to their unmarried family members. This would include children who may not be legally considered "family" of the city employee, but may depend on that breadwinner who they may very well call "mom" or "dad" every day.
Melissa's is such a family. Protect ALL NC Families has a one-sheet pdf here, explaining further the harms Amendment One visits on children.
Consequences
Background: This survivor tells her story in our second ad, “Consequences”. She and her attacker were never married. She is afraid that a court would decide that her situation is no longer classified as domestic violence and her protective order could be put in jeopardy.
Script: "He would wake me up in the middle of the night, to beat me. There would be punching, kicking, and this would be with his steel-toed work boots. He chocked me almost to the point of unconsciousness.
Amendment one, if this gets passed, could take away my protection order, which would take away my protection, just because we were not married to each other. That would not only put my life in danger, but it would put my daughter's life in danger.
It makes me feel like I'm being victimized all over again."
Whether domestic violence laws were able to "legally recognize" unmarried couples became a big issue in Ohio after they passed a similar gay marriage ban amendment. The
Cleveland Plain Dealer describes a case that ultimately went all the way to the state supreme court.
At issue is whether Ohio's 2-year-old Marriage Protection Act and its restricted definition of matrimony limits domestic violence charges to married couples.
[…]
That part forbids the state or local governments from doing anything that gives relationships between unmarried couples "the design, qualities, significance or effect of marriage."
Amendment One shares the same sloppy language as the Ohio Amendment. No one knows how courts will interpret the text of Amendment One that says the "only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State." We can be certain defense attorneys will argue it has invalidated domestic violence laws, and it will be up to courts to decide if they are right.
While Ohio went through the process of ironing all this out, 27 women watched while their attackers' convictions were dismissed or overturned. Nancy Neylon, executive director of the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, says, "I know there were instances of people who went back into violent relationships and were battered again and injured again because they had no legal protection."
Update: Well, this is a shocking message to communicate the point:
Protect ALL NC Families has a one-sheet pdf here explaining further.
Help fund the airing of these ads!
The campaign has thus far been a surprise success, earning great media and prompting people from all walks of life—Republican, Democrats, conservatives, liberals—to speak out.
The money bombs have been huge successes. They have raised an unprecedented $600,000 online. They have passed the 9,000 donors mark which means they are mostly all under $100—80 percent still from inside state. Which points to the problem.
Chad Griffin, founder of American Foundation for Equal Rights and incoming president of Human Rights Campaign, spoke to supporters Sunday night. He says, "What we need to do now is focus the country." Griffin feels the issue is less about national donors writing the campaign off, but that the attention has not yet totally focused on the state of North Carolina and the reality that this campaign can win.
These ads also follow pretty closely the messaging used in Arizona, when they successfully defeated a gay marriage ban amendment in 2006 (see Visualizing victory over North Carolina's anti-gay amendment). That campaign successfully made the case that the amendment was too broad and created too much collateral damage, just as this one does. Voters agreed and it went down.
They still need more cash to fully fund their media plan. And with just two weeks left, that means now. They need to be able to buy more ad space before the amendment's proponents do. They also have other ads they would like be able to air. And have cash on hand to create response ads to the proponent's ads, which we have not yet seen, as they also start airing today.
The campaign reports they are in striking distance of their last goal of $100,000. They send this plea:
On Monday we launched a matching gift campaign which guaranteed that every gift online would be doubled. We are less than $5,000 away from reaching that goal! Will you step up once more and give $25, $50, $100, $250 or more now? Every dime will go directly into expanding the ad buy of these powerful ads!
Early voting period started last Thursday. The polls close on May 8.
The campaign has also partnered with Courage Campaign to create a national, virtual phonebank to help get out the vote to oppose the amendment. More information here.