As North Carolina voters head to the polls today its expected they will approve a bill that bans gay marriage and civil unions in the state.
The bill comes just two days after vice president Joe Biden voiced his own support for same-sex marriage and it arrives on the heals of a marketing campaign that urges voters through TV, Print and Online ads to vote in favor of the ban.
Before today more than 500,000 voters had cast their votes and a public policy poll found that supporters led opponents with a ratio of 55% to 39%. That number arrives after past polls that showed 53% of North Carolina voters support gay marriage or civil unions.
In the meantime many voters fail to realize that the bill bans both gay marriage and civil unions, essentially stripping the rights of same-sex couples as a whole. In fact North Carolina already has a bill on the books that bans gay marriage in the state, this new bill simply takes that ban one step further, removing the rights for other types of domestic unions.
Not everyone however is in support of the bill, in a 7-1 vote the Winston-Salem City Council voted last night to oppose the amendment.
While some church groups applauded the bill based on the typical “god hates gays” mantra, several local churches in New Salem banned together to oppose the bill. Janet Owen, co-chairwoman of InterFaith Voice tells the Winston-Salem Journal:
“We know what we are voting against. We believe in the dignity of our fellow human beings.”
