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by EDWARD SZTUKOWSKI
News Reporter
The Boone Town Council voiced their opposition to Senate Bill 272 March 19, which would legally define marriage between a man and a woman in North Carolina. The resolution to oppose the bilal passed unanimously.
“Boone is a progressive open-minded community. Senate Bill 272 goes against all of that,” town council member Liz Aycock said. “We want to promote equality and decided it would be important to support the resolution [to oppose 272].”
Senate Bill 272,
also called the Defense of Marriage, would amend Article 14 of the N.C.
Constitution by adding, “Marriage between a man and a woman is the only
domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state.”
A large
amount of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community
members were in attendance to support the town’s resolution, and at the
passing, applause erupted through the room.
Although
the resolution was only the town voicing their opinions, town council
member Janet Pepin said she was disappointed their resolution could not
be the law.
Pepin said while Boone has voiced their dissent, Ashe County supports Senate Bill 272.
Town Mayor Loretta Clawson said there was no need for the amendment.
“We already have a definition, and I felt we didn’t need to define it any further,” Clawson said.
The town also voted to support House Bill 207, also known as the Safer Communities Act.
The
Safer Communities Act would expand the scope of North Carolina’s Ethnic
Intimidation Act. It would add age, gender, disability and sexual
orientation to the existing law, which protects against hate crimes.
“Having
the vote be unanimous to oppose such an act, as well as adding sexual
orientation and gender identity into hate crimes and the personnel act
of the town legislation, was very affirming,” Kathy Staley, an
archivist in the special collections section of Belk Library &
Information Commons said. “It shows the acceptance level of LGBT people
in this town.”
Staley, who was an attendee at the town council meeting, felt the town’s opinion was in line with American values.
“A lot
of people don’t realize that while it’s very democratic for people to
vote on how laws are going to be, when the laws are written for a
minority with long-time systemic marginalization, its unjust and
against American values,” she said.
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Compare and contrast: Slave rights and gay rights; the contrasts are easy, the comparisons are profound. Slave marriages were not legally honored either. They could not create and sign contracts and what is marriage mostly but a huge contract with thousands of rights and responsibilities.
Navanethem Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights spoke there last year saying, "That just like apartheid laws that criminalized sexual relations between different races, laws against homosexuality are increasingly becoming recognized as anachronistic and inconsistent both with traditional values of dignity, inclusion, and respect for all".
Apartheid: A system of laws applied to one category of citizens in order to isolate them and keep them from having privileges and opportunities given to all others.
Stop gay apartheid.