NC can't bar same-sex couples from domestic violence protection, state's top court says

[TexasTowelie]

RALEIGH -- The state’s highest court ruled Friday that victims of domestic violence in same-sex relationships can obtain emergency restraining orders, nullifying a law that made North Carolina the only state in the nation that lacked such protections.

As written, the state law allows same-sex couples to seek domestic violence protection orders only if they’re married or divorced. The N.C. Supreme Court’s decision, though, upholds a 2020 appeals court ruling where judges declared that the measure violates the state constitution’s guarantee to equal protection under the law.

The high court’s ruling ends, once and for all, North Carolina’s status as the only state in the country that prevented victims of domestic violence in unmarried same-sex relationships from obtaining protective orders.

The case reached the N.C. Supreme Court years after a breakup and domestic dispute between two women listed in court filings only by their initials. The plaintiff, known only as “M.E.”, appealed after a Wake County district court ruled she was ineligible for a domestic violence protection order because the couple had never been married and were in a same-sex relationship.

Read more at: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article259308169.html

[TreasonousBastard]

1. I can't help asking what a sexual relationship has to do with getting beat up or threatened.

[OldBaldy1701E]

2. My home state is a collection of Puritans.

The 'S' word is the most dangerous word in the English language as far as these prudes are concerned. They will allow the state to fall into utter ruin before they will allow one gay person to be seen as 'acceptable'. The way this law was written is proof that they refuse to acknowledge any relationship other than a 'hetero' one that produces more fodder for the oligarchs.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. I was reading about gays in the Roman Empire-- that's how long we've accepted them...

OK, the Romans were warlike, had slaves and death matches in the Colliseum, and didn't treat women and whole classes of people very well, but they did have a few good points.

Homosexuality is observed across many species, including our own, and having lived in NYC most of my life, I couldn't imagine a world without "sexual perverts" of many sorts.

They were, and are, just people.

[littlemissmartypants]

4. Really? I'm interested in who exactly belongs to this "collection."

What's this about oligarch fodder? Don't you think these assertions are a bit contradictory? How are "prudes" and oligarchs related?

If the state ever actually does "fall into utter ruin" it is more likely going to be because the democrats and our allies, have given up. We can't blame the ills of NC on othering and just call it a day while failing to take some responsibility for it ourselves.

Also, I don't know if you are aware but more Democrats cast votes than Republicans in the last general but gerrymandering prevented those votes from reflecting that power.

[OldBaldy1701E]

5. Those who want LGBTQ people treated as 'second class sub humans'.

The oligarchs are the ones who need 'fodder' for their continued income. Same-sex couples do not produce that fodder. What I said was that these people would rather the state fall into ruin than treat those that they don't agree with as human beings. Yes, the situation in North Carolina is solely the fault of the people of North Carolina. All of them. Yes, I am aware of both the fact that more Democrats voted and I am also aware that it doesn't matter with the current political situation there. Until there is a resolution to the complete bias in the seating of the Assembly, the Democrats can vote all they want for all the good that it will do them. North Carolina was always a decently blue state until the Reagan years, and I am still surprised that a state with as many universities as NC has can still manage to generate so many simpletons. But, here we are.