Huge: California Dems are all in to defeat Amendment One in NC

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http://pamshouseblend.firedoglake.com/2012/03/19/huge-california-dems-are-all-in-to-defeat-amendment-one-in-nc/

The enthusiasm and momentum is palpable. What pop culture phrase fits the mood, Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing”? Perhaps the poster in Fox Mulder’s office — ”I want to believe”? Many in the progressive and, sadly, the LGBT community wrote North Carolina off — the last state falling to a marriage discrimination amendment was just a given.

As a native of the state and someone who lived in NY for many years and chose to come back to my home state for the quality of life here — and to work for change, I am well aware of the political changes over the years here. Time has given us a growing progressive population that delivered the state for Barack Obama in 2008, and held back a marriage amendment seven years in a row before the 2010 election debacle that put the GOP in charge of the legislature for the first time since Reconstruction. That’s what finally put an amendment on the ballot — a crappy economy, and the empty promises of Teabaggers and good old boys whose idea of small government was to put civil rights up for a vote as almost the first order of business.

But as the polls started showing that the major obstacle was not that voters were simply bigots, but that when informed about the overreach of this amendment — which would prevent civil unions as well as do away with existing domestic partnerships granted by municipalities and counties here — they said they would vote against it. And so this battle has become about education, getting commercials on the air — and Get Out the Vote.

The California Democratic party believes we can win this, and is all-in to make this victory happen in 2012. Karen Ocamb at LGBTPOV quotes the statement of California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton:

'California Democrats proudly support President Obama for taking a stand against a divisive ballot amendment that seeks to codify discrimination against same-sex couples into North Carolina’s constitution.

As Democrats across the nation make plans to gather in Charlotte, North Carolina for the 2012 Democratic National Convention, it’s imperative that we send a clear and united message against all such efforts that seek to divide Americans and enshrine discrimination. California Democrats stand ready to help and we will soon be in touch with ways that Democrats here can start getting the word out to voters in North Carolina about the need to defeat Amendment One.'

[RKP5637]

1. K&R !!! n/t