(1) Here in Buncombe County, the WE DO Campaign took us one step closer to equality, as Register of Deeds Drew Reisinger began accepting marriage license applications from LGBT couples. Watch what happened at Tuesday’s WE DO action in this great video from the Asheville Citizen-Times.
(2) Mecklenburg County Commissioners voted to include gender identity in their employment discrimination policy, thanks to the hard work of local organizers and elected officials.
(3) Oregon has just announced that it will recognize the marriages of LGBT couples wed in other states.
(4) New Jersey is poised to legalize marriage equality starting on Monday.
What happened in Asheville this week demonstrates that the WE DO Campaign is working. We’re changing the public conversation about equality in the South and, through strong national media coverage, our country’s understanding about LGBT life here. In the past two months as we’ve led WE DO actions across NC, numerous state and local elected officials in Greensboro, Charlotte and Asheville have stood with us to call for LGBT equality. This is what happens when you show up again and again at marriage license counters across the South to say, we are equal and laws that deny that are simply wrong. As a supporter of CSE, you are making this happen and we are so grateful to be on this journey with you.
(Waiting for the Buncombe County Register of Deeds Office to open on Tuesday morning.Photo credit: Laurie Johnson.)
The marriage license applications that have been accepted in Buncombe County now sit with the Attorney General’s Office, along with a formal request for an opinion on legal questions such as “what legitimate interest does the state of NC have in denying a marriage license to a same-sex couple?”
This moment highlights exactly why we do this work. We empathize with the difficult position that Attorney General Roy Cooper is in, as a long-time supporter of LGBT equality and now also a supporter of marriage equality whose job asks him to defend Amendment One. That’s what discriminatory laws do and why they are immoral – they seek to dehumanize those they target and they put those asked to enforce them in morally difficult positions.
Let’s be clear that the problem we face is a discriminatory system of laws and the degradation created by these laws. The problem is not – and never will be – people pushing to change unjust laws. Ultimately the courts will strike down Amendment One and laws like it. But courts move slowly and as we wait, we can also act. Through the WE DO Campaign, we’ll keep asking people – citizens and elected officials – to stand up to these laws in acts of conscience.
So now we keep going with the WE DO Campaign, including a new strategy that we’re launching on Tuesday, October 22, as legally-married LGBT couples register their marriage licenses as public documents in their home counties across NC. This is one more way to stand up to Amendment One. This action creates a public record that legally-married LGBT couples live all across our state. It also highlights how unjust and illogical it is that NC refuses to recognize these valid, legal marriage licenses, or to recognize the human reality of loving committed relationships, even as our federal government does.
Thanks for all you are doing to support our work,
Jasmine
Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, Executive Director
P.S. Can you support our work by making a gift today? Every dollar you give will be matched by generous donors, up to $5,000.
