North Carolina Amendment 1

I must lead a very sheltered life. I try to stay away from television as much as possible, (but, Jeopardy and NCIS are still part of my things to do list :o). Today, as I started checking out the news on my computer, the story about North Carolina's Amendment One was bouncing around the cyber world. I checked out my usual blogs and found quite a few active discussions happening. Most of these were not favorable to the amendment. I was going to leave that discussion for others, but the more I thought about it the more I simply couldn't stay out. I went to the North Carolina statehouse website to find out what the amendment actually contained. News items and blogs are usually not the most impartial sources of news. Here is the content:

"Sec. 6. Marriage.
Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State. This section does not prohibit a private party from entering into contracts with another private party; nor does this section prohibit courts from adjudicating the rights of private parties pursuant to such contracts."

 Pretty simple. Nothing in the language that screams discrimination. Nothing here that states the same sex relationships are bad or evil. It simply denies that any 'marriage' or other domestic union that does not consist of only one man and one woman will be recognized as a legal union in the state of North Carolina. But, what the amendment does not say explicitly, it screams from between the lines. The voters of this state, complicit with the elected representatives of this state have effectively written discrimination into their constitution. They have made it legal for businesses to deny all rights to the partners of their employees. These would include medical insurance, death benefits, end-of-life decisions, etc. It also is indicative of a prevailing mentality that creates subgroup of people who are deemed of less value than other people. Only those relationships that contain one man and one woman are worth anything. All others are simply denied existence.
It does not matter which side of the same sex marriage question someone supports. But, in this country everyone is entitled to equal protection and equal rights under the law. North Carolina has just said "No!" to that.