How DID We Get Here?

1. January 28, 2012 DURHAM, NC (AP) -- The national leader of the NAACP says the eyes of the whole country are on North Carolina politics this year Source: http://www.wwaytv3.com/2012/01/28/naacp-leader-says-countrys-eyes-are-nc, retrieved February 24, 2012

2. How DID We Get Here? • NC last “southern” state not to ratify a state constitutional amendment against gay marriage. • The constitutional amendment also bars recognition of civil unions or common law marriages. • State issues marriage licenses to same-sex couples and recognizes marriages legally entered into in another jurisdiction (6 states and DC): • Connecticut †ü (2008)District of Columbia ü (2010)Iowa ü (2009)Massachusetts ü (2004)New Hampshire ü (2010)New York ü(effective July 24, 2011)Vermont ††ü (Sep. 1, 2009)and formerly California ‡ (Jun-Nov 2008) • Maryland (2012) • Rhode Island (recognizes but does not issue)

3. Statewide law provides the equivalent of state-level spousal rights to same-sex couples (9 states and DC): • California ‡ü (domestic partnerships, 2007)Delaware **ü (civil unions, effective Jan. 1, 2012)District of Columbia † (domestic partnerships, 2002)Hawaii **ü(civil unions, effective Jan. 1, 2012)Illinois **ü(civil unions, 2011)New Jersey **ü (civil unions, 2007)Nevada *ü (domestic partnerships, 2009)Oregon *ü (domestic partnerships, 2008)Washington**ü (domestic partnerships, 2009)

4. Statewide law provides some state-level spousal rights to same-sex couples (4 states): • Colorado * # (designated beneficiary, Jul. 1, 2009)Maine ** # (domestic partnerships, 2004)Wisconsin *# (domestic partnerships, 2009) Source: http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/same-sex-relationship-recognition-laws-state-by-state

5. Brief History of marriage Law in NC • http://www.ncleg.net/enactedlegislation/statutes/html/bychapter/chapter_51.html • Legal Age : • 18 without parental consent • 16 and 17 with permission of a parent • 14 and 15 under conditions (if you have a baby together and judge approves) • Any religious officiant or magistrate can perform the ceremony simply by declaring the couple married (no regulation) • No blood test • Marriage license required • No common law marriage recognized • No residency requirement • Legal to marry your first cousin (not double cousins)

6. Take A QUIZ • http://www.buddybuddy.com/quiz-1.html

7. In North Carolina in 1869, Wesley Hairston, a black man, and Puss Williams, a white woman, went on trial in Forsythe County for “fornication and adultery.”1 They claimed they were married, but the judge instructed the jury that no such marriage could be valid in North Carolina.2 When the jury convicted both defendants, they appealed the judge’s instruction and the jury’s verdict.3 The North Carolina Supreme Court dashed their hopes when it declared: “The only question in this case is, whether the intermarriage of whites and blacks is lawful.”4 A unanimous appeals court rejected the “pretended marriage” and upheld the convictions.5 • 1871, First state law regulating marriage (made interracial marriage illegal). • In 1967, in Loving v. Virginia, anti-miscegenation laws were held to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States. • NC does not remove interracial marriage laws from the state statutes until 1977. http://www.uakron.edu/law/lawreview/v32/docs/wallenstein323.pdf

8. Historical Arguments against interracial Marriage • 1) First, judges claimed that marriage belonged under the control of the states rather than the federal government. • 2) Second, they began to define and label all interracial relationships (even longstanding, deeply committed ones) as illicit sex rather than marriage. • 3) Third, they insisted that interracial marriage was contrary to God's will, and • 4) Fourth, they declared, over and over again, that interracial marriage was somehow "unnatural." On this fourth point--the supposed "unnaturality" of interracial marriage--judges formed a virtual chorus. Here, for example, is the declaration that the Supreme Court of Virginia used to invalidate a marriage between a black man and a white woman in 1878: The purity of public morals," the court declared, "the moral and physical development of both races….require that they should be kept distinct and separate… that connections and alliances so unnatural that God and nature seem to forbid them, should be prohibited by positive law, and be subject to no evasion. http://hnn.us/articles/4708.html

9. The trial judge, Leon M. Bazile, in the Loving case before it reached the Supreme Court argued: “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.” • 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, called the “Equal Protection Clause” is the case law used to overturn laws against interracial marriage.

10. Journal Assignment What are the similarities and differences between the arguments for and against gay marriage when compared to interracial marriage?