Don't Forget to Thank North Carolina

North Carolina's recently passed "Amendment One" may have upset about half the country but we should take a second to applaud the authors for enacting a law that attempts to punish everyone equally.  One of our main pushes on this blog has been to require legislation that takes away the rights of one group to be balanced by measures that equally take away the rights of everyone else. Tit for tat, if you will.  In banning gay marriage, the North Carolina senate also banned all other forms of civil union and domestic partnership, which affects all citizens (straight or gay) who wish to benefit from the legal protections of marriage without entering into the religious institution.  Granted, a more reasonable ballot measure would have been to outlaw all marriage, but this is certainly a noble first step.

There is little doubt that many groups will bring suit against this state's amendment on a variety of arguments.  It certainly reads to us that this restriction violates the 13th Amendment.  In the meantime, take a few minutes to congratulate North Carolinians on screwing over everyone, rather than just the targets of their narrow-minded bigotry.