Bigoted op-ed says NC marriage amendment 'is not about denying rights to citizens'

You know, it's hard to believe that the same old bigoted, discredited nuggets justifying why marriage needs "protection" are on display in the disgusting op-ed in the Charlotte Observer by the sadly ignorant Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of NC Values Coalition.
The main points:
1. Let the people decide the civil rights of LGBT North Carolinians.
The marriage amendment is about letting the people of North Carolina vote on what they want the definition of marriage to be, rather than an activist judge deciding it for them. Putting the marriage amendment on the ballot for the people to decide is the right thing to do. It fulfills the democratic process by letting everyone vote.
Old saw #1. We are not a direct-vote democracy - we have a representative democracy, electing people to a legislature and to the bench to work out these issues. California's proposition system is a perfect example of the chaos caused when "the people" decide. The people would have kept slavery and Jim Crow in place; is that the kind of decision-making she's down with? Besides, popular opinion is rapidly changing in the opposite direction of Ms. Fitzgerald. Get with the program, honey.
2. Activist judges will force same-sex marriage upon NC, so a constitutional amendment is needed, not just a state DOMA.
Activist judges in Massachusetts, Connecticut, California, Iowa, and Hawaii struck down their state's marriage laws, ruling them unconstitutional because they defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The people of North Carolina want to determine for themselves how they want to define marriage. They don't want activist judges doing it for them.
We can't marry in NC now; an amendment doesn't change that, and eventually SCOTUS is going to strike DOMA and any amendment down.
3. A marriage amendment will not be bad for business.
The amendment will not prevent businesses that offer benefits to same-sex couples from continuing to offer those benefits - including health insurance - because it has no legal impact on private businesses in any way. Neither will the amendment prevent companies in North Carolina from attracting the brightest and best workers. North Carolina is consistently ranked as one of the top places in America to work, to do business, and to live.
An amendment could indeed have impact on attracting businesses, and aside from private businesses, Tami Fitzgerald is approving institutionalized discrimination against gay and lesbian state workers - she's fine with creating official second class status for tax-paying citizens who work for the state and will not have access to any of the benefits she describes above?
4. Marriage equality will lead to incest, and pedophilia and an amendment doesn't discriminate against gays and lesbians.
The truth is that the marriage amendment is not about denying rights to citizens. There is no right to marry someone of the same sex, just as there is no right to marry your sister, to marry someone who is under 14 years old, or to marry more than one person. Those who oppose incorporating our current state law's definition of marriage into the constitution want to radically redefine marriage, radically redefine families, and radically redefine the natural process of producing and raising children within the safe, nurturing, and successful incubator of marriage.
Oh come on, this is preposterous, and any argument that discusses procreation, the family and the institution of marriage was shot to pieces by Ted Olsen and David Boies in the Prop 8 trial. All of Fitzgerald's like-minded cronies participating on the anti-equality side could not bring anything to the table, and they had plenty of time to bring in any "expert" to testify on behalf of the legitimacy of "protecting marriage." It was an utter failure.
The fact is that no matter the outcome in North Carolina, the Tami Fitzgeralds are on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of economic common sense in a bad economy, and display a level of ignorance and fear of change that is not what North Carolina needs at this time.

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