Opposition to North Carolina's Amendment 1

The highly controversial Amendment 1 has the masses riled u

Yesterday, North Carolina approved its ban on gay and same sex marriage and already concerns of repealing the amendment have already taken form.

Amendment 1, officially known as North Carolina Senate Bill 514 (2011) legally amends civil unions in North Carolina as “between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized.” Initially North Carolina state consititutes marriage as “being between a man and a woman” and was the only Southern state without a constitutional law against same-sex unions.

“1 Million Against Amendment 1” is a petition created by none other than North Carolinian Jenn Halweil to repeal the newly constitutional law. Reasons stated for the repeal, according to Halweil:

“1) Because civil unions between one man and one woman will benefit NC
2) Because ballots in NC had Amendment 1 omitted from the ballot (a clear violation of our electoral system)
3) Because it stands in contradiction to the 14th amendment of the constitution ‘All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.’”

So far the repeal has reached 30,000 signatories.

The opposition to Amendment 1 doesn’t stop at the petition. People have taken to Twitter and blown the issue up as a trending topic. SuMacDan tweeted, “North Carolina has 99 problems and Amendment 1 is the biggest one.” Even celebrities have taken to their Twitter and tweeted about Amendment 1 like Ellen DeGeneres, “Getting married was one of the greatest things I have ever done. I hope everyone in North Carolina gets the same opportunity”—reaching over 11,000 in re-tweets.