By Rev. Mark Creech, Executive Director
Christian Action League
Last week, Rep. David Lewis (R-Harnett), Rep. Rayne Brown (R-Davidson), Rep. Jim Crawford (D-Granville) and Rep. Dewey Hill (D-Brunswick) introduced HB 777—Defense of Marriage. Representative Crawford has sponsored the Amendment every year it has been introduced. Representatives Hill and Lewis have sponsored the bill for most of the years it has been introduced. Another 62 House members signed on as co-sponsors, so a majority of House members are backing the bill—66 out of 120. Constitutional Amendments must pass the House by 72 votes. If all 66 co-sponsors of the bill vote for it, only six more votes are needed to pass the Defense of Marriage bill. There are many members who did not co-sponsor the bill but who have indicated they will vote for the bill.
Every year for the past seven years, bills have been introduced in the General Assembly to protect marriage from being redefined by radical advocates of same-sex “marriage.” This year, the eighth year, the bills may actually have a chance of passing, since a new Republican majority controls both the House and the Senate.
Long-time bill sponsor, Senator Jim Forrester (R-Gaston), introduced the bill in the Senate in February as SB 106 – Defense of Marriage. Both the Senate bill and the House bill have been sent to the Rules Committee in their respective chambers. All that is needed is for the leadership to schedule the bills for a vote in Committee and then to move the bills to the House and Senate floors. Legislative leaders have indicated they are favorable to the Marriage Amendment, but they are busy right now trying to solve the State’s budget problems. Hopefully, Republican leaders will consider the bill of primary importance to voters and will move it through the chamber quickly before the end of this year’s legislative session.
A copy of the House bill is found here.
Click here to see if your Representative believes in traditional marriage and co-
sponsored the bill. Please send your Representative an email or call him/her to thank them for standing up for marriage. If you do not see your Representative’s name on the bill, please call him/her to encourage your Representative to vote for the measure when it is taken up for consideration.
Thirty one states have already protected marriage in their state Constitutions. North Carolina is the only southern state that has not. An Amendment to our state Constitution is necessary to keep courts from striking down our marriage statutes and mandating same-sex marriage. It will define marriage in our state Constitution as being the union between a man and a woman. As a Constitutional provision, it will determine the State’s public policy on marriage, placing it beyond the reach of a court or a chief executive.
Stay tuned for critical updates on the Marriage Amendment throughout the legislative session
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