Davenport's Arguments

Charles Davenport, Jr., fatuous editor of the ridiculous Greensboro Guardian, has a new post up defending North Carolina’s referendum to amend the constitution to make gay marriage illegal. If passed, Article 14 would say:

Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State. This section does not prohibit a private party from entering into contracts with another private party; nor does this section prohibit courts from adjudicating the rights of private parties pursuant to such contracts.

From an editorial in the Charlotte Observer:

By barring the state from recognizing as legal any domestic union other than heterosexual marriage, the amendment’s “impact [goes] far beyond current N.C. law,” the professors say. It puts at risk protections enjoyed by heterosexual couples – young couples who delay marriage, middle-aged couples who’ve decided not to marry and elderly couples who’ve been married before and see no need to remarry late in life. These groups are 88 percent of unmarried cohabitant N.C. households, according to the 2010 Census.

Among the possible impacts of this bill on them? It could:

Invalidate domestic violence protections for all unmarried partners

Undercut existing child custody and visitation law

Undermine protections for disposition of a deceased partner’s remains, hospital visitations and emergency medical decision-making

Invalidate trusts and wills

Of course, Davenport conveniently fails to address these possible consequences, as do those who are in favor of its passage. Davenport, in his contention that the citizens of North Carolina are backward in not passage such legislation when other southern states have already done so, is mistaken. It is not us who are backward, but them. We are not lemmings, but thoughtful neighbors who cherish our gay friends and family members. Unlike the cretins in other places who seek to demonize those unlike themselves, we honor the unique differences among our kind and seek to protect their rights whenever possible.