Thousands rally for marriage bill

RALEIGH -- A noontime rally Tuesday in support of a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a union between a man and woman drew thousands of people from across North Carolina.

With shouts of "let us vote!," the crowd aimed its collective ire at Democratic legislative leaders such as state Senate majority leader Marc Basnight, who has said he sees no need for a constitutional amendment because a 1996 North Carolina law already says same-sex marriages are invalid. Rally organizers say Basnight, a Democrat from Manteo, has kept the Senate version of the constitutional amendment bill bottled up in a committee that hasn't met since 2001.

But Republican legislators who support the bill say a judicial ruling could find North Carolina's marriage law unconstitutional, forcing the state to recognize same-sex unions. Only a constitutional amendment can protect the state, said state Sen. Phil Berger, a Republican from Eden and the Senate's GOP leader.

"We've seen what's happened in other states and a constitutional amendment will keep that from happening in North Carolina," said Berger, who was joined by more than a dozen other legislators who attended the rally.

A companion bill was introduced in the House yesterday signed by 62 co-sponsors -- 50 Republicans and 12 Democrats, said state Rep. Tim Moore, a Republican from Cleveland. And that places pressure on the new leader of that legislative chamber, House Speaker Joe Hackney, said Steve Noble, chairman of Called 2 Action, a Wake County-based grassroots evangelical group that held a similar marriage amendment rally in 2005. Hackney, a Democrat from Chapel Hill, succeeded former Speaker Jim Black, who recently resigned and pleaded guilty to a state bribery charge and other state and federal offenses.

"He's inherited a legacy of abuse of power," Noble said of Hackney. "Is he going to continue that or change direction."

Organized by a coalition of evangelical Christian groups concerned about traditional family values, the rally drew an estimated 12,000 people to Halifax Commons, a grassy mall near the legislative offices of the state capitol, organizers said.

North Carolina and Florida are the only two states in the South that don't have a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriages, organizers said. Organizers in Florida say they're only 25,000 signatures short in a petition drive aimed at placing a constitutional marriage amendment on a statewide ballot next year.