RALEIGH -- State House Majority Leader Paul Stam, quoted in The N&O's Aug. 31 Under the Dome column, explained why he thinks the General Assembly should pass legislation for a constitutional amendment that would ban same-gender marriage in North Carolina, even though state law does this already. His explanations are uninformed and irresponsible.
Responding to a question, Stam said he believes banning same-gender marriage is different from the North Carolina law that once banned interracial marriage. "Miscegenation laws never had a basis in morality," he said. "People can't change their race. They can't choose their race."
Claiming that laws that banned interracial marriage had no basis in morality is historically not true. Born in Eastern North Carolina in 1944, I was taught from childhood that there was a moral inequality between the white and black races, and that marriage between the two was immoral and against God's will. I learned this from my parents, ministers, school teachers and community leaders, all "good" citizens of Goldsboro.
It was this appeal to morality that perpetuated the lie of white supremacy and justified the injustice of segregation. No white person would have ever admitted, "We segregate the races because we are prejudiced against black people." No, segregation, including anti-miscegenation laws, was always explained as a moral and godly solution to a social problem.
Disguising structures of injustice as Christian morality has always been the preferred way to protect prejudice, especially in the South. It makes "good" people feel comfortable with the injustice and the harm it causes.
Of course, segregation wasn't moral; it was bigotry, pure and simple, no matter how well dressed in religious and moral pretense. Only a small fringe of society discounts this today. And no responsible elected North Carolina official in 2011 should try to rewrite history by omitting from it the corrupt theological and moral claims used to espouse and support white supremacy and racism in American society. Stam should know better.
When he says people can't change or choose their race, Stam is implying that a person's sexual orientation can be changed and is a choice. While I know some people continue to believe this falsehood, it's really hard to understand how a supposedly educated and informed General Assembly can introduce, much less pass, legislation based on it. The human sciences have long recognized sexual orientation - whether homosexual, bisexual or heterosexual - to be an inherent, normal, natural and healthy aspect of the human personality.
This legislation reflects an age-old prejudice that should be renounced by responsible leaders in North Carolina. There are significant differences between the histories of oppression experienced by people of color and by same-gender loving people, but sexual orientation is no more a choice and no less immutable than race is. The prejudice toward and persecution of same-gender loving people are just as immoral and unjust as the white supremacy and racism experienced by people of color.
The General Assembly should recognize it as such and reject this constitutional amendment for what it is: a malicious act of bigotry against lesbian and gay North Carolinians and their families.
The state constitution has been used in the past to legalize and institutionalize bigotry. The 1776 constitution established religious qualifications for voting and holding office, denying these rights to anyone other than Protestant Christians. In 1875, the new post-Civil War constitution was amended to divide the public school system so that "the children of the white race and the children of the colored race shall be taught in separate public schools." After the white supremacy campaign in 1898, the constitution was amended to require a literacy test for voter registration. This was designed to prevent and restrict the registration of black voters, most of whom were illiterate when the amendment was adopted. Illiterate white voters were "grandfathered," however.
Passage of the anti-gay "Defense of Marriage" amendment would be another use of our constitution to legalize and institutionalize bigotry and a continuation of this shameful history, a history we should repent and refuse to repeat.
Stam also justifies this amendment by claiming it "protects the children of the next generation." Certainly, this amendment will not protect the children of same-gender couples and will do them great harm by denying the legal and social protections all children deserve. In addition, the children of the next generation will have an entirely different perspective from Stam.
History is moving toward the full inclusion and social acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The next generation's children will be the glad and fortunate recipients of this movement. This is a cause for celebration because it's right and just. A majority of North Carolinians may not be there yet, but this constitutional amendment will do nothing to stop this movement toward equality and justice for lesbian and gay people. It will be only a shameful fossil of bigotry embedded in the state constitution for the next generation to remove.
Jimmy Creech is the chairperson of the Board of Directors of the N.C. Social Justice Project. He is the author of "Adam's Gift: A Memoir of a Pastor's Calling To Defy the Church's Persecution of Lesbians and Gays."
