I know many people from the state of North Carolina, and I know them all to be kind, decent, caring, generous people. I’m not sure how many of them still live there, if any, but I’m sorry if they have to live among that kind of bigotry. Of course, it’s not like Texas is much better.

A representative of the principle supporter of the amendment had this to say:

Tami Fitzgerald, chairwoman of Votes for Marriage NC, the main group behind the amendment, said: “We are not anti-gay, we are pro-marriage. The whole point is you don’t rewrite the nature of God’s design for marriage based on the demands of a group of adults.”

Apparently, however, she does get to marginalize an entire group of people who have done her no wrong, based on the demands of her group of adults (emphasis added because I’m furious). Not only that, but this amendment may have much a much farther-reaching impact than people seem to realize. It could affect more than just those icky gay people (that’s how I imagine Tami Fitzgerald phrasing it, anyway). I have no words for the supporters of this amendment that don’t include “rectums” and “rusty pitchforks,” so I shall turn to the words of friends and people whom I admire.

My friend Kim had this to say:

Those who oppose marriage equality like to say that same sex marriages will ruin the sanctity of marriage, or that those who support it are trying to destroy traditional marriage.  When backed into a corner and pushed to explain this line of reasoning, the inevitable, “The Bible defines marriage as one man and woman” argument gets thrown out.  The will to please an unseen and unproven deity takes priority over the happiness and rights of living breathing human beings.  It is an appalling stance and completely inexcusable.

Kim also linked this video. If I had my druthers, every single person who thinks that the love of two consenting adults is any business of theirs at all should watch this. This is what you have made into law.

Stephanie Zvan, writing at Freethought Blogs, wrote with more eloquence and grace than I may be able to muster for some time, addressing the inevitability of change, and how supporters of North Carolina’s amendment are on the wrong side of history:

Marriage equality will arrive while many, very close to half the voting population in any given state, who oppose it still live. More in states where the rights are recognized by courts instead of elected officials. The people who vote now to delay the inevitable can say, “Over my dead body”, but that won’t be how it happens. They will see equality become the law.

Then they will see it become the norm. That won’t take long either. The problem with holding an apocalypse over the head of a congregation or an electorate is that any other consequences will look laughably small. They will be laughably small. Marriage between people of the same sex makes so little difference to people outside the marriage, and spreads so much joy, that the nightmares of its opponents will quickly be seen as the sad, pale shadows they are.

Once these ridiculous bans on the codification of loving relationships become settled history, they will be judged as history. That is a different process than how they are judged now. Now the bans have the inertia of what is behind them. They won’t then. They will only have the justifications their supporters used.

Today someone can say, “It isn’t bigotry. I just don’t think things should change.” They will believe it. People who hear them may believe it. Once things have changed, all that will be left is the bigotry.

Sometimes humor and mockery is the only sane response to something like this:

‘BREAKING: North Carolina passes amendment requiring Two Men and a Truck movers franchises to restructure as One Man One Woman and a Truck,’ Triangle blogger Jay Cuthrell said on Twitter.

‘Now I understand what the Wright Brothers were trying to fly away from,’ tweeted actor Michael Ian Black.

To the voters who went in favor of Amendment One: you are an embarrassment to this great nation.

Really, though, this goes beyond one state’s voters. Since it’s really not fair to single out Texas and North Carolina, here are the other states whose voters cannot seem to stop thinking about what same-sex couples are doing in their private time:

• Alabama (titled the “Sanctity of Marriage Amendment,” even)
• Alaska
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• California
• Colorado
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Michigan
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Montana
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Utah
• Virginia
• Wisconsin

What two adults in a loving, committed relationship do is none of your damned business. What is so hard to understand about that?