Here's some jaw-dropping cowardice at work in the North Carolina Senate. At the 11th hour -- of course in the dead media zone of Friday afternoon -- Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (@SenatorBerger, Phil.Berger@ncleg.net, 919-733-5708) and staff are not only are trying to hide the fact that they will bring a marriage amendment bill up for debate on Monday, but they are trying to do it in a stealth fashion that is completely disgusting. Berger and his fellow elected Bigots to Kill NC Business don't want the public to know about or participate in the debate. Laura Leslie @ WRAL:
According to the public notices released today, the Senate Judiciary 1 committee will be meeting Monday on H61, “Speaker/Pro Tem Term Limits” - a proposal to limit the numbers of years House and Senate members can serve as leaders of their chambers.
But a new version of the bill leaked to WRAL Friday night shows the bill the committee will take up Monday has absolutely nothing to do with term limits. The new H61 is an amended version of the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
You can try to look it up at the legislature’s website, but you won’t find it there.
Good news - and I hope the elected proponents of bigotry are taking note as the short session nears in North Carolina's General Assembly. Via Equality NC:
Fifty-six percent (56%) of North Carolina voters oppose or strongly oppose an amendment to the state constitution that would ban same-sex marriage, a five-point jump in the last two years, according to a February 2011 Elon University Poll, a non-partisan polling service.
The poll also showed a strong majority (57%) of North Carolinians support marriage or civil unions for same-sex couples, revealing a dramatic 9% increase in public support for marriage equality in only two years. This result mirrors two separate polls conducted by Public Policy Polling in March and July that also reveal majority support of legal recognitions for same-sex couples.
What a day! A nice rally on Halifax Mall in downtown Raleigh against the bills that would enshrine bigotry into the NC Constitution in front of the North Carolina General Assembly turned into kick-ass direct action. First, I'll give you the straight-up press release from GetEqual, and then give you my account - with plenty of video and photos.
Sometimes challenging convention in support of equality does pay off. The Greensboro News & Record, is now going to allow same-sex couples to fully participate in its wedding contest, dropping its requirement for a NC marriage license. John Robinson, the editor of the paper, contacted me just a few moments ago with the news.
This is one of those local stories that has to get out there because it shows the cultural shift of inclusion of LGBTs into daily life is hit and miss not just from state to state, but from city to city.
Take these various local couples and wedding contests or notices in the paper of couples marrying. Including LGBTs is a breakthrough because these are your neighbors, fellow readers of the regional newspaper. Visibility matters and the editors of those newspapers have to make some tough decisions in a difficult economic climate about whether to "rock the boat" for the sake of fairness.
I got wind of a change over at the Elaine Marshall campaign the other day, and it definitely raised my eyebrows. The fully pro-equality U.S. Senate candidate running to unseat Richard Burr has elected to go with a seasoned campaign manager for the general, Tim Phillips. Take a look at his one of his past clients.
The News & Observer's Under the Dome reports that Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham (left) has reshuffled his campaign staff as the runoff against Elaine Marshall (right) looms on June 22.
Gone is Rick Fromberg, the campaign manager, who left shortly after the primary...Also gone is Angela Guyadeen, Cunningham's communications director..."We retooled a little," said campaign spokesman Jared Leopold. "We are looking at a little different kind of campaign for the runoff, lower turnout, less of an air war, more grassroots. We've done some restructuring."
Naturally, because of the time lost earlier due to the lack of response from the campaign the liveblog will occur after my endorsement tomorrow. It will be on Sunday, April 25 at 7PM. The reason for this extraordinary measure is that if Cal were to prevail in the primary, it's essential that he be on the record and openly engage Blend readers about his positions on LGBT issues, and willing to explain the difficulties that made his campaign stumble in addressing the matter earlier. That's what LGBT North Carolinians -- and those around the country -- need to know.
I do believe that good politicians can learn from mistakes -- it was clearly a tough message for his campaign to swallow that many in our community are no longer willing to be engaged in the closet.
I’m Billy Kennedy, and I’m running for Congress against North Carolina’s greatest embarrassment … Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-5th).
The News & Observer's 
Despite the well, 
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