• i read an ask on someone’s blog a long time ago where someone basically said, “not all Christians are ___! some of us are ____!” when the blogger posted about religion.
• the blogger responded by saying something along the lines of: “yeah, i recognize that not all Christians are this that and the other, but they are a majority and when the majority uses their status to affect ____, i have a problem with it.”
• she said, “instead of saying, ‘no! not all of us are like that!’, you should instead stand up and defend the people your religion is oppressing and be an ally.”
• using that line of thinking, when faced with comments like “fuck North Carolina” and “NC is full of hateful bigots”, instead of saying, “no! we’re not all like that!” and “but the vote was 60/40!” and “many of the counties that opposed Amendment One have large populations and college students so obviously a lot of us oppose it!” and blah blah blah….
• shouldn’t we just fight back harder and prove everybody wrong instead of insisting that not all of us are assholes?
• i feel that those of us who voted against Amendment One are allowed a grace period to be ashamed of and angry with our state, but by saying “i’m leaving NC” and “fuck this state” we’re not going to make anything any better.
• don’t get me wrong - i hate reading something like, “is North Carolina now the most bigoted state in the south?”
• we need to take our shame and anger and channel it into being productive. we need to let the country know what we stand for by continuing to fight for equality.

this was just a little bit of free-writing, so hopefully some of it makes sense. feel free to respond or help me clarify.

dionthesocialist:

After all the campaigning, all the analysis, all the Facebook groups, and tweets, and tumbles, Amendment One passed. This isn’t about banning gay marriage in North Carolina, because gay marriage, as it has been said many times before, is already banned here. To be honest, I’m not quite sure what this amendment was about. It’s language is dramatically stark: the only domestic union that will be recognized in the state of North Carolina is marriage between one man and one woman. That means children of unmarried parents who rely on one parent for health insurance will no longer be covered. It means unmarried victims of domestic assault will no longer be able to press domestic assault charges on their partner, since that would involve the government recognizing their union.

The overall feeling right now is not anger. It is not sadness. It’s shame. Liberal voters in this state have worked hard to make us an anomaly in the south. We’re a key battleground state because we’re the only state below the Mason Dixon line (besides Florida) that isn’t a foregone conclusion for the GOP. We’re hosting the DNC. Charlotte and Raleigh are the two fastest growing cities in the country. Yet, for all our progress, in one day it seems as if we’re just tossed back into a pile with all the other ass backwards states in the South.

We are ashamed of this. We are ashamed of what it does to our reputation as a state. We are ashamed of what it does to children, women, and of course, the message it sends about how we treat the LGBTQ community in North Carolina. 

Sad day, man. We’re all a bit bummed.

i couldn’t have said it better myself. we fought the good fight for equality, but bigotry and hatred still managed to beat us.