By Colleen Jenkins
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Jan 14 (Reuters) – Same-sex couples
stood at government counters in two North Carolina cities on
Monday to ask for marriage licenses they knew they would be
denied, part of a push across the U.S. South this month to
demand equality even where opposition runs deep.
“We have to leave our home state to get married, so that’s a
little sad,” said L. Rankin, 45, after the assistant register of
deeds in her city of Winston-Salem refused a license to her and
partner Kristin Hedin, 38.
Couples braved rain and potential ridicule to join the “We
Do Campaign,” an effort by the nonprofit Campaign for Southern
Equality to protest state laws activists believe to be unjust
and to call for full equality under federal law.
As part of the campaign, couples in seven Southern states
are applying for marriage licenses in January. At the final stop
on Thursday, couples expect to be denied licenses in Arlington,
Virginia, before marching to Washington, D.C., where same-sex
marriage is legal.
Participants say they want their neighbors and lawmakers to
know they aren’t going away, even if taking a stand can be
uncomfortable and risky in a part of the country known for its
strong religious ties and history of racial discrimination.
“The South has been written off as being unwinnable when it
comes to LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) rights,”
said Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, executive director of the Campaign
for Southern Equality and a United Church of Christ minister.
“One of the unintended consequences of that is that LGBT
people also get written off,” she said.
Gay rights activists billed 2012 as a watershed year after
voters in Maine, Maryland and Washington state approved same-sex
marriage, and President Barack Obama became the first U.S.
president to declare support for such unions.
But the year also brought a sobering reminder for same-sex
couples that the momentum lagged in the Southeast. Last May,
North Carolina became the last state in the region to add a
voter-approved ban on gay marriage to its constitution.
Thirty-one of the 50 U.S. states have passed constitutional
amendments banning same-sex marriage. Nine states and
Washington, D.C., have legalized it.
Some of the 35 couples who have taken part in the “We Do”
effort this month have married outside the South but said they
still want to live there.
“I can go to a restaurant, and I can order sweet tea and
grits and they have them,” said Sara Bell, 31, a lifelong
resident of Mississippi. “I don’t think that I should have to
leave those things behind just to be who I am.”
STRONG OPPOSITION
Surveys by the Pew Research Center last year showed that
while opposition to gay marriage in the South has waned, it is
still greater than any other region in the country.
Fifty-six percent of people in the central Southern states,
including Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi, oppose allowing
same-sex couples to marry, compared with 29 percent who are
against same-sex marriage in New England.
The National Organization for Marriage, which opposes
allowing same-sex couples to marry, has not taken any action in
response to the “We Do Campaign,” spokesman Thomas Peters said.
“Obviously these are acts of civil disobedience against laws
passed overwhelmingly by voters in those states,” he said on
Monday.
Support for gay marriage in the South is comparable to where
the country as a whole was a decade ago, according to Pew, so
activists said their strategy for seeking change there
inevitably looks different than in other regions.
The efforts overall are “not very sexy,” admits Darlene
Nipper, deputy executive director for the National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force.
That organization is one of many working to build support
for marriage equality at the grassroots level, including
training volunteers, developing young leaders and working to
change the minds of local politicians.
The task force will hold its annual “Creating Change”
conference in Atlanta later this month. Nipper said bringing
3,500 activists to that Southern city will generate excitement
and help raise the profile of the issues they want addressed.
With no imminent likelihood of winning same-sex marriage
rights at the state level in the South, activists are pressing
for national change. In March, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear
oral arguments in two cases challenging laws that define
marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Gay rights supporters also are seeking more protections in
other areas such as the workplace and schools, said Jeff Graham,
executive director of Georgia Equality.
“I really think that you’ll see a faster pace of movement in
the years to come,” he said. “But we have to take a more
incremental approach in what our wins are. And frankly we have
to give people the space to change their opinions.”
Diana Coe, 48, and Li Hooper, 49, whose 2011 wedding at a
church in Winston-Salem is not recognized by the state, said
they hope to see attitudes change soon.
“We think of ourselves as being married, and then we realize
we are second-class citizens,” Coe said.
(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and
Lisa Shumaker)
