North Carolina’s gay guppies won’t be included in a new anti-bullying law. Nor will anyone else, because the state’s Senate failed to approve the legislation…
“The fight’s over,” said Sen. Doug Berger, D-Franklin, after Senate leaders sent a negotiated compromise with the House from the floor late Thursday afternoon back to committee. “The vote would have been very, very close.”
The measure would have required districts to approve bullying and harassment prevention policies at least as restrictive as those laid out in the bill. But conservative Christian groups lobbied hard against the measure in part because they argued it would advance special protections for gay citizens in North Carolina.
A handful of Democratic senators were worried that their votes would have been used against them by Republicans in the November election.
“I think the Senate was bullied on the bullying bill,” said Rep. Rick Glazier, D-Cumberland, the chief sponsor of the legislation.
The compromise bill lists the kinds of characteristics of a person who could be susceptible to bullying. The bill defines the activity reasonably perceived as being motivated by any actual or perceived characteristic including race, religion, socio-economic status, sexual orientation and masculinity and femininity.
Don’t these people know that old, wise proverb – “Children are our future?” Yes, even the gay ones…
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dvlaries
Who’s surprised? Whenever our Constitution is tested and expanded so that “liberty and justice for all” covers groups that it hadn’t before, it’s always the former slave states that have to dragged, kicking and screaming, into any new enlightenment.
mark
North Carolina,,,,thanks for NOTHING. Until some Congressman’s or governor’s or Judge’s kid gets bashed you’ll just keep the HATE alive.
What a pathetic state.
Charley
I wish I could believe my LGBT friends who still live there and fight for gay rights, but I don’t see anything that indicates “North Carolina is a progressive state”. Helms died, but his bigoted legacy lives on. My sister and her husband live there, college educated and never went to church until they reached 75. Now they go along with the other conservatives, sitting in a pew every Sunday. Religion is the enemy and N.C. passes laws on biblical law.
dfrw
North Carolina is not a progressive state. My parents retired to there and I hate going there. First, there should be some kind of gay rescue program to help gay people escape from the south.
As an aside, I put my condo up for sale here in Florida (yes, I know, bad timing) and as soon as it sells, I am out of here. I’ve had enough and regardless of how gay Fort Lauderdale is, the state itself is very anti-gay and so is North Carolina. I’ll never come down here again once I leave. Why should the state of Florida get my money? Massachusetts here I come. =)
CHURCHILL-Y
Nothing new here. Besides even in the few states where anti-bulling legislation has been approved the law seldom has been implemented through real programs. I mean what do you expect Gay adults are treated as less than others by the Federal Government and the majority of those same people refuse to believe that there are even GLBT kids. I say if you have kids toughen them up an make sure they learn how to defend themselves.
Bill Perdue
The bill failed because several NC Democrats deliberately took a quick vacation to avoid having to appear like queer loving commies by voting against the harassment and beating of children.
This mirrors the national trend by Democrats, especially the Obama campaign and the DNC, who are taking extraordinary steps to distance themselves from the ‘fringes’ of society. As usual, we’re the ‘fringe’ and again, as usual, we’re being sent to Siberia for the duration of the election period. If their history is any guide, we’ll be there for quite a while after the election too.
Following on the heels of the Democrats butchery of our legislative agenda – ENDA and Hate Crimes murdered, DOMA and DADT retained after two years of congressional control – Obama is moving into the bigot’s camp in a big way with his initiative to expand the taxpayer financed bribes cult leaders get in exchange for votes – the so-called ‘faith-based’ laws.
Reliance on Democrats is a failed and invariably self-defeating tactic. We need a massive campaign including demonstrations and alliance building to demand tough and specific laws against harassment and violence and laws that enable us to sue the cults and political groups and figures who campaign for bigotry. That kind of struggle is far more important than choosing another lesser evil. Our youth come before partisan political activity.
Abbie Lane
Now while I am saddened by the fact that not only this bill was shot down but more so WHY it was shot down I must say North Carolina as a whole isn’t that bad. I was born and raised in a very small town in North Carolina, and recently returned to that very town. While some still hold that mindset that homosexuality is wrong and immoral more and more are becoming more open minded. However it what is even more sad on this story is the fact that elected officials refused to vote on it solely because they feared in many cases how it would look come re-election time. I for one am sick of people selling their soul to be re-elected. If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything. THIS is just one of many reasons and issues why I threw my hate into the race and I am running for state house of representatives district 23. I can assure you if I get the seat status quo as these career politicians know it is over. Feel free to check out my myspace at http://myspace.com/lane4nchouse or follow me on twitter @ lanefornchouse2