Attorney General Roy Cooper announced yesterday to the press, “simply put, it is time to stop making arguments we will lose and instead move forward.”

North Carolina, as well as South Carolina and West Virginia, lies under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The court’s decision, therefore, is precedential for the cases pending in those states and likely paves the way for marriage equality to become the law of the land there. Maryland also lies within the 4th Circuit, but marriage equality has been legal there since January, 2013.

“Our office believes the judges in North Carolina are bound by this 4th Circuit decision,” Cooper said. “In addition, the State of North Carolina will acknowledge the 4th Circuit opinion that marriage is a fundamental right.”

The 2-1 decision upheld AFER’s District Court victory which struck down Virginia’s marriage ban on February 13, 2014.

The decision will likely be appealed to the United States Supreme Court. Click here to read more about the historic decision and to help support the case.

Here we are at the end of 2012, and after a year of amazing progress we’re closer than ever to full federal marriage equality. Think about where we were a year ago with Prop 8, with DOMA, with marriage laws from state to state. So much has happened since then. So let’s do a quick year-in-review to get you caught up with the progress we made in 2012, and where we’re going to focus in 2013, including which states are the most likely to make headlines in the coming year.

They met at a friend’s birthday party. Little did they know at the time, but 25 years later Diana Travis and MaryAnn Mueller would still be sharing their lives together on seven acres of land in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“First we were friends, but then there was this magnetism,” Diana reflects on her first encounters with MaryAnn. “I was writing in my journal about the kind of person I want to be with, and I kept writing about her. A light bulb went off. This is the person I want to spend my life with.”

Someone Special

The couple says the secret to their decades of happiness together is a relationship built upon honestly and support for one another.

“When I wanted to start Goose Busters, my friends thought I was crazy, but not MaryAnn,” says Diana, referencing the green business she started in 2000. Several years ago, MaryAnn even retired from her job as a physical therapist to help out full time.  The business model is as unique as it is impressive: specially trained Border Collies safely and humanely rid properties of large flocks of Canada Geese, which aggressively nest in Charlotte area.

“Diana is so confident about herself and willing to reach out to new people and situations like starting a new business. I really admire that about her. She ends up dragging me along with her,” jokes MaryAnn.

Fighting for What is Right

When North Carolina voters were faced with a draconian anti-marriage amendment earlier this year, the couple sprang into action by volunteering with Equality North Carolina to organize house parties, educate others about its far-reaching consequences, and get out the vote.

“When it passed, we were really disappointed. We were heartbroken. We didn’t want to get out of bed the next morning,” says MaryAnn.

“But there were some positives that came out of the campaign,” she notes. “It got people talking about equality and really brought people together—there was an outpouring of support from straight allies, including two former Charlotte mayors, one Democrat and one Republican who appeared in a TV ad together.”

For Diana, the campaign was part of a long history fighting for equality. When she lived in Boston during the 1960s, she was president of the first lesbian civil rights organization, a chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis. The organization was founded in 1955 in part by Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, the first couple married in San Francisco when marriage equality came to California in 2008.

“It was us and the Mattachine Society, and then [the Stonewall Riots and] Christopher Street happened and so many more people got involved.” Diana remembers.

“At our first Pride march in Boston, we had 35 people.  We met at the Boston Commons and smashed open a closet with a sledge hammer. I think the last one Boston had 400,000 people attend.

“Back then we concentrated on things that we thought might happen, like not getting fired from jobs and getting more people to come out, that was our biggest deal.”

Great Hope

The couple notes that our country has come a long way since the 1960s.

“To think that we might be able to get married here in North Carolina if the Perry case is successful, that would be amazing.” Diana reflects.

“We consider ourselves married spiritually, but there are lots of rights that we don’t have, like [to inherit] social security benefit,” she continues. “My relationship is just as valid as yours. I have been in business in Charlotte for 25 years, own 7 acres of land, we pay taxes.”

In an op/ed published in today’s New York Times, Blankenhorn says:

“…I do believe, with growing numbers of Americans, that the time for denigrating or stigmatizing same-sex relationships is over. Whatever one’s definition of marriage, legally recognizing gay and lesbian couples and their children is a victory for basic fairness.

…

Instead of fighting gay marriage, I’d like to help build new coalitions bringing together gays who want to strengthen marriage with straight people who want to do the same.”

For Blankenhorn, marriage is about family. It’s an institution that strengthens our ties to each other and to society. We could not agree more.

Today’s announcement is somewhat of an evolution for the Prop. 8 witness, who is the founder and executive director of the Institute for American Values.

During the historic 2010 trial of Prop. 8, he admitted, under cross examination by AFER lead co-counsel David Boies, that we “would be more American” on the day gay and lesbian couples are allowed to marry. And more recently, he penned an editorial opposing North Carolina’s Amendment One, which has far reaching consequences, banning all forms of recognition in the state that are not marriage between straight people.

Increasingly, Americans support marriage equality. More than a dozen national polls now show majority support for allowing gay and lesbian couples the freedom to marry.

The play “8” began as an idea—an idea that through theater, hearts could be changed, minds could be awakened and new activists could be born.

Rory O’Malley, Gavin Creel and I are proud to team up with AFER to bring this incredible story to life, finally showing the world the compelling case for equality that Ted Olson and David Boies made behind closed courtroom doors.

Our goal for this project has always been to put it in the hands of the people and get communities talking about equality. AFER and Broadway Impact were thrilled to live stream the Los Angeles premiere and are now excited to be licensing “8” to universities, community and regional theaters free of charge.

The response has been overwhelming. We have booked 186 readings to date in 34 states plus Washington, D.C., Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Italy and Zimbabwe. 42 readings have taken place since our Broadway debut back in September and each day we speak to more people looking to bring the project to their community.

We are especially committed to bringing “8” to states facing challenges to marriage equality.

In New Hampshire, 5 readings were performed leading up to the March vote on legislation that would have repealed marriage equality. Students at the University of New Hampshire became incredibly active leading several phone banks that were in direct response to seeing “8.”

In North Carolina, 11 readings were held in advance of the vote on Amendment One and my co-founder Gavin and I traveled down to participate. We met amazing people there, including the openly gay Mayor of Chapel Hill, Mark Kleinschmidt, who performed in two of the readings and spoke passionately in the talkbacks.  We met long-time activists in Asheville and students at UNC who were organizing themselves and the community. We even had a lively discussion with people who opposed marriage equality in a small southern town.

We have been inspired by several unexpected places that have put on readings. From international performances in Zimbabwe and Australia to small towns in Montana, Texas, Kentucky and Georgia, new pins are continually being added to our map.

It has been great to travel to some of the locations and witness the readings first hand. Gavin and I ventured to Harvard University, where he led the cast at the famous American Repertory Theater, and just recently we enlisted help from some talented friends to headline a production at the Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia.  We stopped by a reading at Towson University in Baltimore on our way south and participated in a talkback in New Jersey just over the bridge from our home in New York City.

Several high schools have even stepped up to the plate and tackled “8” to rave reviews, including one in St. Paul, MN where youth advocates spoke out about the heated battle in their state.

We are now gearing up for major readings in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington State, all with the intention of making sure people in these places know about their Constitutional right to marriage and about what happened when discrimination was put on trial.

We hope “8” will continue to inspire action, create change and bring people together to stand up for equality everywhere. This project truly is a labor of love and passion for all of us at Broadway Impact and AFER and we are incredibly grateful for all of the people across the country that are willing to stage a reading, start a discussion and become a part of the movement. We hope you will join us! To stage a reading or find one near you go to: www.8theplay.com

While North Carolina already denies gay and lesbian couples the fundamental freedom to marry, Amendment One writes a ban into the state’s constitution.  The amendment goes beyond restricting marriage equality and poses a serious threat to the well-being of families, children, women and seniors in North Carolina.

Adam Umhoefer, AFER Executive Director:

“The passage of Amendment One is a profound injustice.  Singling out a class of citizens for discriminatory treatment is unfair, unlawful and violates basic American values. Gay and lesbian Americans, like their fellow citizens, want nothing more than to marry the person they love.  Committed, loving couples and their families should not be denied this most fundamental freedom.”

In this week’s Marriage News Watch: Civil unions are close to passing in Colorado, but there’s only a few days left before the legislature adjourns. We’re getting down to the wire on Amendment One in North Carolina. The Prop. 8 play is getting new legs as an audiobook. And the guys behind “We Are Young” have some strong words for marriage equality.

• Like AFER on Facebook >
• Follow @AFER on Twitter >

UPDATE: Colorado House Speaker Frank McNulty said today that he might not bring the civil unions bill up for a vote in the House even though there are enough votes to pass it. AFER Board Member  and former RNC Chair Ken Mehlman has appealed to the Speaker, the Denver Post reports. “I care about the health of the Republican Party and blocking something the vast majority of voters support and that will undermine family values and undermine freedom seems to me to be both bad policy and bad politics,” said Mehlman.

Many North Carolinians will lose health care, domestic violence protections, end of life and visitation benefits, and face other serious consequences due to the political agenda of those who offered up the legislation.  Those consequences will not discriminate – they will fall on the young, the old, the gay, the straight, men, women, professionals, line workers, union workers.  Some of those are my friends – some are your friends, your neighbors, and perhaps even members of your own family.

In this election, voter turnout is everything. Here’s what you can do:

• Make a donation to help educate voters and get out the vote. The campaign is only a few thousand dollars away from hitting their goal

• Post a message on Facebook and Twitter. Tell your friends what is at stake and encourage them to donate too.
  Sample message:  I am standing with @protectNC to defeat #amendment1, join me https://bit.ly/donate2prtnc
  More social media actions >

• If you are in North Carolina, sign up to get out the vote.  Several hundred people are needed to go door to door, talking with voters and making sure they know the real consequences of passing Amendment One.

It is up to each of us, no matter where we are, to do what we can to make sure initiatives like this do not succeed.

In this week’s video: Civil unions advance in Colorado, but old foes are joining forces in Maine. There’s just a few days left until North Carolina votes on an extreme constitutional amendment, and the race is getting closer and closer every day. And new research has shown a promising trend when it comes to public opinion.

Links:

• The Williams Institute
• Coalition to Protect All North Carolina Families, the campaign against Amendment 1
• Pew Research 

As The Advocate points out, support is critical right now:

“With just over two weeks until the vote on a far-reaching constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage and other unions in North Carolina, opponents of the measure say that momentum is building for their side, but more support from national donors will be critical to making their ‘winnable’ campaign a reality.”

The proposed amendment is so drastic and far-reaching that politicians on the left and the right have condemned it. In addition to opposition from President Barack Obama and North Carolina Governor Bev Purdue,  even anti-marriage equality advocates  like David Blankenhorn and Elizabeth Marquardt from the Institute for American Values have drawn the line in the sand:

“[A]s marriage advocates, we oppose the state marriage amendment now being debated in North Carolina. We hope that when North Carolinians go to the polls on May 8 they will defeat this measure.”

David Blankenhorn, you may remember, was the star witness for the Proposition 8 Proponents in the historic Perry v. Schwarzenegger trial. Upon cross-examination by AFER lead co-counsel David Boies, Blankenhorn admitted that we would be more American on the day gay and lesbian couples are allowed to marry.

• Find out what you can do to defeat Amendment One.
  Visit www.protectncfamilies.org.