Carrboro, NC: Main Street for marriage rights

On Tuesday the town of Carrboro, NC, population approximately 19,000, made a significant step in civil rights: The Carrboro Board of Aldermen voted 5-0 to support civil marriage for same-sex couples.

Earlier in the month, in response to California’s Proposition 8 which eliminated same-sex marriage, and Arizona’s prop 102 and Florida’s Prop 2 prohibiting same-sex marriage, board member Jackie Gist proposed a resolution of the board’s support of civil marriage for same-sex couples. The resolution reads:

The Election Day victories by anti-gay activists in California, Florida, Arizona and Arkansas were a painful reminder that the gay rights movement still faces many challenges. Civil marriage for same-sex couples must include all the benefits commonly bestowed upon opposite-sex couples, including, among other rights, health care coverage and related decision-making, privileges under immigration and naturalization law, survivor benefits, inheritance rights and child custody.

Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton drew an important analogy:

It was just a couple of college towns when we started in on the civil rights movement in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, and it was just a couple of college towns when we started the process of ending the war in Vietnam.

As blogger Michael Jones points out at Change.org

For cities and communities outraged over the outcome of LGBT rights in the 2008 Elections, municipal resolutions affirming support for same-sex marriage are definitely one way to show solidarity and support to the LGBT community. 

Carrboro–located close to Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina– likes to refer itself as the Seattle of the South or Paris of the Piedmonts. The town boast a lively arts community and lots of live music, a poetry festival and an annual Community Dinner to celebrate the county’s diversity, plus a fishing rodeo! Carrboro’s move to support same sex marriage will hopefully inspire other communities around the country, not just in affected states, to speak up and take similar action.

[H/T Michael Jones]