Pro-Prop. 8 Trial Witness Speaks Out Against North Carolina Anti-LGBT Amendment

One of the few defense witnesses to testify at the 2010 Proposition 8 trial in favor of the anti-marriage equality ballot measure is now calling on North Carolina voters to reject their own upcoming referendum on the issue.

North Carolina's Amendment One is far more draconian than Prop. 8, as it not only constitutionally bans same-sex marriage, but also erases any possibility of civil unions or domestic partnerships for same sex couples: a prospect that Institute for American Values president David Blankenhorn calls extreme and dangerous.

"If you disdain gay and lesbian persons, and don't care whether they and their families remain permanently outside of the protection of our laws, such a policy might be your cup of tea," Blankenhorn wrote in a Wednesday op-ed with the institute's vice president, Elizabeth Marquardt. "But it's not our view, and we doubt that it's the view of most North Carolinians."

"If you want to create a backlash against mother-father marriage - if you want to convince people that the real agenda of marriage advocates is not protecting marriage, but ignoring and ostracizing gay people - then this amendment might be to your liking," Blankenhorn and Marquardt continued. "But we believe that the cause of marriage is hurt, not helped, by gratuitously linking it to the cause of never under any circumstances helping gay and lesbian couples."

Read the full op-ed here.