Which Slippery Slope Argument Wins in North Carolina?

Dueling slippery slope arguments vied for the attention of North Carolina voters during a recent debate about the state's proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

"All persons are created equal but that doesn't imply, for example, that three people can claim to be married," Republican House majority leader Paul Stam said Wednesday, according to video from the debate by ThinkProgress. "Rep. Glazier never answered that question: how he would he tell three people they couldn't be married once he told any two people they could?"

Stam further argued that "different things can be treated differently if the things or people are in a very different relationship." But Democratic minority whip Rick Glazier offered a correction, and then his own slippery slope.

"Different things can be treated differently, but people ought to be treated the same," he said. "People are not things."

He warned that if the government gets to decide that gays and lesbians aren't allowed to enter into marriages, it could also decide to stop them from running for office, or from attending public universities at in-state tuition rates, for example.

"How many people do we have to affect? How many rights have to be affected?" he asked in alarm. "If the most traumatic, most important right in our lives is going to be controlled with the government, what stops the government from controlling and outcasting every other right in life? And that is the slope you are starting us on, and it is one that the people of North Carolina are going to have to stop."

The debate was held at the University of North Carolina's law school, and the student audience was reportedly on Glazier's side. Watch the exchange in the video below.