UNC Coalition Against Amendment One hosts Vote Against Festival

If anyone can connect to the impact Amendment One may have in North Carolina, it’s Mark Kleinschmidt.

Elected in 2009 as Chapel Hill’s first openly gay mayor, he said he’s felt plenty of oppression as a result of his sexual orientation. At Friday’s Vote Against Festival in front of Wilson Library, he said he wanted to remind people that the amendment would not only affect members of the LGBTQ community, but also those in domestic partnerships.

“I’ve been out for 24 years, and I’m used to people not liking me because of it,” he said. “But that’s a whole separate matter. You can think what you want of me because I’m gay, but there’s many other reasons to vote against this.”

The constitutional amendment, which would define marriage as between one man and one woman as the only domestic legal union recognized in the state, will be on the N.C. primary ballot May 8.

Kleinschmidt said he’s proud of UNC’s efforts against the amendment, especially because the University provided the support he needed when he first came out.

“The feeling of belonging, of knowing that I’m accepted into the community, it’s worth its weight in gold,” he said.

The Vote Against Festival was put on by the UNC Coalition Against Amendment One both to raise awareness about the amendment and to kick off early voting on campus, which begins today.

Kleinschmidt said he hadn’t seen this amount of activism at UNC since Barack Obama ran for president in 2008. He told the crowd of about 100 students to keep campaigning against the amendment until the primary.

“It’s not a stretch to say that (students) can be the reason we defeat the amendment.”

Before the festivities began, about 40 people wearing yellow anti-amendment T-shirts marched to Franklin Street. Many people downtown cheered and cars honked in appreciation as the marchers passed them.

The afternoon’s lineup included poets, musicians and “N.C. Amendment One: The Musical!” One band, Razorbread, drove four hours from UNC-Asheville to perform.

In between acts, several speakers addressed the audience, including Kleinschmidt and Chapel Hill Town Council member Lee Storrow.

Storrow said he was thrilled to see the energy and passion on campus against the amendment as voting begins.

“Let’s continue North Carolina’s stance as the progressive beacon in the South,” he said. “(Defeating this amendment) is going to happen because of the students, because of all of you.”

North Carolina is the only state in the Southeast that does not yet have a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

The Chapel Hill community’s efforts to advocate against Amendment One are not alone.

The UNC-system Association of Student Governments, which represents all 17 UNC-system schools, voted at its Saturday meeting to oppose the amendment.

Senior Jeff DeLuca, one of the coalition’s founders and a speaker at the event, offered students a challenge to encourage student participation in early voting.

“I bet we can get more early voters on our first day of early voting than Duke got in their first four days,” he said. “Can we beat Duke?”

Students will be able to vote early on the second floor of Rams Head Dining Hall from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. every weekday and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday through May 5.

Contact the State & National Editor at state@dailytarheel.com.