$1 million campaign for same-sex marriage launches

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender rights groups launched a $1 million campaign Monday to foster a climate supportive of same-sex marriage rights in the South — nearly two years after N.C. voters approved a constitutional gay marriage ban.

Supporters say the Southerners for the Freedom to Marry campaign could spark a conversation among voters in the South, a region with a long history of cultural conservatism.

“This campaign is for creating a climate for more support and more understanding,” said Evan Wolfson, the founder and president of Freedom to Marry, a national LGBT rights group spearheading the campaign.

Local leaders also expressed support for the movement, which they said could spur support for same-sex marriage amid North Carolina’s mixed political climate.

“We’re at a point now where across the South, we’re tied,” said Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt, who is North Carolina’s honorary chairman of the campaign. “Those who support marriage equality have about as much support as those who do not.”

Gay marriage has seen sparse support among Southern states, despite legalization in other regions.

“There is a layer of cultural conservatism over the South that is thicker than the rest of the nation,” said UNC journalism professor Ferrel Guillory, an expert on Southern politics.

Still, he said more people in the South are beginning to see examples of same-sex relationships in their day-to-day lives.

“There is a growing awareness, whether we approve or disapprove in our religious beliefs, that same-sex unions are part of the fabric of our society,” Guillory said.

The campaign hopes to initiate conversations through organized events like prayer breakfasts and town hall meetings.

“We want to make sure that voices from the South are heard,” Wolfson said.

Guillory said significant change will not happen overnight and that the state’s gay marriage ban is unlikely to budge any time soon.

But Kleinschmidt said he thinks support for the ban will dwindle in the coming years.

“I believe in the next couple of years we are going to see a majority of North Carolinians who support marriage equality and who will actually regret the passage of Amendment One,” Kleinschmidt said. “If the right to marriage is a fundamental right, we need to share it.”

Guillory said he does not believe the movement’s goals will be accomplished in the short term.

“Persuasion takes time, and there may be some legal battles,” he said.

Guillory likened the gay marriage movement to the civil rights movement in the 1960s and how it required marches, legislation and legal battles before the movement’s goals were achieved.

Wolfson said the ultimate goal is to take the question of same-sex marriage to the U.S. Supreme Court and win as soon as possible.

He said immediate change is necessary.

“Every day that people are denied their freedom to marry is a day of real hardship and unfairness.”

state@dailytarheel.com