I think that it is important to note that even though this amendment passed, those of us fighting for LGBT equality aren't going away. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then I have 5000 words on the eastern North Carolina experience that you might want to see, if you'll kindly follow me below the fold.

Here's a quick video to give you guys a look at what you missed today if you did not show at the NCGA for the AFL-CIO sponsored Pots & Spoons Rally. Turn your speakers up to 11 for the full effect. Americans For Prosperity tried to respond by handing out ear plugs, which only perfectly symbolized the failure of their elected leaders to listen to anyone but their own base and helped publicize our cause, so that kind of backfired on them.... I suspect a better video will be forthcoming soon from Jeremy at AFL-CIO NC.

And it could be short yet painful:

This year legislators are taking on what promise to be contentious issues, ranging from “fracking” for natural gas, competing proposals to ensure that our students get a good education and oldies but goodies such as annexation and Voter ID, a solution in search of a problem.

And they're also going to be plugging a $200 million hole in Medicaid funding, which in GOP-ville will probably entail cutting Medicaid spending or putting malnourished children on a diet. Also, from the Twitter:

As the Democratic Candidate for N.C House in District 37, running against the Architect of Amendment One, I was curious as to what the results of the Amendment One vote were in Paul "Skip" Stam's district. The results for what has been commonly referred to as a "conservative district," were extremely encouraging:

For Amendment One: 50.1%
Against Amendment One: 49.9%

With nearly 30,000 votes, the difference in For/Against was about 80 votes.

The Observer's editorial board which is pretty good on our issues, blisters Parker and the events of this past Saturday

Parker’s self-centered decision to stay on as party chairman despite his role in it (sexual harassement scandal), are embarrassing the Democrats and threaten to hurt the very candidates Parker is supposed to help elect.

read more at: Charlotte Observer

They also ran a pretty good editorial cartoon:

If you can't prove lawbreaking without breaking the law yourself, maybe you're tripping down the wrong path:

Zbigniew Gorzkowski is registered to vote in North Carolina, the film shows. Project Veritas acquired his September 21, 2007 voter registration form and provided a copy to TheDC. On May 8 the workers at Gorzkowski’s assigned North Carolina polling place offered his ballot to an actor in the film who gave Gorzkowski’s name while hidden-camera video rolled.

And here's the law that was broken by these Republican fiction artists:

About the cacerolazo

A form of popular protest that originated in Latin America which consists of a group of people creating noise by banging pots, pans, and other utensils to call for attention. In cacerolazos from Chile and Argentina to Iceland, Ireland, Greece, and even Syria, people have come together to challenge power and affect change.

It is time to bring the spirit of the cacerolazo to North Carolina, where our out-of-control state legislature has busied itself since the 2010 election with catering to corporate interests and right-wing ideologues, gutting funding for public education, endangering women’s health care, putting the rights of unmarried couples up for popular vote, and attempting to lock some groups of voters out of the political process.

Let's welcome them back to an unforgettable protest!

When lawmakers return to town on Wednesday, May 16, North Carolinians outraged and disappointed at actions taken by our General Assembly to enrich the few at the expense of the rest will converge on Bicentennial Mall at 10 A.M. for a cacerolazo – a Pots & Spoons Protest – the first-of-its-kind protest of our out-of-control state legislature.

I'm not often surprised by the anti-science bias of today's Tea Party Republicans in Raleigh, but I have to admit that this news caught even my cynical self off guard.

The proposed bill would limit forecasts for future sea-level rise to what the ocean along the N.C. coast did last century. Using that standard, the state would plan for rise of about 12 inches by 2100. Determining the rate would fall to the N.C. Division of Coastal Management. Language in the bill says the rates “shall be limited to the time period following the year 1900” and that "(R)ates of sea-level rise may be extrapolated linearly to estimate future rates of rise but shall not include scenarios of accelerated rates of sea-level rise.”

Found on Facebook, from my friend, Jeffrey Beam

This morning, May 9, 2012, I woke up less of a person in the eyes of my home state. A person who was already less so by the rule of some pre-existing laws, but now Constitutionally less ― by an amendment that contradicts the greatest precepts of our venerable national document ― the separation of Church and State, the individual’s inalienable rights, and protection from tyranny. Now I am a subject to what essentially is a “Christian” Sharia-like law. The very kind of law that the people who created and voted for it would rebel against, if they were subject to something like it.