As the North Carolina Senate was considering and later approved a measure to send an anti-LGBT constitutional amendment to the ballot, Charlotte Observer writer Peter St. Onge asked one very important question: Why is Perdue quiet on gays?
St. Onge writes:
Perdue doesn’t get a chance to veto lawmakers’ action on the amendment this week, but she also declined to tell the Raleigh News & Observer’s Jane Stancill how she felt about the issue. “Right now, North Carolina needs to focus on growing the economy and finding jobs for our people, not on social issues that are divisive.”
We believe North Carolinians have the ability to focus on more than one issue at a time, and so should our governor. Perdue who voted for a 1996 law banning gay marriage in the state, should tell us if her opinion on the issue has changed in the past 15 years. Will she vote for the amendment in May? Why or why not?
Perdue missed her chance to make a difference before the legislature’s final approval, but she still has time to speak out. Seven months should be plenty of time for the governor to throw her full weight behind efforts to vote down this discriminatory amendment to our state’s sacred governing document.
Well, it looks like she plainly made it clear she thinks it was a waste of time for the General Assembly to be working on it. I doubt her speaking up more strongly against it would’ve helped.
She’s pretty unpopular in the GOP-led legislature as it is! What little political clout she has left she’s using for issues….like budgets and other laws…where a governor’s pen and/or veto is useful. Unfortunately, governors have no input on constitutional amendments, so she’s probably figuring it’s not worth putting her head on the line. Frankly, I can’t blame her for that.