Down Here

Hi y'all my name is Tammy Matthews and I live way down here in the rural, redneck south.  Well not exactly but pretty close,  I live in a city of 55,000+ people and 45 minutes from a major city in North Carolina which is not the deep south and is supposed to be more progressive than other southern states.  Well not anymore.  In starting this blog off with current events I am going to mention the constitutional amendment that was passed in my state this week. The state constitution was amended by a 61% to 39% margin from the voters, to allow the union of only one man and one woman.  Yes this is the "gay marriage" amendment but it can also have serious negative repercussions for unwed mothers, single moms, unmarried couples gay and straight.  I know 2 females who could be hurt by this vote, one is a single mom and the ex husband is married (she is afraid she will lose custody of her daughter) and the other is also a single mom and the victim of domestic violence.  Did the 61% of voters realize they would be harming single mothers?  On the marriage issue alone whose business is it what the gender is of people getting married.  I hear people say they don't favor same sex marriage but do favor civil unions.  This amendment bans them too, between gay or straight couples, anyone.  Also, there is already a law on the books saying that marriage can only exist between one man and one woman.  What? If that law was on the books why write and have to pass a constitutional amendment on it??  Oh and you can legally marry your cousin here as long as it isn't your gay cousin, isn't that nice. At the end of the day it is the southern evangelical churches and the religious right mindset that pushed this through, although a number of churches took the side of equality (bless their hearts).  I was fully expecting this to pass but the margin is surprising and disturbing to me.  Yes, I live in the bible belt and this is what we are up against here.  Welcome to Tammy World.