Re: Amendment 1

I am the publisher of The Blotter, a magazine distributed throughout North Carolina. The proposed Amendment 1 could, among many other hateful things, forbid companies from providing equal benefits to their gay employees. I and my colleagues hereby state that if it passes, we will categorically refuse to obey it.

At the moment this is a moot point, since we're so small and nonprofit we can't afford to pay anyone benefits, including ourselves. It's a matter of principles instead. The principle that all our employees are American citizens, human beings and children of God, created in His image and loved by Him unconditionally, and therefore deserve unconditionally equal recognition, respect, rights and benefits. The principle that minorities should be protected from the tyranny of the majority, since if majorities got to vote on minority rights there wouldn't be any. (If civil rights had been put to referendums 60 years ago, Rosa Parks would still be at the back of the bus.) And the principle that if any institution—such as marriage—is so fragile that it needs discrimination, injustice, cruelty and constitutionally mandated apartheid in order to survive, then it by God should be redefined.

We invite every organization, business and municipality in this state that supports equality to stand with us and avow that no government or referendum on Earth will ever force us to commit bigotry against our own people.

Martin Smith
Durham

Reprinted from The Independent, "Letters to the Editor," April 18, 2012