PAGE 2 // WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
NEWS
THE
pendulum
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Elon responds
NC amendment
Caitlin O'Donnell
Editor-in-Chief
vote
The message is simple enough
against.
“This project will give you a voice
— what are you going to vote against?”
the welcome video for the movement
asks. “Discrimination, government
intrusion, hate, bullying, religion-based
discrimination, the destruction of
families."
Liv Dubendorf, a senior studying media
arts and entertainment, recently became
involved with the Vote Against project
that launched last year in response to a
constitutional amendment banning legal
recognition for all unmarried couples.
“America is at a crossroads right now
— the issue of sexual orientation equality
is our generation's hot button issue,”
Dubendorf said. “We must decide as a
nation if this is an issue of humanism
or of morality. I’m very interested to see
what happens in this vote, as 1 think it will
affect how we view rights issues in the
future.”
Leaders of the movement, impressed
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with her work on other documentaries
and short films, approached Dubendorf.
As videographer for the project, she has
filmed personal testimonials and created
a welcome video for Vote Against. She is
also working on a longer documentary
scheduled for completion in May about
the amendment and movement with
senior Dan Koehler.
“The reason I took this project on
was, most importantly, to educate the
public," Dubendorf said. “I feel it is our
responsibility to show people what the
issues really consist of. Regardless of
one's political leanings, I wanted to show
people the real North Carolina and the
facts of what they're voting for or against.”
Last September, after the bill cleared
both the state House and Senate, the
North Carolina state legislature moved
to put the amendment on the upcoming
May 8 ballot. While same-sex marriage
is already illegal in the state of North
Carolina, the amendment would make
the definition of marriage stricter by
prohibiting civil unions and rights for
domestic partnerships and voiding the
benefits domestic partners in the state
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Senior Liv Dubendorf is a videographer for the Vote Against movennent, which aims to educate
state voters about a proposed amendment banning legal recognition of all unmarried couples.
currently receive.
Often framed as a gay-rights issue,
the amendment also affects all people in
North Carolina, particularly unmarried,
heterosexual couples, Dubendorf said.
■According to results from the Elon Poll,
opposition to a ban on same-sex marriage
has remained relatively steady since 2009,
while state opinion on the definition of
marriage has remained more varied.
In September 2011, 56 percent of
respondents to the Elon poll indicated
they oppose the amendment, an increase
of 5 percent from March 2009. Thirty-four
percent indicated they oppose any legal
recognition of same-sex couples, while the
remaining responses were generally split
in what rights same-sex couples should be
provided — 29 percent indicated support
for civil unions or partnerships and 33
percent showed support for full rights.
Based on her research, Dubendorf
said there are parallels between the
arguments of both those for and against
the amendment, all of whom want legal
recognition for their relationship.
“People on the side to support the
amendment of this magnitude view it as
a moral issue — they are trying to protect
the values they hold dear and they are
reluctant to change because they are
worried about the sanctity of their family,”
she said. “Ironically, people against the
amendment are equally concerned for
their families — this amendment would
proclaim an unmarried couple's union
not protected by law and not afforded the
same legal privileges as a married couple."
North Carolina is the last state in the
South to pass a constitutional amendment
of this nature, which dictates marriage
between a man and a woman as the only
legally protected relationship. As same-
sex marriage is already illegal, passage
of the amendment represents a step
backward in civil rights and social justice,
according to Kirstin Ringelberg, associate
professor of art history and inaugural
coordinator of Elon's LGBTQ office.
“I think we're at a point in our culture
where the gradual gain in some areas of
a sense of freedom and equality among
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender
queer and intersex people has caused
a more dramatic reaction against us
from those who feel fear about what that
signifies," Ringelberg said. “For a lot of
people, recognizing that sex, gender and
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(founded in clear opposites) requires a
radical rethinking of their worldview
and such changes are always painful and
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come with a lot of resistance."
It's comparable to inequality faced b)
blacks during the Civil Rights movement,
she said.
“Just as many white Southernei!
felt that segregation of water fountains
movie theaters, sandwich counters ani
denial of equal voting access were not jus
normal but required laws and violence to
maintain," she said, “so many people fed
that non-heteronomative couples should
not have the same rights as they think
they deserve."
Currently, Elon is one of many private
institutions that offer domestic partner
benefits regardless of sexual or gender
identity, which could be impacteil
by passage of the amendment. Th«
university could potentially be forced
to change insurance companies if the
current insurance provider is prohibited
from providing benefits, Ringelberg said.
“Certainly, other non-married couples,
queer or straight, who work for other
companies in the state might face total
loss of rights they currently have, with
no hope of achieving them in the future,’
Ringelberg said.
But the impact of the amendment
would also be felt by businesses, vvhicli
would not only lose their ability to offer
competitive benefits to the best-qualified
applicants, but also to afford to covet
current employees, she said.
“Imagine if you own a business that is
forced through this law to stop offering
those benefits,” Ringelberg said, “liou
thereby lose valued, long-time employed
who can no longer afford to work for you
because they are not getting health care at
a reasonable cost."
Ringelberg said she is excited about
the energy surrounding the Vote Against
movement. More than 500 people have
already shown up at events held around
the state, according to Dubendorf.
“We have to get people to the polls," she
said. “If people don’t vote, it doesn’t matter
what they actually believe in, because the)'
haven’t made their voices heard."
Want to learn more?
Various campus organizations
are sponsoring Race to the
Ballot from 7-9 p.m. Feb. 15
in McKinnon to educate the
community about the amendmert
and encourage voter registratio^n^
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