In 1875 North Carolina outlawed interracial marriage in its constitution; this section remained in the state constitution until 1971. Fifty years ago people of color were not allowed to sit at the same lunch counter as whites in our state. Today same-sex couples are not legally permitted to marry in North Carolina. Early voting has already begun for the May 8 primary where the citizenry of this state will decide whether to again write discrimination into our state constitution or to stand on the right side of history.
Amendment One, if passed, would define marriage between one man and one woman as the only domestic legal union recognized in our state. Many, like the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, have made the argument that Amendment One, if passed, will be bad for business, it will confuse and may even prohibit providing employee benefits to unmarried couples and it will significantly shrink the talent pool which businesses in our state hire from. We agree – one of the first things we immediately agreed upon when we talked about starting our business was our desire to hire a very diverse group of individuals. We are three middle class, straight, white males from Chapel Hill; frankly we need some diversity in our business.
Amendment One would certainly shrink our talent pool and make achieving our diversity goals more difficult. However that is not our main concern. We have grown up with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and in-question folks all our lives; they were our teachers, our classmates, our friends, our family members – they are part of the community that raised us. We cannot sit on the sidelines while the majority in the state legislature further discriminates against a vast segment of our population. We simply won’t take it any longer. Amendment One is not in line with our business code of ethics, it is not in line with our personal moral views and we choose to vote against it. Early voting has already started; we hope you’ll join us at the polls.
Andrew Rutkowski Scharfenberg
Cody Dearborn Maltais
Willis Batts Isley
The Czars of Steel String Brewery