Leaders of the group People of Faith Against Amendment One held a post-election press conference in Raleigh this morning at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church. Flanked by dozens of individual members of the coalition, Rev. Nancy Petty of Pullen told the assembled media and observers that her group is “disappointed but not defeated.”

She said that while “the voting majority has chosen discrimination and fear and inequality,” her group would only redouble its efforts. She cited with evident emotion a late night message she had received after the election results were in from Rev. William Barber of the state NAACP in which he told her that “We have learned from each other and the movement will be even stronger and prevail in the days to come.”

Petty was followed to the podium by Jimmy Creech, a former Methodist minister who has long fought for LGBT equality. Read More

Seth Keel is an impressive young man in Raleigh who’s become quite a successful advocate for progressive change at a tender age. You can vist his Facebook page here and read his tweets here.  

Yesterday, I received a copy of an opinion piece he recently authored on Amendment One.  I hope you will read it:

Why I oppose Amendment One
by Seth Byron Keel

This year is the first year of my life that I have not lived in any denial of my sexual orientation, nor have I attempted to hide it as a part of who I am. I was sitting in the General Assembly when this Amendment was debated and eventually passed to be put on the ballot before us on May 8. I remember feeling disrespected and degraded. My representatives stood on the floor of the House and argued that I am less than them because of my sexual orientation; they argued that I do not deserve the same rights that our government has granted them. Believe me, this was not a choice that I made – I would remember waking up one day Read More