While N.C. lawmakers put marriage amendment on the ballot, lesbian wins city council primary

The North Carolina General Assembly adjourned Wednesday after a three-day session during which lawmakers’ main accomplishment was to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to ban same-sex marriage in the state. The adjournment came one day after out lesbian LaWana Mayfield won the Democratic primary in her bid for a seat on the Charlotte, N.C., City Council.

The anti-gay-marriage amendment had been “knocking around the hallways of the Legislative Building for eight years,” according to a report at Chron.com, which also noted that Republican lawmakers “took criticism from all fronts” for spending time on the marriage amendment while accomplishing little on more pressing items on the legislative agenda.

“Democrats, gay rights advocates and dozens of business leaders slammed the GOP leadership for holding votes on the measure without public comment and putting the elimination of the rights of gays and lesbians on next May’s ballot,” Chron.com reported. And Democratic House Minority Leader Joe Hackney called the three-day session “one of the biggest wastes ever to hit the North Carolina Legislature.”

Alvin McEwen, writing for The Huffington Post, pointed out that polls show “a majority of folks in North Carolina” oppose the amendment, a fact, he said, that the people and organizations pushing the amendment chose to ignore. McEwen is blogmaster for Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, a blog that carries the tag line, “Lies in the name of God are still lies.”

Meanwhile, LaWana Mayfield pulled in 51 percent of the vote in a three-way race for the Democratic nomination for a Charlotte City Council seat, beating out opponents Warren Turner, who got 34 percent of the vote and Svend Deal, who finished third with 15 percent, according to On Top Magazine.

On Top reports that Mayfield, a community organizer, is heavily favored to best Republican candidate Ed Toney in the Nov. 8 general election because the two are running in a majority black district that traditionally favors Democratic candidates. If Mayfield does win, she will be Charlotte’s first openly LGBT councilmember.

Mayfield is supported in the race by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund.