Gay And Straight: College Students March Across NC Against Marriage Ban
Gay And Straight: College Students March Across NC Against Marriage Ban
This morning two college students in North Carolina are embarking on a journey across the state in the name of civil rights.
From May 4 until May 7, Jacob Tobia and Dominique Beaudry, both NC undergraduates at Duke University, walked from the International Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro to the State Legislature in Raleigh—an 85 mile trip—to spread the word about voting against the state's Amendment One.
Dominique Beaudry
A constitutional ballot initiative, Amendment One would change North Carolina’s constitution by permanently banning same-sex marriage, removing orders of protection from domestic violence victims, and even remove children from their parents’ insurance policies.
The pair has launched a website and dubbed the walk The 2 Against 1 Campaign.
Tobia, a Raleigh native, and Beaudry, who was born and raised in Concord, NC, draw inspiration for this walk from the history of the civil rights movement in North Carolina. Support from other activists has already emerged.
“Rev. Nelson Johnson — a prominent civil rights leader in Greensboro and across the state — is going to offer us a blessing when we leave Greensboro,” says Tobia, who is hopeful that other community leaders along the route will support them as well.
Tobia, who identifies as gay and gender-queer, has been active in fighting Amendment One since it was announced in the Legislature. From holding rallies, to helping to secure a voting site on campus, to authoring a resolution against Amendment One that was unanimously passed by the Duke Student Government, he’s had his hands in a variety of advocacy initiatives over the past several months.
Jacob Tobia
“The coolest thing that I’ve done,” says Tobia, “was make a sandwich board encouraging students to vote against Amendment One.” He’s worn it every day for the past two weeks, and will wear it as he walks across the state this weekend.
Beaudry, a straight ally to the LGBT community, is thrilled to join him on this trek.
The pair will stay with hosts across the state who have offered room and board in a gesture of support. They have received overwhelmingly positive feedback. “When I told her about the walk, my mother’s first words were, ‘You’ll tell your grandchildren about this!’” says Tobia.
Representative Deborah Ross (D – Wake County) will welcome the duo in Raleigh.
Kyle Knight is a Fulbright Scholar in Nepal where his research focuses on the LGBTI rights movement. He previously worked at Human Rights Watch, where he focused on children’s rights issue. For three years, he worked as a suicide prevention counselor for LGBTQ youth at the Trevor Project in New York City. He currently sits on the Trevor Project’s Advocacy and Public Policy Committee, is the president of the Duke University LGBT Network, and a is lecturer in Gender Studies at Tribhuvan University, Nepal’s state-run university in Kathmandu. You can follow him on Twitter @knightktm.
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The Huffington Post printed Tobia's blog:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-tobia/following-a-legacy-walkin_b_14...
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The following story appeared in The Herald Sun newspaper: Duke students band together against amendmentBy Neil Offennoffen@heraldsun.com ; 919-419-6646DURHAM — At Duke University, even the Republicans are against Amendment One. “I was wearing my sandwich board” — it reads, in part, “Vote Against Amendment One” — “around campus,” said Jacob Tobia, a sophomore who has been leading university efforts to defeat the proposed “defense of marriage” ballot measure, “when this guy runs up to me and says, ‘I just voted for Romney and against Amendment One.’ “That really speaks to the fact that opposition to this on campus really crosses political lines.”A week ago, the Duke College Republicans, together with the Duke Democrats, issued a formal statement opposing Amendment One. It is so far the only state college Republican group in opposition and appears to be the first Republican organization of any sort in the state to come out against the amendment. “We have a lot of different voices among Republicans on campus,” said Michael Pruitt, a junior who is a member of the College Republicans. “Many of those voices are in favor of gay rights. But I think mostly it’s that we saw Amendment One as not just an issue of gay rights, but of family rights and of government stepping further into personal lives.”That, Pruitt said, is not appropriate and “creates further constitutional and legal difficulties.”Opposition to the May 8 ballot measure on campus is so strong, said several leaders of the counter amendment group, Duke Together Against Constitutional Discrimination, that students have been casting their ballots against it in overwhelming numbers during early voting. “The two precincts that include East and West Campus, the two precincts that have the most students, have had the most voters so far in early voting,” said Elena Botella, the president of the Duke Democrats. “And when we did polling of students, we found that 85 percent were voting against the amendment, with only 3 percent saying they didn’t intend to vote or were voting for the amendment.”That means, Botella explained, more than “20 times as many Duke students are voting against the amendment than those who are for it.”Alex Swain, the newly elected president of Duke Student Government, said that’s because “students are really passionate about this issue. It means something to us, and I think we’ve thought broadly and deeply about this.”They’ve also worked fiercely since the fall on the issue. “We’ve called 600 first-years, we’ve knocked on doors, we’ve used social media,” Tobia said. “And for the past week, I’ve been wearing the sandwich board everywhere I go.”
Read more: The Herald-Sun - Duke students band together against amendment
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The Blue Devil Is In The Details: Duke Students Lead Effort Against NC Amendment