Update: More than 100 people turned out to the Monday, Feb. 16 evening meeting of the Rowan County Board of Commissioners as elected officials took up the issue of same-sex marriage.

In a standing-room-only board chambers, members of the board voted unanimously to approve a resolution urging the North Carolina General Assembly to pass a state constitutional amendment banning any relationship recognition for same-sex couples.

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SALISBURY, N.C. — The Rowan County Board of Commissioners will vote on a resolution supporting the passage of an anti-gay marriage amendment to the North Carolina Constitution.

The resolution will support the passage of an amendment that would ban recognition of same-sex marriages and put other relationship recognitions, such as domestic partner benefits, in jeopardy. The amendment has been introduced to the North Carolina General Assembly for the past five years.

The Rowan County Commissioners will vote on the resolution at their next meeting on Monday, Feb. 16. The resolution has been added to the Consent Agenda, which precedes the public comment section.

Mike Clawson, a North Carolina state PFLAG coordinator, says he is disappointed Commissioners have decided to add the resolution to the consent agenda rather than open it up to public discussion by including it in the regular agenda.

“While it’s primarily a tool to speed up the process,” he said in an email, “one might say, in this case, it is taking the cowards way out.”

Clawson has urged Rowan County citizens and the public to contact the members of the County Commission and urge them to move the resolution to the regular agenda.

“Sometime this weekend, please take a few minutes to send an email … asking them to remove this item from the agenda, simply because we don’t consider it county business,” he said in an email to PFLAG supporters and members. “Again, at the very least, request that it be put on the regular agenda, up for public comment and discussion.”

The Board of Commissioners will meet Monday, Feb. 16 at 7:00 p.m. in the J. Newton Cohen, Sr. Room
of the Rowan County Administration Building, 130 West Innes Street, Salisbury, NC 28144.

North Carolina remains the only state in the Southeastern U.S. without an anti-LGBT, anti-family marriage amendment. In 2006, The City of Thomasville and Davidson County, just north of Rowan, passed similar resolutions in support of the discriminatory constitutional amendment.

Action Alert:

You can contact the Rowan County Board of Commissioners and ask them to remove the resolution from the agenda, or move it to the regular agenda for public discussion.

Raymond Coltrain
raymond.coltrain@rowancountync.gov
(HOME: 704-636-8551)

Jon Barber (Vice Chair)
jon.barber@rowancountync.gov

Carl Ford (Chair)
carl.ford@rowancountync.gov

Tina Hall
tina.hall@rowancountync.gov

Chad Mitchell
chad.mitchell@rowancountync.gov