Marriage Act Controversy Fill Seats at Council Meeting
by Joe Mott

Emotions ran high and seats were scarce at Monday night’s Chapel Hill Town Council meeting. The council was there to hear arguments on controversial issues before it forwarded an agenda to the North Carolina General Assembly.

Councilman Mark Kleinschmidt argued for repealing the Defense of Marriage Act in the state, and adding sexual orientation to the North Carolina’s hate crime laws.

Hate crime is a hot topic after UNC-CH student Thomas Stockwell said he was assaulted at a corner on Franklin Street because of his sexual orientation. Supporters and opponents overflowed the hallways and spilled outside to get a glimpse of the meeting.

After speakers from both sides were heard, the council unanimously approved the agenda. That was no surprise to opponents, though they said the council is acting without the support of a large part of the town’s population.

“We expected that,” said Hazen Ham, a representative from Celebration Assembly of God Church. “But we felt like we had to stand up and speak the truth, and that’s our job and we did that, and that’s what’s important”

Supporters of the council said the issue isn’t about the numbers of people who support it, but about equality.

“It’s a social justice issue,” said UNC-CH sophomore Win Chesson. “And it’s an inherently discriminatory, unfair law—that wouldn’t change no matter what the numbers are.”

With students and townspeople on both sides of a controversial issue, Chapel Hill will have to wait for the legislature to decide which side to support.