Well, it’s not the best day in my home state of North Carolina. They’ve managed to pass an amendment to the state constitution that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman. The state already didn’t recognize gay marriage, but religious conservatives decided that wasn’t enough and pushed the amendment through both houses of the state legislature (which are both under Republican control for the first time since 1898). [1] Then they took it out to the voters during the May primary season (when younger voters are notoriously absent).

To nobody’s surprise, the major population centers such as Raleigh/Durham  and Charlotte voted overwhelmingly against the amendment, as did college towns such as Chapel Hill and Boone. I’m pleased to add that Buncombe County, where Asheville is, voted 51% against the amendment. I can promise you that the vote in Asheville proper was substantially more lopsided.

Told you all that to tell you this: this is sad, but it’s far from the last word. The folks who are the angels’ side of things are already planning their next move. It may take a year, or five, or twenty, but eventually Amendment One, like the Jim Crow laws, will go away. These are rear-guard actions of the losing side – and I can say that from a scientific perspective rather than an emotional one. Large population centers in the state are gaining people, the rural areas (which were hugely supportive of the amendment) are decreasing in population. Old people supported the amendment far more than young ones.

You see where this is going.

I am not saying that what happened yesterday across my beloved North Carolina is acceptable, nor should we simply sit and wait for the age and population tide to do its quiet work. What I am saying is that this was a bump in the road, but we will get there. I told Lisa that it may not be in our lifetimes; actually, if we’re statistically median in lifespan, I expect it will happen in our lifetimes. I certainly intend to actively assist that effort when I get back.

But this particular change is inexorable, and I take enormous comfort in that. I can live (albeit uncomfortably) with short-term losses if I strongly sense that, in the long term, our society (and my state) are headed in the right direction.

[Edit] Turns out the speaker of the NC House, who supported Amendment One, agrees with me on its long-term prognosis. He also, in this YouTube video, acknowledges the “problem” of his party, supposedly one of less governmental intrusion, forcing its beliefs on others. This is a guy who knows which way the wind is blowing.

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[1] They even managed to coopt Billy Graham into supporting the amendment, which is really sad, because that’s likely to be the last legacy he leaves on the planet.