RALEIGH, N.C. — Singer Clay Aiken, a North Carolina native, said he loves his home state but is deeply unhappy about proposed amendment to the state constitution that would ban same sex marriages.
The former “American Idol” contestant spoke out about the amendment in a video posted to YouTube on Monday.
Aiken, who is openly gay, was featured in the video for the group Protect All N.C. Families.
“Families looks different. They have always looked different. You have single-parent families, families with parents of different races, families with parents of different religions,” Aiken said in the video.
“No matter what we want a family to look like, we can’t put into a constitution – a document that is supposed to protect our rights – one narrow definition.”
The amendment, which will appear on May’s primary ballot, would define marriage as being between one man and one woman and outlaw civil unions.
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The singer, who is also a parent of a son, said the amendment will harm children of LGBTQ families.
“I think an amendment like this goes way too far,” he said. “It will take away protections from kids who, right now, may have access to healthcare because one of their parents has healthcare at work.”
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One of the leading proponents of the amendment is Raleigh pastor Patrick L. Wooden, an anti-gay activist who has made a series of virulently anti-gay statements claiming, for example, that older gay men have to wear diapers after a lifetime of shoving a variety of objects and animals up their anuses.
North Carolina is the only state in the Southeast without a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to one man and one woman, but same sex marriage is against the law already.
Wooden said that giving the Bible’s definition of marriage constitutional protection is the “will of the people.”
According to a poll published last September by Elon University, 56 percent of North Carolina residents oppose the amendment.
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