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The Daily Tar Heel

Bill in General Assembly calls for state to reject same-sex marriage

Chapel Hill participated in North Carolina's 32nd annual Pridefest Weekend.
Chapel Hill participated in North Carolina's 32nd annual Pridefest Weekend.

North Carolina legislators filed a bill Tuesday calling on the state to reject the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 legalization of same-sex marriage.

The Uphold Historical Marriage Act, or House Bill 780, was proposed by three Republicans in the N.C. House of Representatives. It declares the Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges decision was a Constitutional overreach. 

The legislators cited biblical text in their claim that the Court did not correctly interpret the decree of God.

"(The decision) also exceeds the authority of the Court relative to the decree of Almighty God that 'a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh' (Genesis 2:24, ESV)," the bill said. 

The bill said Amendment One to the N.C. Constitution — which defined marriage as between a man and a woman in 2012 — is more representative of North Carolinians' perspectives. 

If signed into law, the bill said it would override the Supreme Court ruling. 

"The State of North Carolina shall henceforth uphold and enforce Section 6 of Article XIV of the North Carolina Constitution, the opinion and objection of the United States Supreme Court notwithstanding," the bill said. 

The bill would not recognize same-sex marriages licensed or created in states outside of North Carolina. 

N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper tweeted his opposition to the bill Tuesday.

"This bill is wrong," he said in the Tweet. "We need more LGBT protections, not fewer."

state@dailytarheel.com

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