MILITARY SERVICE
Do you believe gays and lesbians should be able to serve openly and honorably in the military?
More than 13,500 service members have been fired under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy since 1994 at a cost of more than a quarter billion dollars to U.S. taxpayers.
EMPLOYMENT
Do you believe that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity should be prohibited by law in the workplace?
Federal laws do not provide protection against anti-gay discrimination in the workplace. Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have passed laws that protect individuals against employment discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. North Carolina is not one of them.
DOMESTIC PARTNER BENEFITS
Do you support providing domestic partner benefits to gay and lesbian city, county, or state employees equal to the benefits received by married employees?
Many gay and lesbian persons are involved in long-term, monogamous, committed relationships. Many own property together, and their finances are intertwined. Their relationships are not recognized by law in North Carolina or federally. Consequently, they do not have 1,049 benefits that married spouses have. One of the most visible of these benefits is access to a spouse’s health insurance. A number of cities and counties in North Carolina offer domestic partner benefits to their own employees, as Replacements, Ltd. and the vast majority of Fortune 500 companies do.
MARRIAGE/CIVIL UNIONS
Do you support laws recognizing either marriage or civil unions between same-sex couples, provided the requirements for obtaining a marriage license (or its equivalent) are the same as those required for opposite-sex couples?
North Carolina laws and federal laws do not allow marriage or civil unions for same-sex couples, and both North Carolina and federal law prohibit the recognition of marriages or civil unions entered into in another state.
ADOPTION
Do you support the idea that committed partners in a same-sex relationship should be able to jointly adopt children, provided that the adoption is found to be in the best interests of the child?
North Carolina law allows a gay or lesbian individual to adopt children. However, North Carolina does not allow both individuals in a same-sex relationship to adopt children. This is referred to as Second-Parent Adoption.
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