WHAT IT SAYS:

Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state.

WHAT IT ACTUALLY DOES:

In addition to prohibiting same-sex marriage, as state law already does, the Amendment would:

• prohibit North Carolina from ever passing legislation that would grant civil unions;
• bar the state from instituting domestic partnership rights;
• strip the domestic partner insurance benefits currently offered to employees by a number of local governments, including Chapel Hill, Durham, Greensboro, and Mecklenburg and Orange Counties.

In addition, courts could interpret the language of the Amendment to ban any rights to state’s hundreds of thousands of unmarried couples—both same and opposite-gender. This would:

• invalidate domestic violence protections for all unmarried partners;
• undercut existing child custody and visitation rights that are designed to protect the best interests of children;
• prevent the state from giving committed couples rights to allow them to order their relationships, including threatening their ability to determine the disposition of their deceased partner’s remains; to make medical decisions if their partner is incapacitated; and to allow second-parent adoptions in order to ensure that both partners have a legal tie to, and financial responsibilities for, the children they are raising.
• invalidate trusts, wills, and end-of-life directives by one partner in favor of the other.