As the
New York Times report
noted, experts in family law have said the language of Amendment One is
worded so poorly, it wouldn't just ban marriages and civil unions for same-sex couples, "it could also apply to the more than 150,000 straight couples in the state who live together but are unmarried. This could invalidate domestic-violence protections, undercut child custody arrangements and jeopardize hospital visiting rights."
North Carolinians, by a wide margin, apparently didn't care.
Or more accurately, most North Carolinians. The
Charlotte Observer added that the amendment lost in the state's largest areas, including Charlotte, Greensboro, Asheville, Raleigh, and Durham -- it lost by a four-to-one margin in the famed Research Triangle -- but the results were entirely one-sided just about everywhere else.