The North Carolina NAACP is the only chapter aside from California’s that has come out forcefully against an anti-gay marriage discrimination amendment, and Rev. Dr. William Barber makes it crystal clear why voters in NC need to come out and vote against Amendment One.

Washington’s marriage equality bill got its first public hearings in House and Senate committees on Monday. Faith leaders both Jewish and Christian came forward to testify in support of the bill. Their message to the legislature was clear: stop discriminating against our right to solemnize marriages for gay and lesbian couples. Civil marriage laws should facilitate free religious expression, not hinder it based on one sect’s beliefs.