North Carolina Republican leaders moved forward with their anti-gay plan to amend the state’s constitution to ban marriage between gay and lesbian couples on Tuesday. According to The Charlotte Observer, high-ranking Republican leaders, including the Speaker Pro Tempore and House Majority Leader, dismissed pro-equality arguments that this move would could indefinitely make life harder for committed gay and lesbian couples, as well as discourage businesses from moving to North Carolina. “Part of the desperation on the part of the sponsors of this amendment is that they see support for this kind of measure eroding fast,” Alex Miller from Equality North Carolina told the paper, pointing to the recent victory in New York on marriage equality. A recent poll by Elon University, conducted in February of this year, found that “more than half of North Carolina residents supported some form of legal recognition of same-sex couples,” reports The Observer. Legislators are expected to discuss this and other changes to the state’s constitution when it returns from break beginning September 12. GLAAD encourages all of our constituents, but especially those in the Carolinas, to pay close attention to the media coverage of this story, and to alert us to any anti-gay rhetoric or stories that aren’t fair, accurate and inclusive. When these anti-gay amendments are proposed, mainstream media will sometimes repeat the talking points of anti-gay activists without challenging them. In particular, claims about “studies” on parenting by gay and lesbian couples are often either untrue or grossly misrepresented. Anyone can notify us of inaccurate or irresponsible journalism they come across by filling out an incident report, while we continue to monitor media coverage of this and similar stories.