North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore is pumping the brakes on a controversial bill aimed at reinstating the state’s prior ban on same-sex marriage.
Filed Tuesday by four North Carolina House Republicans, House Bill 780 is also known as the “Uphold Historical Marriage Act.” If passed, the bill would allow the state’s government to defy the Supreme Court’s 2015 marriage equality ruling and prohibit same-sex couples from tying the knot.
Its sponsors are Republican Reps. Larry Pittman of Concord, Michael Speciale of New Bern, Carl Ford of Rowan County and Mike Clampitt of Bryson City, who are among the most conservative legislators in the state, The News & Observer pointed out.
Gov. Roy Cooper (D), who recently sparked the ire of LGBTQ rights activists for his support of a flawed “compromise” to the state’s “bathroom bill,” blasted the legislation Tuesday.
Moore, who is a Republican, doubled down on Cooper’s remarks Wednesday, and said the bill won’t be getting a hearing in the North Carolina House after all. “There are strong constitutional concerns with this legislation given that the U.S. Supreme Court has firmly ruled on the issue,” Moore said in a statement cited by The Washington Post and The News & Observer, among other publications. “Therefore, House Bill 780 will be referred to the House Rules Committee and will not be heard.”
The state’s Rules Committee is typically where bills that lack support from leadership “go to die,” according to The News & Observer.
Though it’s worth noting that North Carolina’s record on LGBTQ issues is checkered at best, Moore’s words seem to quash any momentum this bill had going for it.
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