Gay marriage ban passes in NC

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Oh-oh. Can of worms there.

While it may or may not be desirable what you(somebody) say (depending on where you(somebody) come from), the duty of a governemnt is far less romantic and much more pragmatic. In a nutshell the duty of a government is to execute on behalf of the policies a state is aiming to realise in legislation and executive. These can be prioritizing your goal of "equal rights for all", or can instead prioritize for example common good before individual good - or can prioritize some very other general direction.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed...

It goes on from there, but the point is that while governments are created for many reasons, not all of them altruistic, good government is created for that very reason. This is the purpose for which the United States was created in the first place. While we have never followed that purpose as well as we should have, "liberty and justice for all" is and should ever be our guiding light.