Architect Of Proposed Constitutional Amendment Banning Same Sex Marriage In North Carolina Dies; Senator Jim Forrester Was 74

North Carolina state Sen. Jim Forrester, a physician and social conservative who secured a legislative victory just weeks ago with a constitutional referendum next spring on whether to ban same sex marriage, died Monday after a brief hospitalization, according to his daughter. He was 74. The Associated Press is reporting that Mary Paige Forrester said the Gaston County Republican died at Gastonia Memorial Hospital in Gastonia shortly after being taken off life support late Monday morning. Forrester had been in declining health this year. His condition took a turn for the worse over the weekend while visiting the mountains to watch the leaves turn, according to his sister-in-law, Sally Beach. Although Forrester had been hospitalized previously this year, he was at the Legislative Building just last Thursday, using a cane to walk slowly to a government oversight committee. "He passed very peacefully," his daughter said. The 20-year Senate veteran was surrounded by family members when he died, she said. Forrester, a family practitioner from Mount Holly and former Air Force one-star general, first joined the Senate in 1991 and often worked on health issues. He most recently represented Lincoln County and parts of Gaston and Iredell counties. He served briefly as Senate minority leader in 2004, replacing then-Sen. Patrick Ballantine when he resigned to run for governor. In January, Forrester became deputy Senate leader — a largely ceremonial post — when Republicans took over the chamber for the first time in more than a century. Forrester was best known in recent years for regularly filing a bill that would allow voters to decide whether to add a same sex marriage ban to the state constitution. Democrats in charge of the Legislature blocked debate and votes on the measure, pointing out that state law already limited marriage to a man and a woman. The question was approved by the Legislature in September, after elections last fall in which Republicans took over both chambers of the Legislature for the first time since 1870. The referendum, which would make traditional marriage the only domestic legal union recognized by the state, will be on the state-wide ballot in May. "If people reject it and say, 'No, we don't want this in the constitution,' then I'll live with it," Forrester said just after the final legislative vote in September. He said the bill was not designed to single out gays and lesbians, but that "It was just something I thought we needed to do to continue to have a strong family structure here in North Carolina." Usually known for a mild demeanour, Forrester became a nemesis of the gay-rights movement recently for his pointed comments about the gay community and politics. Last year, he apologized for saying at a local GOP event that "slick city lawyers and homosexual lobbies and African-American lobbies are running Raleigh," a reference to state government. One gay-rights group said Forrester was trying to promote a "disgraceful form of bigotry" and was "mean spirited." ''He is determined to stomp every gay person into the ground," Faith in America founder Mitchell Gold was quoted as saying in a group web posting in February. Shortly before the September referendum debate, Forrester called gay-friendly Asheville a "cesspool of sin." He said later he was referring in part to a pride rally at which women went topless. Forrester adjusted his resume this fall when his membership status in various medical organizations was questioned by gay rights activists. He said he was being unfairly targeted. "The gay and lesbian community is trying to discredit me," Forrester said September 30. "I'm not trying to deceive anybody."