Jan 7, 2021
N.C. court rules to allow same-sex couples domestic violence protections
The N.C. Court of Appeals ruled last week that people who are in a same-sex partnership are now equally protected against domestic violence as people in opposite-sex relationships.
"North Carolina was the last state in the nation to have a statute that restricted domestic violence protective orders only to couple’s of the opposite sex," said Ames Simmons with Equality NC.
Simmons said the ruling stemmed from a case back in 2018, where a woman in a lesbian relationship, who was a domestic violence survivor, was denied a protective order because of her same-sex relationship.
"North Carolina law stated that an LGBTQ person's existence was not as valuable as a heterosexual person, so they ruled the animosity towards them doesn't have a place in that state anymore," he said.