Don't expect a state referendum on gay marriage anytime soon.

Ian Palmquist, executive director of the gay rights group Equality N.C., said that he is cautiously optimistic that the leadership of the state House and Senate will remain the same in the coming year, preventing a referendum from being put on the ballot.

After California voters added a gay marriage ban to their state constitution in a recent election, gays and lesbians nationally have mobilized to protest similar measures, holding rallies in North Carolina this weekend.

State Republicans have long called for a referendum here, although a state law from 1871 defines marriage as between "a male and female person" and a second law from 1996 specifically invalidates same-sex unions.

The state House and Senate would have to approve putting a referendum on the ballot by three-fifths margins. (The governor usually has no say.) Saying a referendum is unnecessary, Democratic leaders in the state House and Senate have blocked it from coming to a vote.

Palmquist said he's happy that North Carolina has avoided a referendum.

"You're essentially putting the rights of a minority up to a popular vote without any other checks and balances on it," he said. "That's not what constitutions are for."

An anti-school bullying proposal that lists masculinity, femininity and sexual orientation as reasons students might be teased or beaten is unacceptable to the N.C. Family Policy Council.

The group that lobbies on behalf of socially conservative causes is asking legislators not to support a proposal that would require local school boards to set up anti-bullying policies because of some of the bully-target characteristics mentioned in it, reports Lynn Bonner.

Members of the House and Senate had worked on a compromise bill intended to dampen such controversy by removing a reference to "gender identity or expression" and replacing it with masculinity and femininity. The compromise is scheduled to go to votes today.

But Bill Brooks, Family Policy Council executive director, said significant problems remain.

Read more after the jump.

   Comments (4)