Policymakers in Raleigh filed some symbolic proposals this week that are not expected to advance. One seeks to ban same-sex marriage, while another would require the University of North Carolina and N.C. State to leave the ACC Conference for its boycott over House Bill 2.
Western Carolina University Political Science Professor Chris Cooper says the sponsors of the marriage proposal are not worried about bad press at home.
鈥淎ll three of these districts are solidly Republican so that they鈥檙e able to play a little and get national media coverage and to say essentially 鈥榃e don鈥檛 like the direction the state is going鈥�,鈥� Cooper said. 鈥淧olitics is symbolic a lot of time and these kinds of bills are a good example of that.鈥�
Cooper said every year, lawmakers have these conversation about 鈥渃razy bills, silly bills.鈥�
鈥淥nly about a fifth of the bills that are introduced in any session ever make it to law,鈥� he said. 鈥淢ost of them don鈥檛 even get passed, so it鈥檚 easy to pick these up.鈥�
State lawmakers are on break until Wednesday.
