Thrice married GOP presidential candidate New Gingrich is calling on voters in North Carolina to support Amendment 1 when they go to the polls on May 8. The measure that would ban same-sex marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships in the state constitution, expanding North Carolina’s existing legislative ban against marriage equality.

“This is part of the same great process this year that’s involved with President Obama, and that’s involved with the whole danger of what’s happening to our basic beliefs,” Gingrich warned. “There’s an effort by radicals at every level to change who we are, to change what America is and to change for our children into a future that I think will be much worse.” Watch it:

While bipartisan opposition to the Amendment 1 continues to grow, a recent Public Policy Polling survey found that 45 percent of North Carolina voters believe that marriage equality will be legal within a generation, while 41 percent think it will continue to be illegal. Independents and Democrats predict the change, while more than half of all Republicans say the status quo will continue.

The Obama campaign has spoken out against Amendment 1, but it’s unlikely that the president will directly address the matter when he appears before students at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill later today.

On Sunday, the 2.1 million Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ordained Katie Ricks, its first openly lesbian minister. The ordination was the result of a change the Church adopted last May, amending its Book of Order to allow openly LGBT members to serve as ministers, elders, and deacons. ThinkProgress spoke to Ricks prior to her ordination in North Carolina, as she pledged to lead the fight against LGBT discrimination within her community:

Q: What would you say to conservative religious leaders who use the Bible to oppose equal rights for gays and lesbians?

RICKS: What I’ve seen here in this Presbyterian [in North Carolina] is people who are admittedly very opposed to my ordination. These are people who definitely voted ‘no’ on the day that I was approved. But these are people who I worked with in the Presbyterian, with whom I’m on the Council — which is the governing body of the Presbyterian — and so we find that common ground around our common belief in Jesus Christ….I think that we can come together and at least agree on a common ground is important.

Q: What is it like to be a leader in the Church and be openly gay?

RICKS: I grew up in the Church before I knew that I was gay and so I grew up going to Sunday school, learning the liturgy and the rituals of the Church, so those people are the ones who taught me that God loved me and the Church loved me. Any time I would show up in Church, those people would care for me…So that’s what I grew up knowing, that this is my hope and God loved me. So when I came out, I had the normal sort of angst that comes from that process, but I always knew that God loved me…So for me it comes down to being honest about who I am and claiming that God has created me as a lesbian and that it’s my responsibility — it’s my calling — to live in that creation.

Q: What message do you have for those advancing the discriminatory marriage amendment in North Carolina? Will you be using your new role to try to organize against the effort?

RICKS: I think for me, I certainly support marriage for all people who are in loving covenantal relationships. As a pastor, the witness of that covenant between people is an example of a covenant that God has with us. And so that covenant is important between those two people, but also the calling that people who are married to serve others…. I think the Church needs to be saying, we need to be honoring covenantal relationships…so I think the Church needs to be on the forefront of that.

David Blankenhorn

The coalition continues to grow against North Carolina’s discriminatory Amendment One, which would ban same-sex marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships. Last night, the Asheville City Council unanimously passed a resolution opposing the measure, and there were not even any dissenting public comments.

Perhaps even more striking this week is an op-ed by David Blankenhorn and Elizabeth Marquardt of the Institute for American Values, an organization that typically opposes the freedom to marry. Blankenhorn was the “star witness” called to testify on behalf of Proposition 8, California’s ban on same-sex marriage, but his testimony largely served to help the couples fighting it. Continuing his seeming appreciation for the experience of same-sex families, Blankenhorn and Marquardt argue that Amendment One goes too far in its “disdain” for gays and lesbians and their children:

The proposed amendment states that “marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state.” That’s a big mouthful, and it goes well beyond the issue of same-sex marriage.

For one thing, it means that North Carolina could not, now or ever, take any step or devise any policy to extend legal recognition and protection to same-sex couples. No domestic partnership laws. No civil unions. Nothing.

That’s mighty cold. If you disdain gay and lesbian persons, and don’t care whether they and their families remain permanently outside of the protection of our laws, such a policy might be your cup of tea. But it’s not our view, and we doubt that it’s the view of most North Carolinians.

With less than four weeks until the May 8 vote, the growing number of pro-equality voices offers great hope for Amendment One’s defeat, but polls suggest that a significant percentage of voters still do not understand the magnitude of its impact. As the coalition grows, hopefully public awareness will increase so that the harmful measure can be rightfully defeated.