Equality NC spent the weekend getting signatures to stop a proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. It's interesting that the GOP-controlled General Assembly wants to push this legislation through when such an amendment may hurt North Carolina.

How, you ask? University of North Carolina law professor explains it this way:

"the larger economic impact may be based on the perception of what the policy means about the state of North Carolina as a place to live and do business. In this way, even the Constitutional amendment that apparently would only codify state law could have an effect on business as it changes the perception of the state." In addition to impacting the perception of the state as a good place to do business, other UNC Law professors have also pointed out that the passage of such an amendment could impact those already doing business here, undermining "private employers efforts to attract top employees to North Carolina by providing employee benefits to domestic partners."

North Carolina is one of 37 states with a law that defines marriage as something between a man and a woman. According to an article in The Charlotte Observer, conservative groups are saying this is a biblical issue. (Which means the government shouldn't even be involved. Separation of Church and State, anyone?)

Proposed constitutional amendments must be decided by voters. To get on a ballot, the proposed amendment needs three-fifths majorities of the House and Senate. About 30 other states have constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage. Constitutional changes were eventually approved in every state where they made it on to ballots.

North Carolina is one of 37 states with active laws defining marriage between a man and woman.

Ron Baity, president of the conservative Christian organization Return America, was a featured speaker at a pro-ban rally that drew thousands to Raleigh in May. Baity, a pastor frequently invited to speak at Baptist churches around the state, says he preaches about supporting the constitutional ban.

"It's a biblical issue," Baity said. "Our organization is pushing to say to our legislature, 'We want you to vote on it.' "

A poll of North Carolina residents showed that more than half of the people who participated support same sex-unions. So, who does this proposed legislation benefit? The people writing it? If voters sent their representatives to Raleigh to do the work of the people, maybe it's time to pull a Wisconsin and call them back. Because, this is not what the people want.

Equality NC hopes to have 50,000 signed postcards in favor of same-sex marriage and against the proposed constitutional amendment to deliver to legislators in September, when lawmakers return.

Aerosmith asked the right question: What's the matter with the world today?

Two young people in Charlotte have recently been involved in sex crimes — and that's just what's been reported.

On last Thursday, 18-year-old Robert McFadden was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison for raping an 83-year-old woman.

McFadden, who was 16 at the time of the rape, was sentenced to at least 9 1/2 years in prison. It was the maximum sentence the judge could impose.

"In 25 years on the bench, this is the first case I've handled like this," Superior Court Judge Timothy Kincaid said. "It's awful."

The jury of seven men and five women deliberated just 1 1/2 hours before reaching their verdicts. McFadden, now 18, was convicted of second-degree rape and breaking and entering. He was acquitted of first-degree kidnapping.

What will McFadden's mindset be when he is released from prison? How can a young person commit a crime like this? What factors contribute to something so heinous? Will the state examine this while he's confined? His family took responsibility for what McFadden did in court, but is it too little, too late?

James McFadden, the teenager's uncle, cried as he stood before the judge and apologized to the victim's family.

"I love my nephew," he said. "I should have been a better uncle. ... He's a troubled boy because his mom and dad weren't there."

Lue McFadden told the judge she'd helped raise her grandson.

"I am truly sorry," she said to the victim's family. "Nobody should have to go through that."

Judge Kincaid then addressed McFadden's family members.

"I'm sure you did the best you could," he said. "This is not your fault."

Then news broke last Friday that a 12-year-old Charlotte boy had been arrested for the rape of a 2-year-old girl at a day care center.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police charged the boy with one count each of rape and indecent liberties with a child, according to a police report.

The 2-year-old was assaulted on Tuesday at Kid's Inn Childcare on Old Potters Road.

Where does this violent behavior come from, and what should we do to stop it from happening again?

When you're a kid, your parents tell you to trust the police and your teachers. So imagine being a child who gets taken advantage of by a police officer or a teacher. Two North Carolina girls know this story all too well.

William “Matt” Matthew Hill, 30, of Ivey Road, Graham, was charged in February 2010 with two counts of statutory rape and two counts of statutory sex offense for incidents that allegedly occurred in April 2009. The 14-year-old girl was involved in the police department’s Explorer program, for teens interested in police work.

Hill resigned his position with Burlington police in July 2009, following an investigation by the State Bureau of Investigation and an internal investigation by the department. He had been with Burlington police since 2008.

The investigation began after the girl’s mother allegedly found a text message from Hill to her daughter on the girl’s cell phone. In the message, Hill allegedly invited the girl to spend the night at his home because he knew she was planning to spend the weekend at a friend’s house.

The 14-year-old may never look at law enforcement the same again. Her stepfather said as much in court.

During Monday’s hearing, the state presented a letter from the girl’s stepfather condemning Hill for destroying his daughter’s trust in law enforcement and asking Superior Court Judge Michael J. O’Fogludha for the maximum sentence.

“(Hill) was everything that our daughter wanted to be. She looked up to him and wanted to learn from him and become an officer of the law so that she could serve her community,” the man wrote. “Police officers should be held to a higher standard because they are entrusted to enforce the laws that all of us must live by.”

Closer to home, as in Charlotte, a victim's right to sue for sexual molestation by a Charlotte Mecklenburg School System teacher is being hampered.

A former South Mecklenburg High School student is suing her former band teacher and the school board.

She said Richard Priode, the former teacher, had sex with her. He pleaded guilty to taking indecent liberties with a minor. He said the school board knew or should have known that Priode was a threat and didn't do anything about it.

But a judge ruled Tuesday that the school board is immune from part of the lawsuit, and maybe all of it.

The victim's lawyers said that's not right.

“The school system is treated differently than every other institution,” one lawyer said. “Churches are held responsible if they don't check, if they hired a sexual predator, YMCAs, camps, everybody is, but not school systems."

The judge said yes to some immunity, but since neither side wanted that ruling, they're both appealing

Arrests and court cases are only one aspect of healing for victims of sexual molestation. According to hypnotherapist, Jacquelyne Morison, BA, DACHp, MHS post traumatic stress disorder often follows a victim of sexual molestation.

PTSD symptoms develop in the trauma-victim when the subjective perceptual impact of the stressor is exceptionally forceful because the traumatic event is outside the normal range of human experience and, therefore, engenders a powerful response of objective, realistically-founded anxiety which will debilitate his/her ability to cope with normal life. PTSD differs from commonplace stress in that while certain predisposing factors (such as a personality disorder and/or a previous history of neurotic illness) are capable of lowering the victim’s resilience-threshold or aggravating the condition via cognitive and emotional filtering, in the main, such factors are insufficient to justify the materialisation of symptoms.

Sex tapes are now a part of pop culture. Kim Kardashian can credit her career to a sex tape. Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson shot to higher heights of fame because of a honeymoon sex tape. But, when it comes to a purported sex tape of one of America's first sex symbols, Marilyn Monroe, no one is buying.

Spanish memorabilia collector Mikel Barsa put the short film up for auction in Buenos Aires at the Borges Cultural Center asking a starting price of $480,000.

Barsa told The Associated Press that it is still possible he could sell the film to a buyer from Denver he declined to identify, but the price would be about half the opening bid he had requested.

A threatened suit from the Monroe estate, however, have given him second thoughts about going through with the sale, he told the AP.

Since Barsa announced the auction, experts in the screen legend have questioned whether the young woman in the film really is Norma Jean Baker.

Barsa told the AP that the scratchy, black-and-white six-minute film shows the young actress before her Hollywood breakthrough. The report says the film may have been shot around 1946 or 1947, when she was "poor and desperate to break into show business.

The problem with old sex tapes is that the stars usually aren't around to prove they're actually in it.

Scott Fortner, a blogger and Monroe expert who has collected several of her items like clothing, childhood possessions and an array of the star's memorabilia, shared a series of pictures with ABCNews.com where he pointed out the differences between Monroe and the woman in the film.

"For me the main aspect is the widow's peak," Fortner said. "The woman in the film has a straight hair line; Marilyn has always had her widow's peak."

He added that there is an inconsistency with Barsa's timeline with regards to when the film was made.