Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt has called on North Carolinians to vote against Amendment One.

On Tuesday, voters will decide on the amendment which would bar the state from recognizing the relationships of gay and lesbian couples with marriage, civil unions and possibly domestic partnerships.

In a video released Monday by Protect All North Carolina Families, the group working to defeat the ban, Kleinschmidt, who is openly gay and was first elected to lead the city in 2009, says he believes the measure would force cities to stop offering domestic partner benefits.

“There are 8 jurisdictions in North Carolina who provide domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples. Actually, for any couples where one of the members is an employee of the county or city. Here in Chapel Hill we were the second city to do it.”

“It's been [a] very successful policy for us. And I think that's why … the policy has been adopted by other jurisdictions.”

“As soon as the constitution is altered to forbid recognition of domestic partners, then the town of Chapel Hill, not withstanding all the good will that we have and the great history we have for providing domestic partner benefits, will be prevented – forbidden – from recognizing those domestic partner relationships. That puts those employees at risk, their families, their partners, their children. It makes it harder for us to recruit and retain employees.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page. Visit our video library for more videos.)