The craziest thing is that the amendment will be voted on at all during a primary. NC law allows amendments to be voted on pretty well whenever, and if Santorum / Gingrich hadn't dropped out, there'd have been the farce of there being a ton of Republican voters at the polls for the presidential primary while Obama ran uncontested, making for an extremely obvious pass. (There's a vague chance of an upset now that only state-level primaries are on the table and turnout will be generally suppressed.)
That said, don't hate on North Carolina too much. It's been the only state in the South that didn't have a marriage amendment for some time now thanks to the Democratic legislature generally being able to bottle up any demands for one (since it's not like gay marriage is legal, anyway). The big Republican gains in 2010, alas, ended that bit of restraint. Since we all know such laws need to be written into freakin' state constitutions for some reason, and the average voter treats all referendums as "do you like this y/n."