NAACP Endorses Same-Sex Marriage

In a move that will cause spittle to be flying by the bucketful in the thinly veiled white supremacist "family values" organizations like Family Research Council ("FRC") and The Family Foundation ("TFF") here in Virginia, the NAACP has officially endorsed marriage equality.  One can just imaging the shrieking that must be going on in the halls of FRC, TFF and similar anti-gay hate organizations.  Given that sexual orientation is innate and not changeable regardless of the lies spread by Christianists, it only make sense that gays be allowed to marry and have the same financial stability and legal protections that straight couples - many of whom are childless, I might add, thus debunking the marriage is for procreation blather of the Christianists - enjoy.  Tellingly, in announcing its new position on marriage, the NAACP noted that the far right conservatives were no friends to civil rights for all.  The Washington Post reports on this significant step.  Here are highlights:

The NAACP’s board of directors voted Saturday to endorse same-sex marriage rights – adding the influential voice of the country’s leading black civil rights organization to a debate that has divided the African-American community.

The decision has political implications for President Obama, who needs an enthusiastic turnout from black voters to help him win reelection in November but angered some African-American church pastors with his announcement this month that he believes gays and lesbians should have the right to marry.

The NAACP now presents itself as a counterbalance to the influence of the traditionally socially conservative black church. It can also help establish closer ties between blacks and gays, two of Obama’s most loyal constituencies.

“Civil marriage is a civil right and a matter of civil law,” NAACP president Benjamin Todd Jealous said in a statement released Saturday. “The NAACP’s support for marriage equality is deeply rooted in the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and equal protection of all people. The well-funded right wing organizations who are attempting to split our communities are no friend to civil rights, and they will not succeed.”

 The resolution approved Saturday states: “The NAACP Constitution affirmatively states our objective to ensure the ‘political, education, social and economic equality’ of all people. Therefore, the NAACP has opposed and will continue to oppose any national, state, local policy or legislative initiative that seeks to codify discrimination or hatred into the law or to remove the Constitutional rights of LGBT citizens. We support marriage equality consistent with equal protection under the law provided under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Further, we strongly affirm the religious freedoms of all people as protected by the First Amendment. “