Black Gay Marriage

“We have and will oppose efforts to codify discrimination into law.” NAACP Board 

Following the announcement in May by President Obama, the board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People formerly voted to endorse gay marriage. A political statement to be sure but a difficult one facing the fact that many of it's religious members oppose gay marriage.

A former official with the NAACP has pointed out the issue for many blacks: “for certain people, it was a very long evolution and a very long process of reconciling their faith with this, and coming to a very civil rights understanding of marriage equality versus a theological understanding of marriage.”

To the NAACP I say two things: 1) Well done; 2) It's about damn time.

To those reluctant blacks and especially those black ministers who will still preach against gay marriage from their pulpits, I would offer this observation. The next time you mention the word "slavery" or obliquely reference the suffering of "your people" at the hands of others. Your historical petition is diminished, your rhetoric declines when you call out others for your own sins. Bigotry in any form is in conflict with the message of that "book" you wave about. The same book that justifies and endorses slavery and quite literally says nothing about marriage other than what you and others create from some strained reading of translated and retranslated words from two thousand years ago.

This is all really quite simple, either you are a bigot or you aren't - your choice. The NAACP has decided they are not, how about you?