NAACP stöder gay-äktenskap

NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) har nu beslutat att ge sitt stöd till samkönade äktenskap vilket är ett genombrott för gay-rättsaktivister, vars stöd bland svarta varit svagare än bland andra grupper. Gruppen antog följande resolution:

“The NAACP Constitution affirmatively states our objective to ensure the “political, educational, 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.”

NAACP:s ledare Benjamin Todd Jealous sa också:

“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.”

Gay-aktivistgruppen The Human Rights Campaign blev förstås mycket nöjda med beslutet och släppte följande meddelande:

The Human Rights Campaign, a leading gay rights group, issued a jubilant statement following the NAACP announcement. “We could not be more pleased with the NAACP’s history-making vote today – which is yet another example of the traction marriage equality continues to gain in every community,” said HRC president Joe Solmonese. “It’s time the shameful myth that the African-American community is somehow out of lockstep with the rest of the country on marriage equality is retired -- once and for all. The facts and clear momentum toward marriage speak for themselves.”

NAACP har tagit ställning i liknande sammanhang förut och motsatte sig 2008 Proposition 8 i Kalifornien, som dock röstades igenom och då förbjöd gay-äktenskap i delstaten, och satte stopp för fortsatta sådana giftesmål. Svarta tillhör fortfarande de mest skeptiska till gay-äktenskap, men trots det har stödet för samkönade äktenskap ökat även inom den gruppen under senare år.

Källor: Washington Post, Politico

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