One of the nation’s oldest civil rights’ organizations made history on Saturday. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s national board of directors officially supports marriage equality.
NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous
Only two of its 64 directors voted against the gay marriage resolution, Metro Weekly reports. The NAACP’s historic move comes in the wake of President Barack Obama’s pledge to support same-sex couples’ right to marry nearly two weeks ago.
“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,” its resolution, in part, reads, according to Metro Weekly.
The resolution cited the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment equal protection clause, while stressing the necessity for marriage equality.
With that said, the NAACP resolution also stressed its support of religious freedoms that the First Amendment guarantees.
NAACP grabbed the opportunity to respond directly to the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and their recently exposed planned strategy to pit African-Americans against the GLBT community was exposed.
“Civil marriage is a civil right and a matter of civil law. 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,” NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous said in a statement.
Photo: naacp.org
