The NAACP, America’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, announced its board of directors has decided to support officially same-sex marriage. Fresh on the heels of Barack Obama’s historic announcement of same-sex marriage support, a number of famous African-Americans have joined the President in announcing support for marriage equality, including today rapper 50 Cent.
“Civil marriage is a civil right and a matter of civil law,” NAACP president Benjamin Jealous said in a statement this afternoon. “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 Chair Emeritus and long-time LGBT supporter Julian Bond appeared on CNN this weekend to discuss the organization's decision to back same-sex marriage. Calling it a "welcome surprise," Bond said President Obama deserves some credit in the decision.
"President Obama brought it to the fore when he spoke about it, in effect giving people permission to talk about it and to think about I think in ways they had not. And I think for our board, we were saying to each other, 'If the president can do this, then perhaps we can do it too," he told openly gay CNN anchor Don Lemon.
Asked about potential backlash, Bond replied, "I think thinking people will think about it and say, 'I may not agree with it but there it is, they've done it and I support the NAACP. I always have and I'm going to continue to do so. It's like President Obama… I don't think people are going to say, 'I'm not going to vote for him because he took this position on same-sex marriage." And the election is too far away to predict whether the president's position will impact November's election.
He also told Lemon that he and the NAACP have been "flooded" with congratulations for taking a strong stance on the issue
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