CNN Reports - NAACP: Still Has No Gay Rights Policy

While NAACP chairman Julian Bond managed to give a speech on gay equality that was arguably more moving than any gay leader has ever given, the black civil rights organization has no official position on same-sex marriage. As NAACP president Benjamin Todd Jealous tells it, they don't have a national stance on letting gays get married because there is not yet a consensus inside the org. Yes, they are pro-hate crimes legislation for gays. Yes, they are against bullying in schools that targets gay kids. And yes, they are against laws banning same-sex marriage, like Prop 8. But the "tense debate" over fully supporting our right to marry remains unresolved. This is problematic.

As Jealous tells it, he would rather keep the NAACP together as an agreeable unit than divide followers by taking a stance on marriage equality. The organization is more effective, he says, when it can act in unison with all its moving parts. This premise, of course, depends on what your definition of "effective" is.