National NAACP passes resolution supporting President Obama's endorsement of same sex marriage, citing the equal protection clause of the14th Amendment, polls show Americans closely divided, most Blacks still oppose it, 31 states ban it, six states and the District of Columbia allow it

By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com(www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com) and (www.clevelandurbannews.com)


MIAMI, Florida-The national NAACP at its meeting yesterday passed a resolution backing President Obama's recent endorsement of gay marriage, saying that it is a Civil Right protected under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, though the equal protection clause, while recognizing people because of race, age, religion, national origin and gender as members of a protected class that can seek court redress for discrimination because of it, does not on its face pertain to sexual orientation.


“The mission of the NAACP has always been to ensure the political, social and economic equality of all people,” said Roslyn M. Brock, chairman of the board of directors of the NAACP, in a press release. “We have and will oppose efforts to codify discrimination into law.”


Benjamin Jealous, the head of America's oldest and most well known Civil Rights organization and a former journalist and Rhodes Scholar, says the Fourteenth Amendment does protect  persons subjected to discrimination based upon sexual orientation, and stands firmly on the NAACP's  position that the right to marry, regardless of whether marriage is to a person of the same sex, is a Civil Right.


National NAACP President Ben Jealous

“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.” said Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP.


Obama announced his support of same sex marriage two weeks ago,  a decision that follows a change over the past decade on how Americans typically feel about it.


But Black leaders have routinely said that they object to gay people having protection as a class under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, often claiming that it takes away from the significance of the struggle that Blacks have endured to ensure their constitutional and statutory rights in a country that once enslaved them. 


That posture, however, is not as solid as it use to be with sophisticated Black leaders like Obama pushing for fair play for all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status or sexual orientation.


Polls show that the American public is closely divided on same sex marriage.


 A newly released Gallup poll puts the numbers  at 5o percent  in favor and  48 percent opposed, and a Pew Research Center poll released three weeks ago found Americans divided at 47 percent to 43 percent.


While it is clear that most Blacks oppose gay marriage, they too are embracing it more so now than in previous years.


Public Policy Polling.Com reports that some Black Americans are following Obama's lead with a decrease in opposition to it from 63 percent to 59 percent since his  announcement for it.


Massachusetts became the first state to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004. Currently, thirty-one states, including Ohio, ban gay marriage, while six states and the District of Columbia allow it.


The five states that permit it, in addition to Massachusetts, are Connecticut, Iowa,  New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont.

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