In the wake of mixed reactions to President Obama's announced support of gay marriage, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People echoed that stance as one of civil rights.
The 103-year-old organization founded on Feb. 12, 1909, the day that would have marked Abraham Lincoln's 100th birthday, states as its mission on its website "to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of the United States and eliminate racial prejudice. The NAACP seeks to remove all barriers of racial discrimination through the democratic process."
The resolution passed by the NAACP's board of directors in Miami just recently reflects an expansion of its fight for racial equality by proclaiming to "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 (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) citizens."
The state's efforts to protect traditional marriage from being redefined do not "codify discrimination." Instead, the definition of roles of men and women are protected. "Constitutional rights of LGBT citizens" are not being removed by referendums such as that just held in North Carolina, where it passed with 61 percent of voters' support, and in Tennessee in 2006, where it was supported by 81 percent of voters.
No state has prevented any of these citizens from forming legal arrangements for power of attorney or any other legal status awarding inheritance, contract relations or legal standing that is claimed to be pursued by the homosexual, bisexual and transgender community.
In a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll published in November 2011, black men and women were asked specifically about their views of "romantic relationships between two men." Black men stated their views to be "somewhat unacceptable" (six percent of respondents) and "strongly unacceptable" (53 percent of respondents), for a total of 59 percent "unacceptable." Ten percent of black women stated their view to be "somewhat unacceptable" and 54 percent said it was "strongly unacceptable," for a total of 64 percent "unacceptable."
Has the NAACP chosen a political issue in an election year over 103 years devoted to eliminating the indignant, criminal sufferings by the black community? The lost identity may further cloud the history of the true civil rights movement.