Back in May, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)Passed a resolution just a few weeks after President Barack Obama announced his support for marriage equality in an interview with Robin Roberts of ABC’s Good Morning America. And Tuesday will launch a series of radio adverts urging voters to support marriage equality for same-sex couples. It was a historic decision by the NAACP, an organization that has been a voice for promoting equality and civil rights for over 100 years. NAACP president Benjamin Todd Jealous said of the endorsement: “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. ” Featured in the adverts is former NAACP national chairman Julian Bond, who says voting for equal marriage is “the right thing to do. He also believes equal marriage is not just a religious issue since many blacks who oppose same-sex marriage view it as more of a religious issue rather than a civil rights issue. In fact a Pew Forum poll found that 62 percent of black Protestants opposed gay marriage. Bond addresses this in the adverts by saying “I believe people of faith understand this isn’t about any one religious belief – it’s about protecting the civil right to make a lifelong commitment to the person you love.” The adverts will air in Baltimore and Washington and have been timed to air a month ahead of the vote on the issue. The bill to legalize same-sex marriage in the state of Maryland was passed by the Maryland General Assembly in February 2012 and signed on March 1 by Governor Martin O’Malley.
