Civil Rights Groups And LGBT Groups Join Forces For Marriage Equality

Reverend Donte Hickman believes that marriage is a union between one man and one woman, and he will not marry same-sex couples at his church in Baltimore. Nonetheless, for months, he has been advocating in favor of the Civil Marriage Protection Act, which allows gays and lesbian couples to get a civil marriage license from a Maryland courthouse. At a Friday press conference, Hickman plans to join forces with an influential group of African-American clergy to show their support for same-sex marriage in the state, the latest example of a growing solidarity between black and gay civil rights groups.

This November, Maryland voters will decide in a ballot referendum whether to keep gay civil marriage legal in the state, and advocates say that successful passage will depend largely on African American voters, who make up nearly a third of the state’s population and who have historically been opposed to same-sex marriage.

Since President Obama said he personally supported same-sex marriage last May, the NAACP also voted to endorse it, and other prominent African American leaders have followed. But there are still African American clergy who are strongly opposed, and some have even said they would not vote for Obama because of his personal support for gay marriage. For this group of colleagues, Hickman has a message: “It’s not about the personal.”

Read the whole story at Huffington Post

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