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| Analogizing the fight for marriage equality for gays couples, NAACP Chair Dr.
Julian Bond credited the Supreme Court’s 1967 decision in Loving
vs. Virginia, with enabling him to marry Pam Horowitz, who is white. (Photo by
Jeremy Bigwood)
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In 1965 some of us who worked in the civil rights movement
were buoyed by a radio address given by President Lyndon Johnson, and these
words speak to us today. He said, “it is difficult to fight for freedom,
but I also know how difficult it can be to bend long years of habit …”
“There is no room for injustice anywhere in the American
mansion, but there is always room for understanding those who see the old ways
crumbling and to them today I say this, it must come, it is right that it should
come, and when it has, you will find that a burden has been lifted from your
shoulders.”
“It’s not just a question of guilt, although
there is that, is that you cannot live with a lie and not be stained by it.”
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HOME > NEWS > LOCAL
By: EARTHA MELZE COMMENTS
 
Dr. Julian Bond, chair of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People, was awarded Equality Virginia’s Equality Commonwealth Award in Richmond
on April 2 and delivered a speech affirming gay rights as civil rights.
The theme of the evening was “ordinary rights, an extraordinary night.”
“African Americans ... were the only Americans who were enslaved for
two centuries, but we were far from the only Americans suffering discrimination
then and now,” Bond said. “Sexual disposition parallels race. I
was born this way. I have no choice. I wouldn’t change it if I could.
Sexuality is unchangeable.”
With more than 1,200 in attendance, organizers said that this event was the
largest gathering of gay men and lesbians and their supporters in Virginia in
memory.
Acknowledging that compared to some other areas of Virginia, Richmond is seen
as hostile to gay and lesbian rights, Molly McClintock, of Equality Virginia
said, “We are in Richmond because the fight is in Richmond.”
The capitol of the Confederacy that fought for the right to hold slaves, Richmond
is shaping up as the site of a major battle over whether the state will be allowed
to discriminate against gays. Equality Virginia said that in a survey comparing
gay-friendly laws in the 50 states and D.C., Virginia ranked 49, behind only
Alabama and Oklahoma.
Virginia’s Marriage Affirmation Act, passed last year, prohibits any
“civil union, partnership contract or arrangement between persons of the
same sex.” Equality Virginia and other civil rights groups maintain that
the law is unconstitutional and damaging but it has not yet been fully challenged
in court. Virginia legislators have passed a first draft of a constitutional
amendment that, if approved by voters, would amend the state constitution to
ban same-sex marriage.
At last week’s event, gay men and lesbians from across Virginia celebrated
their growing political strength and three recent hard won victories in advancing
equal treatment under the law. This year in the Virginia Legislature, bills
to ban adoption by gay and lesbian parents and to prohibit Gay-Straight Student
Alliance groups were defeated and legislation allowing companies to offer health
insurance to same-sex partners was approved.
Bond emphasized the role Virginia has played in establishing civil rights precedents.
It was a challenge to Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law banning inter-racial
marriage that led to the Supreme Court decision in Loving vs. Virginia in 1967.
This decision struck down the laws that prohibited inter-racial marriage in
16 states and established marriage as one of the “basic civil rights of
man.” Bond said that this decision cleared the way for him to marry his
wife, Pat Horowitz, in Virginia.
“Many gays, many lesbians, worked side by side with me in the civil rights
movement. Am I supposed to tell them now thanks for risking their lives and
their limbs to help me win my rights but that they are excluded because of the
circumstances of their birth?” Bond said. “Not a chance.”
“The lessons of the civil rights movement of yesterday … is that
sometimes the simplest of ordinary everyday acts, of taking a seat on a bus,
of sitting down at a lunch counter, of applying for a marriage license, sometimes
these can have extraordinary consequences, can change our world,” Bond
said.
Bond’s speech drew a warm response from the crowd, which was overwhelmingly
white.
According to a National Gay & Lesbian Task Force report based on 2000 census
data, African Americans make up 13 percent of the population of the United States,
and 14 percent of same-sex couples have at least one African-American member.
The Task Force report also stated that the median annual income for black same-sex
couples is much lower than that of white same-sex couples. Black female couples
earn $40,000 while white female couples earn $60,000 and black male couples
earn $45,000 while white male couples earn $69,000.
According to Meredith Moise, a field organizer for Equality Maryland, the relatively
low visibility of black gays and lesbians is a factor in the same-sex marriage
debate, which has pitted the Coalition of African-American Pastors, sponsored
by the conservative Traditional Values Coalition, against others working for
marriage equality.
“Because the traditional black church is involved in so many things,
some ministers are still catching up to the issue ...
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