My concluding comments in the WaPo:

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...It is NOT the right of Harris and others of his ilk to deny the right to marry to others because of their personal beliefs, prejudices, or hang-ups.

I’m with Julian Bond and Yolanda King on this matter. Narrow-minded Black folks like Harris who oppose same-sex marriage have betrayed the legacy of humanity, compassion and struggle bequeathed to us by our ancestors.

And we all need to call them to account.

This past Saturday, The Washington Post ran an abysmal “editorial” by a journalism (go figure) grad student named Taylor Harris, decrying Julian Bond’s chastizing African Americans for opposing gay marriage.

Gay marriage is, indeed, a civil rights matter. I wrote the following in response.  (I haven’t changed a thing, not even the typos.)

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One of the strengths of our (African-Americans’) struggle for equality in this nation has been our use of the Constitution as a weapon—a battering ram to tear down walls of de jure segregation and discrimination—and then as a bludgeon, to beat into submission those red-white-and-blue, racist hypocrites who profess their ardent belief in “American” ideals while still fighting tooth and nail to bar us from the welcome table of full participation in the nation’s mainstream affairs politically, economically and socially. Bond and others are spot-on in their assessment that African-Americans, by virtue of our anguished history in this nation, should know better than to oppose gay marriage.

It is, after all, we who have been the moral, ethical, social and political conscience of this nation since before its founding, we who faced down lynch mobs, attack dogs and fire hoses, challenging the nation, in the words of the late Dr. King, to “rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed.”

Personally held moral objections or reservations should have no bearing whatsoever on a matter of civil and human rights, which is what gay marriage is. I will leave aside for the moment the matter of human rights except to note that the freedom to take a life partner of one’s choosing certainly fits the rubric of inalienable birthrights: the right to dignity, freedom from oppression, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is the notion of gay marriage as civil rights issue that raises the hackles of many Blacks; they just don’t—or won’t—see the parallels with the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement. As practicing Christians and Muslims many cannot get past their religion-based judgment that homosexuality as immoral, repugnant, even evil.

But the fact of the matter is this nation, in theory and intent, at least, is a nation ruled by law—not religious dogma.

Civil rights is about, in part, equal protection under the law—how people are treated and what rights they are accorded in civil society, and marriage is, among other things, very much a vivil matter. Like operating a motor vehicle or practicing medicine, it requires a license, issued by a government entity. It is a contractual matter, the affairs of which often are mediated by the courts. Dissolution of marriage requires legal action by a civil authority. So, since marriage is a civil matter, then the denial of the right to marry becomes a civil rights issue.

It’s not rocket science.

Further, there are rights that enure to married couples (inheritance, Social Security and insurance benefits, issues w/regard to medical permissions/decisions and hospital access, power of attorney issues, etc., etc.) that gay couples who are denied the right to marry go without—often to the detriment of the parties involved. And that is a blatant violation of the Constitution’s Fourteenth-Amendment equal protection clause.

Those like Harris who oppose gay marriage on moral or religious grounds are free to believe what they will. They also are free to belong to a church, synagogue, temple, mosque, coven—whatever—that won’t perform wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples. That is their right.

However, there are religious institutions that do perform such rites, and those ceremonies should be as legal as heterosexual marriages. And absent a religious institution willing to perform such ceremonies, then civil ceremonies should be available for gay couples—as they are for heterosexual couples….

@ Robertin:
Frankly I care less what someone does with/in their private life. However there is no way for me to know if someone is having sex with their same sex unless they state that to me. If I enter a room everyone knows that I am black. There lies the difference in why you cannot compare the Civil Rights Movement that began by blacks in America to the Gay Rights Movement now. And for one more bit of enlightenment; although there have been way too many hate crimes against the GLTB community/individuals…it is not legislated to treat them in an inhumane way…as it was with Jim Crow Laws. While I could give a tittle about who wants to marry whom - I certainly want it known that this issue is NOT, in fact, resembling anything the original movement for peoples civil rights in this country that began by blacks for persons that were treated inhumanely BY LAW in this country.

Peace.