The other day, I was intrigued by the words of Min. Louis Farrakhan, as he gave a public address regarding President Obama’s announced support for gay marriage.  I love hearing what Minister Farrakhan has to say, and although I don’t agree with every word, I’m sure he doesn’t expect me to agree with everything he says either.  Instead, Farrakhan speaks the truth from his perspective, and he delivers it in a way that no one else can.

I was happy that Farrakhan threw his hat in the ring on the gay marriage conversation.  Here are the reasons why:

1) Farrakhan says the things that other are afraid to say:  For hundreds of years, black people have become well-conditioned to say things in a way as to keep our oppressors most comfortable.  Louis Farrakhan wasn’t trying to maintain a good relationship with the White House, for he doesn’t need approval from the White House in order to speak his mind.  He wasn’t trying to lobby for a job at MSNBC, since he knows how to make his own money.

Farrakhan wasn’t speaking to expand his platform to a liberal audience or trying to make sure that Chris Matthews, Bill Maher, Melissa Harris-Perry or some other liberal commentator is pleased with him.  Instead, Farrakhan laid his own gauntlet of truth in the middle of a very serious conversation, staking an independent claim to another point of view that can be added to the black national dialogue.  That is difficult to do when someone is threatening to yank you off the stage for being an impolite negro.

2) Farrakhan has a point of view that is respected by millions of black Americans:  Personally, gay marriage doesn’t bother me all that much, since a gay person has never asked for my hand in marriage.  But for millions of African Americans, the issue is problematic, and unfortunately, we live in a nation where religious differences are not always respected.  By speaking on the matter in a bold and forthright way, Minister Farrakhan is repeating millions of kitchen table conversations happening all across black America.

Far too often, the interests of black folks are hijacked by a liberal agenda, as our Democratic brothers and sisters end up treating us like Neanderthals who need to be taught how to think.  As a case-in-point, notice how Democratic pressure pushed the NAACP to defy the wishes of a large percentage of its membership in order to openly back the president.  The question I’d like to ask is whether or not the Democrats would be equally willing to defy millions of its members to support an African American issue.  I think we know the answer to that question.

3) He is not controlled or owned by anyone (at least not anyone in the liberal establishment):  Minister Farrakhan doesn’t get pressure from the White House when he says something that doesn’t please King Obama.  He is able to speak to the issues that matter to black folks without making sure that they fit snug within the acceptable talking points of the liberal agenda.  He runs an organization, The Nation of Islam, which has been able to create its own opportunities, and never fell for the disrespectful lie called “integration” as the key to its own liberation.

A lack of self-sufficiency is why, to this day, African Americans have the highest unemployment rates in the nation and we remain perpetually frustrated that we’re not getting promoted on our jobs as quickly as Bob Smith down the hall (Malcolm X warned us about this over 50 years ago).   The same liberals who push the black church on gay marriage are the ones who express little concern that black unemployment is nearly double that of whites or that black families have been destroyed due to mass incarceration and blatant sentencing disparities. Farrakhan doesn’t have to decide if he is going to be the house negro or the field negro, who must position himself within someone else’s institutions.  By creating institutions of his own, Farrakhan has followed the tradition of the runaway slave.

4) Barack Obama is NOT the first gay president:  When Newsweek proclaimed President Obama to be the first gay president, every Obama-loving, church-going black woman in the country shuttered at the fact that the most powerful black man in history had been emasculated right before her very eyes.  It would have been no more painful to hear that Barack had dumped Michelle for a white woman.  There’s nothing wrong with being gay, but there is something wrong with involuntarily “turning out” one of the most respected black men in history.   Farrakhan is one of the few black public figures willing to state the obvious, even in the face of liberal disdain.

Louis Farrakhan is a complex soul, but you can never call him weak or stupid.  Even black people who don’t agree with him typically have some kind of respect for him.  Whether you agree with Farrakhan’s position on gay marriage or not, the truth is that his opinion is valid, it should be heard and it’s the perspective of one of the few free black men in America.  Most importantly, Farrakhan didn’t need the liberal media machine’s permission to share his point of view.   That’s why I’m glad he spoke up.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.

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Leviticus 20:13: “If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.”

Huffington Post reports Gipson’s Facebook conversation below:

Then, veering even further away from politics and delving deeper into Old Testament religious doctrine — which also states that the earth is flat, snakes can talk, whores should be stoned to death and you should kill your neighbor for working on a Sabbath, Gibson had this to say:

Mississippi constituents at UnityMS flagged the post, reminding Gibson just who employs him:

Mr. Gipson needs to realize he represents all of his constituents. He should not cherry-pick which constituents he wants to work for. He should also realize his positions are neither popular nor Republican. LGBT individuals, couples, and families help pay Gipson’s salary. It’s important that he remember that.

According to the Post, “a November 2011 survey found that only 13 percent of Mississippi voters support marriage equality for the LGBT community, while 78 percent said it should remain illegal. Even among Democrats, only 19 percent expressed support.”

Is anyone surprised?

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“Newsweek” released the following preview of a piece by Andrew Sullivan analyzing Obama’s announcement on marriage equality:

“It’s easy to write off President Obama’s announcement of his support for gay marriage as a political ploy during an election year. But don’t believe the cynics. Andrew Sullivan argues that this announcement has been in the making for years. “When you step back a little and assess the record of Obama on gay rights, you see, in fact, that this was not an aberration. It was an inevitable culmination of three years of work.” And President Obama has much in common with the gay community. “He had to discover his black identity and then reconcile it with his white family, just as gays discover their homosexual identity and then have to reconcile it with their heterosexual family,” Sullivan writes.”

S**t? Meet Fan.

Black America has been turned on it’s head in the wake of “The Announcement” with civil rights and religious leaders such as Rev. Al Sharpton coming out in full support of the president and others, like Pastor Jamal Bryant, saying that they feel betrayed. Professor Michael Eric Dyson joined in the fray when he served as guest host on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” and called out religious “bigots” as “sexual rednecks.” Add to that half-way critics who are pitting the Black community against the LGBT community, as  if they don’t intertwine, and the situation has become combustible.

In an blog earlier this week, Sullivan articulated his unwavering support for the president’s move:

I do not know how orchestrated this was; and I do not know how calculated it is. What I know is that, absorbing the news, I was uncharacteristically at a loss for words for a while, didn’t know what to write, and, like many Dish readers, there are tears in my eyes.

So let me simply say: I think of all the gay kids out there who now know they have their president on their side. I think of Maurice Sendak, who just died, whose decades-long relationship was never given the respect it deserved. I think of the centuries and decades in which gay people found it impossible to believe that marriage and inclusion in their own families was possible for them, so crushed were they by the weight of social and religious pressure. I think of all those in the plague years shut out of hospital rooms, thrown out of apartments, written out of wills, treated like human garbage because they loved another human being. I think of Frank Kameny. I think of the gay parents who now feel their president is behind their sacrifices and their love for their children.

The interview changes no laws; it has no tangible effect. But it reaffirms for me the integrity of this man we are immensely lucky to have in the White House.

While the president has surely bolstered his support across the board with this move, it is clear that the dissension in the Black community will be a vulnerability for Obama in November — and “Newsweek” covers with the first Black POTUS with a halo over his head does nothing to stifle the conflict.

[Editor's Note: Though the cover appears on the May 21 issue of Newsweek, the magazine is currently available on iTunes.]

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In this exclusive opinion piece, noted Baltimore-based minister Rev. Dr. Jamal-Harrison Bryant responds to President Obama’s recent declaration of support for same-sex marriages.

————

The African American community has beamed with tremendous pride at the work of the first Black President, Barack Obama, in his first term: Bringing the troops home; creating jobs.; doubling the amount of Pell Grants available for college students; saving the automotive industry; appointing a record number of women & Latinos to strategic positions; stopping Osama Bin Laden; standing up for Trayvon Martin; acknowledging the Occupy Movement; addressing predatory lending; passing historic health care reform… amongst so many other accomplishments.

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Given this, I was taken aback by President Obama’s public endorsement of same sex marriage on Tuesday.

My feelings of disappointment arise not only from the fact that I don’t agree with the President, but also because his announcement came so suddenly, and without any warning to the Black church community.

The church at its core is to be a refuge for all of God’s children, including homosexuals. There is a gay community within the Black church. We can’t ignore them or bash them. However, the church has no shades of gray when it comes to marriage. Our faith reserves marriage for a man and a woman. President Obama, as a product of the Black church, is fully aware of that. Knowing this, the President made this endorsement without calling or preparing any of us.  For many of us, it felt like a betrayal.

The Black church has been there for him from the start. As a 3^rd generation member the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the oldest African American Protestant denomination in the country, I remember in 2008 when then-Senator Obama came to our general conference, the day after we unanimously passed legislation against same sex marriages. The Bishops of the church took him in private quarters and surrounded him, covering him in prayer. The photo of this moment soon went viral. After the inauguration, the President was met with an onslaught of disrespect, opposition and attack. But he has always been covered in prayer and supported in large measure by the Black church community. Even when national evangelical Franklin Graham openly questioned the President’s Christianity, the NAACP went with national religious leaders from different denominations to demand an apology.

Given this history, it’s not hard to understand why many Black pastors feel jilted. Many have hastened to declare that they will no longer support the President. But when I reflect about this current impasse with Barack Obama, I am reminded of a recent challenge I had as a father.

My oldest daughter is navigating her way through her first year of high school. A complete culture shock in her change of environment. New friends, new teachers, new building, new challenges and new expectations. By and large she is a finalist in her own teenage reality show, unofficially entitled “Survivor”. Recently, and with great trepidation, she handed me her report card. She excelled in language arts, science, music, and history. But algebra remained an albatross around her adolescent neck. It looks like she will have to follow her father’s footsteps and serve a stint in summer school. We are extremely proud of the strides she has made in every other area, but disappointed in her performance in math. But despite our dismay, as her chief supporters, there’s one thing we cannot do: give up on her or abandon her. We are committed to find her a tutor and to remain encouraging. She’s got a great future and this shortcoming will not stop her dreams of graduating, going to college and becoming the greatest journalist the world has ever seen.

Just as I believe in my daughter, I still believe in the President.

It’s has to be about more than our feelings and our differences. While my disagreement with the President on this issue is severe, I have to look at other issues at stake that are critical to our community: improving public education, investing in HBCUs, addressing Social Security, creating jobs, endorsing entrepreneurship, and leveling the paying field so that everybody gets a fair shot.

While I am uncomfortable with the President on this position, I am more uncomfortable with the alternative: an agenda that does not include the poor and platform that has not engaged minorities or the Black church.

This is not the time for us to become disengaged. We cannot afford apathy. This decision is not a reason to leave the political process. We have too much to lose. Our community must participate. That’s why I’m committed to registering a million new voters for November and to challenging vote suppression and voter intimidation.

There are people who want to know now, “What’s the point?” There are many who wonder, “Does it matter?” There are congregations and clergy that are trying to remain confident.

I am reminded of the words of a writer whose name now escapes me, who once said we must have the “audacity of hope.”

Dr. Jamal-Harrison Bryant is the pastor of the Empowerment Temple AME Church in Baltimore, Md.

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Tell us what you think!

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During Obama’s exclusive interview on “Good Morning America,” Obama told Roberts that he always believed that gays and lesbians should be treated fairly and equally.

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Here is more of what the President had to say on the matter:

“I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”

Tell us what you think!

NewsOne will be updating this post throughout the day.

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In the final days before the vote, members of President Barack Obama’s cabinet expressed support for gay marriage and former President Bill Clinton recorded phone messages urging voters to oppose the amendment.

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Supporters of the amendment responded with marches, television ads and speeches, including one by Jay Bakker, son of late televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. The Rev. Billy Graham was featured in full-page newspaper ads backing the amendment.

Experts expect the measure to pass, despite the state’s long history of moderate politics.

North Carolina law already bans gay marriage, but an amendment would effectively slam the door shut on same-sex marriages.

The fate of the amendment hinges on who shows up to vote. More than 500,000 voters had cast their ballot before Tuesday, more than the 2008 primary when Obama and Hillary Clinton were fighting for the Democratic presidential nomination. Both sides said that bodes well for them.

Obama’s North Carolina campaign spokesman issued a statement in March saying the president opposed the amendment. Obama, who supports most gay rights, has stopped short of backing gay marriage. Without clarification, he’s said for the past year and a half that his personal views on the matter are “evolving.”

His election-year vagueness on gay marriage is coming under fresh scrutiny.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan broke ranks with the White House on Monday, stating his unequivocal support for same-sex marriage one day after Vice President Joe Biden said he is “absolutely comfortable” with same-sex married couples getting the same rights at heterosexual married couples.

One fault line that could determine the result is generational. Older voters, who tend to be more reliable voters, are expected to back the amendment.

State House Speaker Thom Tillis, a Republican from a Charlotte suburb, said even if the amendment is passed, it will be reversed as today’s young adults age.

“It’s a generational issue,” Tillis told a student group at North Carolina State University in March about the amendment he supports. “If it passes, I think it will be repealed within 20 years.”

The amendment was placed on the ballot after Republicans took over control of the state legislature after the 2010 elections, a role the GOP hadn’t enjoyed for 140 years.

The amendment also goes beyond state law by voiding other types of domestic unions from carrying legal status, which opponents warn could disrupt protection orders for unmarried couples.

“I understand that we already have a law on the books invalidating gay marriage. I feel like it’s really important to stand up and be heard against any further discrimination,” elementary school teacher Amelia Rogers of Raleigh said before casting her ballot last weekend. “That’s the No. 1 reason why I’m coming out to vote today and it’s against any further discrimination.”

Those who oppose changing the traditional definition of marriage to include gays and lesbians said the amendment is the only chance average people have to weigh in.

“In other states, judges have redefined marriage, without a vote of the people. That’s happened in California, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts,” said Tami Fitzgerald, who heads the pro-amendment group Vote FOR Marriage NC. “The origin of marriage is from God, and I think most people in our state know that.”

While polls suggest a majority of likely voters supporting the amendment, an Elon University poll of adult residents in March found two-thirds of the state as a whole supports either gay marriage or civil unions.

“The Elon Poll is pretty consistent in indicating that people favor rights for gays and lesbians, but when you look at all the other polls that look at likely voters, they’re all pretty consistent” in predicting passage, Peace College political scientist David McLennan said.

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Gertz was in the Fullerton High School “Mr. Fullerton Pageant” Tuesday, April 3, night. When asked where he saw himself in 10 years, Gertz said that he hoped gay marriage would become legal, so that he could find a partner and marry without scrutiny from authorities.

“I just want to be able to sit on the couch by the person I love and happily proclaim that we’re married,” Gertz said, repeating what he stated during the pageant competition. “Hopefully 10 years from now, I’ll be able to do that if gay marriage is legal.”

The school’s assistant principal, Joe Abell, then pulled Gertz from the competition and had a few choice words for the senior. “As soon as I came offstage, he said, ‘Why would you say something like that?’ and told me I was disqualified,” Gertz shared later. According to Fullerton High rules, Gertz should not have been disqualified.

Fullerton students protested the decision and wrote a series of letters to Abell, asking where he saw himself in 10 years. Amid the pressure from the students, Abell addressed the students on Wednesday with a public apology.

“I made a judgment call during the question-and-answer portion of the competition that I sincerely regret making,” Abell said over loudspeaker to the students. “For doing this, I am truly and sincerely sorry.”

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“The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks – two key Democratic constituencies,” says one of the memos. It also suggests “interrupting” the process of cultural assimilation for Hispanics in hopes of curtailing support for same-sex marriage.

The documents, dating from 2009, were written by the National Organization for Marriage and had been kept from the public until Monday, when they were unsealed by court officials in Maine.

They were part of a two-pronged legal challenge of Maine’s financial disclosure laws. Still unresolved is whether the NOM will have to release the names of donors to its successful 2009 campaign to ban same-sex marriage in Maine.

The Human Rights Campaign, a major gay-rights organization, first circulated the documents Monday night, and its president, Joe Solmonese, assailed the strategies that they detailed.

“With the veil lifted, Americans everywhere can now see the ugly politics that the National Organization for Marriage traffics in every day,” Solmonese said. “While loving gay and lesbian couples seek to make lifelong commitments, NOM plays racial politics, tries to hide donors and makes up lies about people of faith.”

Through the Human Rights Campaign, veteran civil rights leader Julian Bond also condemned the NOM strategy.

“NOM’s underhanded attempts to divide will not succeed if Black Americans remember their own history of discrimination,” said the statement from Bond, a former chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “Pitting bigotry’s victims against other victims is reprehensible; the defenders of justice must stand together.”

NOM’s president, Brian Brown, was unapologetic, issuing a brief statement hailing his organization’s collaboration with other black and Hispanic leaders, including Bishop Harry Jackson, a Maryland church pastor, and New York state Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr.

“Gay marriage advocates have attempted to portray same-sex marriage as a civil right, but the voices of these and many other leaders have provided powerful witness that this claim is patently false,” Brown said.

“Gay marriage is not a civil right, and we will continue to point this out in written materials such as those released in Maine,” Brown added. “We proudly bring together people of different races, creeds and colors to fight for our most fundamental institution: marriage.”

The NOM documents depicted Democratic Party leaders as “increasingly inclined to privilege the concerns of gay rights groups over the values of African-Americans.”

“Find, equip, energize and connect African-American spokespeople for marriage; develop a media campaign around their objections to gay marriage as a civil right; provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots,” one memo said.

The memos stressed the pivotal political role of Latinos as a swing constituency.

“Will the process of assimilation to the dominant Anglo culture lead Hispanics to abandon traditional family values?” one NOM memo asked. “We must interrupt this process of assimilation by making support for marriage a key badge of Latino identity … a symbol of resistance to inappropriate assimilation.”

The NOM strategy also called for portraying President Barack Obama as a “social radical” and seeking to cast same-sex marriage in a negative light by linking it to other issues, such as pornography and sexualizing of children.

Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry, a national advocacy group supporting same-sex marriage, said the memos suggest the NOM “will stop at nothing to push its agenda, pitting American against American, minority against minority, family members against family members.”

“These smoking-gun documents show how NOM has sought, in the most cynical ways imaginable, to bait the gay community in hopes of provoking a hurt response that would further divide,” he said.

The NOM is playing an active role this year as battles over same-sex marriage unfold in several states.

In Maryland and Washington, the organization and its allies are gathering signatures to place measures on the Nov. 6 ballot that would overturn recently passed same-sex marriage laws.

In Maine, it will be seeking defeat of a measure already placed on the November ballot that would legalize same-sex marriage. In North Carolina and Minnesota, the NOM is supporting ballot measures that would amend the state constitutions to define marriage as only between a man and woman.

The unsealed court documents illustrated that the NOM sometimes falls short of its goals. The memos said a priority for 2010 was to repeal gay-marriage laws in New Hampshire, Iowa, and Washington, D.C. But same-sex marriage remains in effect in those three jurisdictions along with Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and New York.

The memos contained extensive details about NOM’s finances, but they do not identify individual donors, including three who had given more than $1 million apiece as of late 2009.

In Maine, the group leading the campaign to legalize same-sex marriage – Mainers United for Marriage – announced the appointment of Matt McTighe as campaign manager. He had been the state public education director for Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, a Boston-based gay-rights law firm.

McTighe said he was reviewing the NOM documents Tuesday, but was troubled by what he saw on first take.

“We try to focus on telling the positive stories on why marriage matters to all committed loving couples in Maine, and here they are trying to use fear and scare tactics to turn people off,” he said.

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The South Burlington-based subsidiary of the global food and cosmetics conglomerate Unilever is issuing the newly labeled ice cream in the United Kingdom, where the government has said it plans to legalize gay marriage and has begun public consultation before introducing legislation.

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When Vermont passed such a law two years ago, the ice cream company celebrated by briefly repackaging its Chubby Hubby flavor Hubby Hubby.

In Britain, Ben & Jerry’s is relabeling its Oh My Apple Pie flavor, which isn’t available in the United States.

“The point is to raise awareness around same-sex marriage issues,” company spokeswoman Liz Stewart said Friday.

The change won’t affect ice cream pints sold in stores, but the label at the company’s scoop shops will be changed, Stewart said.

“We’ve been an activist brand really since our inception in 1978,” she said. “We’ve stuck up for social justice issues in the past, and it’s something we’ll continue to do going forward.”

She said people at Ben & Jerry’s “believe love is love.”

“Marriage,” she said, “should just be defined by love and commitment.”

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled 2-1 Tuesday that a lower court judge interpreted the U.S. Constitution correctly in 2010 when he declared the ban, known as Proposition 8, to be a violation of the civil rights of gays and lesbians.

The measure, which passed with 52 percent of the vote in 2008, outlawed same-sex unions just five months after they became legal in the state.

Lawyers for Proposition 8 sponsors and for two couples who sued to overturn the ban have said they would appeal to the Supreme Court if they did not receive a favorable ruling from the 9th Circuit.

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Christie said, “I think people would have been happy to have a referendum on civil rights rather than fighting and dying in the streets in the South.”

The Huffington Post reports:

Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D), who supports gay marriage, criticized the comment. “I shudder to think what would have happened if the civil rights gains, heroically established by courageous lawmakers in the 1960s, were instead conveniently left up to popular votes in our 50 states,” he said, according to the Newark Star-Ledger.

Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) said the governor needed a “history lesson.”

Read More At The Huffington Post

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Obama is arguably the most gay friendly president in U.S. history.

His repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and passage of a federal law that further extends protections of LGBT people firmly solidifies his support from gay community.

However, one issue he has been slow to support-at least officially-is that of gay marriage. TheRoot says there would be benefits and risks behind such an endorsement:

If President Obama expressed support for marriage equality before the 2012 elections, there would be both benefits and risks. He would surely excite some of his supporters, especially those who feel that he too often shies away from bold stances in favor of measured pragmatism and common ground. On the other hand, some voters who support Obama but still oppose marriage equality may abandon the president over this issue. That leaves the president with two choices: Endorse marriage equality now or wait and play it safe until he is re-elected.

What do you think? Would supporting marriage rights invigorate Obama campaign? Or would such an endorsement derail his reelection hopes? Check out the rest of the article here.

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NAACP head Julian Bond, comedian Mo’Nique, and Newark Mayor Corey Booker have all made video testimonials supporting gay marriage.

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The New York Times reports:

This isn’t a topic that advocates for gay rights or their many black supporters relish discussing, because it focuses on a wedge where they wish there was a tighter bond. But polls indicate that support for same-sex marriage lags among black Americans.

In 2008 Californians passed Proposition 8, which prohibited state recognition of same-sex marriage, with a 52 percent majority. Voting analyses suggest that between 58 and 70 percent of black voters backed the prohibition.

Read More At The New York Times

Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann said that the gay lifestyle is “personal bondage and enslavement,” strongly expressing her opposition to the idea of “redefining marriage.”

Former Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin, who also opposes same-sex marriage, said that “family” is based on the “traditional” definition of marriage between a man and woman.

Most Republican, conservative Americans demonstrably reject the idea of legalizing marriage for gay and lesbian citizens.

Until now.

Jeff Angelo, former Iowa state senator is one of the few Republicans a part of a burgeoning movement for marriage equality. Angelo, who served as a senator for 12 years, is the founder of Republicans For Freedom, an organization that stands on a divergent stance among the Republican party in support of gay marriage.

Angelo recently said that his organization is defending the status quo for same-sex marriage in Iowa, which is one of only six states in the country to legalize marriage for gay and lesbian Americans.

Like his GOP cohorts, he once opposed same-sex marriage, but today has a change of heart, and is hoping that his grassroots movement in Iowa will someday be a model for the rest of the country.

But Angelo recognizes the collective attitude mainstream Republicans have towards gay marriage. A 2011 Gallup poll showed that only 28 percent of Republicans supported the idea of same-sex marriage, compared to 69 percent of Democrats.

“The opposition [to same-sex marriage] is well organized and gets a lot of media attention, but [I felt] there had to be an alternate group for Republicans that want to say ‘marriage is a great thing to promote, we’re glad that the gay community wants to be married, and we want to be supportive of that in our own political party,’” Angelo told NewsOne.

The GOP’s monolithic stance on gay marriage is very harmful to the party, according to Angelo. While Republicans stand on a platform of constitutional conservatism, Angelo said the opposition to gay marriage goes against the grain of what Republicans claim to uphold.

“We (Republicans) are pro-stable family, which marriage provides, and so when a gay man or a lesbian says ‘I want to be married’ we should encourage that,” he said. “It’s good for society and it is consistent with what the Republicans say they believe.”

“There are those that believe the Republican Party should be of one mind on this issue and they don’t believe that there should be room in the party for those that disagree.” Angelo said such a mindset is “never” healthy for any political party.

In addition to party fragmentation, Angelo says Republicans push away gay voters who may align politically with the party, but do not vote Republican because of this one issue. He feels there are probably many gay and lesbian citizens who like the GOP’s stance on foreign policy, low taxes, and pro-business, but do not support the party because they don’t feel welcomed.

“A gay person may be with the Republican party 95 percent of the time on their issues, but say ‘I’m not a Republican because you don’t make me feel welcomed’ and I think that’s a shame,” he lamented.

Not every organization in Iowa, however, shares such accepting views. The Family Leader, an organization founded by Bob Vander Plaats, a very well-respected GOP stalwart, dispersed a controversial “Marriage Vow” that most characterized as anti-gay. Plaats said that he would not support any presidential candidate who does not sign the pledge. So far, candidates Bachmann and Rick Santorum are the only two to either sign or commit to signing the pledge.

Angelo said the pledge was “tremendously insensitive.”

“So many people convince themselves that they can treat gay neighbors as second-class citizens,” he said.

Most Republicans reference religion as their basis for opposing same-sex marriage. But Angelo disputes that conservative penchant.

“Nobody’s freedom of religion is being threatened. Churches are allowed to disagree on this issue but the government can’t side with one church over the other,” he cautioned.

Although the Republicans For Freedom remain relatively modest in size, there is evidence to suggest that a cluster of gay-marriage-friendly Republicans is on the horizon. Though his political identification is now Republican turned Independent, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg publicly supported same-sex marriage and was a key player in legalizing it in the state.

Interestingly enough, Bloomberg’s predecessor Rudolph Giuliani also spoke on the Republican party’s opposition to gay marriage. Giuliani who said he personally believes marriage should be between a man and woman, told CNN’s Candy Crowley that Republicans need to “get the heck out of people’s bedrooms” and keep the discussion out of politics.

It seems Angelo isn’t alone.

Angelo maintains that the Republicans For Freedom are committed to setting political precedence for other states.

“Hopefully this is a model that other states can follow in regard to most Republicans and Democrats coming together for protecting the right to get marry,” he said.

With the debate on same-sex marriage, and the Gay Civil Rights movement still brewing on a state and federal level, it will be interesting to see what directives political movements like Angelo’s will take and the political impact they could make in government.

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“I don’t see how any African-American, with any inkling of history, can say that you don’t have the right to live your life how you want to live your life,” he said, according to the magazine. “No one should be telling you who you should love, no one should be telling you who you should be spending the rest of your life with. When we start talking about equality, and everybody being treated equally, I don’t want to know an African-American who will say everybody doesn’t deserve equality.”

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Drones of gay and lesbian citizens and their allies celebrated on the streets during the 2011 NYC Pride March on Sunday, waving the pride flag and signs reading, “Thank you, Governor Cuomo.” Cuomo played an integral part in passing the historic legislation, passionately advocating to lawmakers on behalf of same-sex supporters. The throng of celebrators fervently marched unlike they’ve ever done before.

Over forty years ago, however, such a blissful scenario was vacant. In its place was a city that championed laws that discriminated against gays and lesbians. In the 1960s, it was illegal for bars to sell alcohol to homosexuals, obliging them to socialize in illegal, mafia-owned establishments with unsanitary conditions. Openly gay men weren’t even allowed to become firefighters, let only be open at all. This was at a time when vigilantes innocuously attacked homosexuals walking the streets, deeming them weak and deserving of onslaught. Gays sought a place of refuge; somewhere they were safe, and unscathed from judgment or ridicule. Plain-clothed cops deceitfully posed as male decoys to tempt gay men in making sexual advancements, and arrested them for “soliciting” sex, otherwise known as entrapment.

Gay bars were regularly targeted and raided for no other reason than for being a “gay” bar. Life for gays and lesbians was far from blissful; they were harassed and lawfully unprotected. And unlike today, where Cuomo and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg used their political influence to fortify the livelihood of gays and lesbians, then-mayor Robert Wagner caused more aid than cease to the discrimination of homophiles.

It was not until the Stonewall Riots of 1969 that New York saw visible changes on the gay political front.

On June 28, 1969, a group of gay, lesbian and transgender citizens rioted outside the Stonewall Inn bar in Greenwich Village after it was raided by NYPD cops. They had grown agitated by the unrelenting harassment from city cops and chauvinists. That riot sparked proponents to vigorously advocate equality for a minority inhumanely tormented. Over the next decade, the gay community won many political battles including Frank Kameny and the Mattachine Society’s victory in convincing the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from its list of disorders in 1973, solidifying its place as a uniformed lifestyle, just as any other.

However, with the progression of this modern day civil rights movement, there will be obvious opponents: homophobes and religious proponents. However, New York’s legal triumph on same-sex marriage will undoubtedly set precedence for future legislation.

Polls conducted by Quinnipiac University and Gallup showed that 56 percent of New Yorkers and 53 percent of Americans favored same-sex marriage—the highest approval in history. These numbers, and the political advancement of the gay civil rights movement suggests that most Americans no longer fall victim to the bigotry that historically plagued the homophile populace.  The LGBT community is no threat to religious systems, or to the American household.

What one does in the comfort of his or her home should have no affect on one’s religious or personal convictions. These changing times will, hopefully, lead to a place of absolute humanity, where all are allowed to love whomever they please — and the legal rights that come with it — exempt from violence, hate and all ridicule.

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New York will become the sixth state where gay couples can wed and the biggest by far.

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“We are leaders and we join other proud states that recognize our families and the battle will now go on in other states,” said Sen. Thomas Duane, a Democrat.

Gay rights advocates are hoping the vote will galvanize the movement around the country and help it regain momentum after an almost identical bill was defeated here in 2009 and similar measures failed in 2010 in New Jersey and this year in Maryland and Rhode Island.

Though New York is a relative latecomer in allowing gay marriage, it is considered an important prize for advocates, given the state’s size and New York City’s international stature and its role as the birthplace of the gay rights movement, which is considered to have started with the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village in 1969.

The New York bill cleared the Republican-controlled state Senate on a 33-29 vote. The Democrat-led Assembly, which passed a different version last week, is expected to pass the new version with stronger religious exemptions and Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who campaigned on the issue last year, has promised to sign it. Same-sex couples can begin marrying begin 30 days after that.

The passage of New York’s legislation was made possible by two Republican senators who had been undecided.

Sen. Stephen Saland voted against a similar bill in 2009, helping kill the measure and dealing a blow to the national gay rights movement.

“While I understand that my vote will disappoint many, I also know my vote is a vote of conscience,” Saland said in a statement to The Associated Press before the vote. “I am doing the right thing in voting to support marriage equality.”

Gay couples in gallery wept during Saland’s speech.

(See: Senate blocks bill that included ethanol repeal)

Sen. Mark Grisanti, a GOP freshman from Buffalo, also said he would vote for the bill. Grisanti said he could not deny anyone what he called basic rights.

The effects of the law could be felt well beyond New York: Unlike Massachusetts, which pioneered gay marriage in 2004, New York has no residency requirement for obtaining a marriage license, meaning the state could become a magnet for gay couples across the country who want to have a wedding in Central Park, the Hamptons, the romantic Hudson Valley or that honeymoon hot spot of yore, Niagara Falls.

New York, the nation’s third most populous state, will join Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C., in allowing same-sex couples to wed.

For five months in 2008, gay marriage was legal in California, the biggest state in population, and 18,000 same-sex couples rushed to tie the knot there before voters overturned the state Supreme Court ruling that allowed the practice. The constitutionality of California’s ban is now before a federal appeals court.

While court challenges in New York are all but certain, the state – unlike California – makes it difficult for the voters to repeal laws at the ballot box. Changing the law would require a constitutional convention, a long, drawn-out process.

The sticking point over the past few days: Republican demands for stronger legal protections for religious groups that fear they will be hit with discrimination lawsuits if they refuse to allow their facilities to be used for gay weddings.

The climactic vote came after more than a week of stop-and-start negotiations, rumors, closed-door meetings and frustration on the part of advocates. Online discussions took on a nasty turn with insults and vulgarities peppering the screens of opponents and supporters alike and security was beefed up in the capitol to give senators easier passage to and from their conference room.

The night before, President Barack Obama encouraged lawmakers to support gay rights during a fundraiser with New York City’s gay community. The vote also is sure to charge up annual gay pride events this weekend, culminating with parades Sunday in New York City, San Francisco and other cities.

Despite New York City’s liberal Democratic politics and large and vocal gay community, previous efforts to legalize same-sex marriage failed over the past several years, in part because the rest of the state is more conservative than the city.

The bill’s success this time reflected the powerful support of Cuomo and perhaps a change in public attitudes. Opinion polls for the first time are showing majority support for same-sex marriage, and Congress recently repealed the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that barred gays from serving openly in the military.

In the week leading up to the vote in New York, some Republicans who opposed the bill in 2009 came forward to say they were supporting it for reasons of conscience and a duty to ensure civil rights.

Pressure to vote for gay marriage also came from celebrities, athletes and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Republican-turned-independent who has long used his own fortune to help bankroll GOP campaigns and who personally lobbied some undecided lawmakers. Lady Gaga has been urging her 11 million Twitter followers to call New York senators in support of the bill.

While the support of the Assembly was never in doubt, it took days of furious deal-making to secure two Republican votes needed for passage in the closely divided Senate.

Representatives of the Roman Catholic Church, Orthodox rabbis and other conservative religious leaders fought the measure, and their GOP allies pressed hard for stronger legal protections for religious organizations.

Each side of the debate was funded by more than $1 million from national and state advocates who waged media blitzes and promised campaign cash for lawmakers who sided with them.

But GOP senators said it was Cuomo’s passionate appeals in the governor’s mansion on Monday night and in closed-door, individual meetings that were perhaps most persuasive.

The bill makes New York only the third state, after Vermont and New Hampshire, to legalize marriage through a legislative act and without being forced to do so by a court.

During his “Keeping Them Honest” segment, Cooper said “New questions are being raised about what the president actually believes about gay marriage and whether his public opposition to it is real or just political posturing.”

He then narrated Obama’s position on gay marriage; initially supporting it in a written statement back in 1996, to opposing it when he began running for national office.

Cooper said, “Hard to see how the president’s position has changed so much. The only thing that has changed is his need for a wider audience to vote for him.”

The Huffington Post Reports:

Cooper then brought on gay rights activist Cleve Jones and Democratic strategist Paul Begala to discuss Obama’s flip-flopping. Jones called the president’s moves a “political calculation, and sadly, I think it’s the wrong one.”

“You know, Paul, Democrats attack conservatives for being hypocritical on issues that they’re hypocritical about,” Cooper said to Begala. “But I don’t hear a lot of Democrats attacking their own president for hypocrisy.”

The White House recently released a statement that Obama feels the issue of same-sex marriage should be left up to the States.

Read More At HuffingtonPost.com

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The retired athlete took it even further this week when he said he would trade his iconic catch and victory over the Patriots if it means gay marriage being banned.

In a video for the National Organization For Marriage, Tyree said that passing a gay marriage bill would lead to “anarchy.” His former teammate Michael Strahan and New York Rangers star Sean Avery have made videos for the legalization of it.

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“Although the President believes that this is an issue best addressed by the states, he also firmly believes that committed gay and lesbian couples should receive equal protection under the law,” the emailed statement said.

The Huffington Post Reports:

Respect for states’ rights with regards to marriage is a position shared by many prominent officials and politicians, including Republicans like Dick Cheney. While it falls far short of a full-throated endorsement of same-sex marriage — a gap that will keep LGBT activists rankled — as it comes just days before Thursday gala, the White House official’s statement offers both an indication of where Obama’s evolution currently stands and a hint as to how the president will handle the inquiries that will be coming his way.

Obama is reportedly looking for politically comfortable ways to take a more open stance on same-sex marriage. Stressing states’ rights, with a basic federal guarantee of benefits for same-sex couples, could be the path he’s looking for.

This comes at a time when the political discourse on same-sex marriage has reached an all-time high, as the state of New York is close to passing a bill that would legalize marriage for gay and lesbian couples.

Many considered Obama’s stance on same-sex marriage vague as Press Secretary Jay Carney has repeatedly said that the president’s position on the issue is “evolving.”

Nevertheless, Obama is expected to host a high-profile fundraiser at an LGBT gala in New York City on Thursday.

Read More At HuffingtonPost.com

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NEW YORK – Supporters and opponents of gay marriage made 11th-hour appeals on Sunday as state lawmakers weighed a vote on making New York the sixth state — and the most populous — to legalize same-sex marriage.

The measure that would make gay marriage legal, introduced by Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat and strong advocate, is currently one vote shy of passage in the state Senate.

The state Assembly approved the bill by a wide margin last week, and Monday is the last day of the legislative session before summer recess.

New York’s Archbishop, Timothy Dolan, reiterated his and the Catholic Church’s opposition to gay marriage on Sunday, vowing to oppose “any radical bill to redefine the very essence of marriage.”

“One has to wonder why the proponents of this radical redefinition, who claim overwhelming popular support, would not consider” a referendum “on such a drastic departure from traditional values?” he wrote on his blog.

Recent polls show statewide support for gay marriage.

Dolan wrote that the “government presumes to redefine” such sacred words as father, mother, husband and wife “at the peril of the common good.”

In Albany, Senate Majority Leader Republican Dean Skelos has said the bill as written has prompted concerns over its religious clauses and exemptions.

The bill does not compel any member of the clergy to conduct same-sex marriages, but some Republican lawmakers are concerned the legal protection is not strong enough.

Skelos said Cuomo has indicated he was open to including more specific exemptions for religious groups.

The governor has lobbied for passage and said he remains cautiously optimistic the bill will come to a vote and pass.

Meanwhile gay marriage advocates, including Latinos United for Marriage Equality, rallied on Sunday.

“Our demand today is simple and reasonable: bring Marriage Equality to a vote on Monday,” said Jake Goodman of the group Queer Rising, in a statement.

The group held a “Last Day of Marriage Inequality” rally in Manhattan’s Union Square, where supporters carried signs that read “‘I do’” support marriage equality” and “Be a leader: introduce the bill.”

New Yorkers United for Marriage also held rallies around the state.

The stakes are especially high because New York would become the most populous U.S. state to allow gay marriage approved by lawmakers, spelling a huge gay rights victory.

The state-by-state battle over gay marriage has become a contentious U.S. social issue ahead of the 2012 presidential and congressional elections.

Five states — Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire and Vermont — and the District of Columbia allow gay marriage, while four states have civil unions. Gay marriage is specifically banned in 39 states.

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There is no just comparison between America’s struggle to overcome the evils of slavery and the promotion of the lifestyle of homosexuality. It is preposterous for Mayor Bloomberg to degrade and minimize the plight of African-Americans in this civil rights struggle by equating it with the effort to push to legalize homosexual marriage.

Black Americans should not sit back and let Mayor Bloomberg compare the long struggle of their ancestors against American slavery to the current fight for a lifestyle choice. The effort to redefine marriage to include a man and a man or a woman and a woman can never be compared to the struggle against slavery.

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Civil unions in the Rainbow State would start Jan. 1, 2012, making Hawaii the seventh state to permit civil unions or similar legal recognitions for gay couples. Five other states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriage.

“This bill represents equal rights for everyone in Hawaii, everyone who comes here. This is to me the essence of the aloha spirit,” Abercrombie said at a signing ceremony. “With its signing, I want to say ‘welcome’ to the world, come to paradise.”

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A crowd of exuberant supporters yelled, cheered and applauded as the Democrat inscribed his signature on the legislation, making it the first law he’s enacted since he was elected in November. The bill passed the state Legislature last week.

“We’re contributing to society, and we deserve the same rights as everyone else. It’s been a long, long time coming,” said Van Law of Honolulu, who wore a rainbow lei and watched the bill’s signing.

The new law follows nearly 20 years of court fights, protest rallies and passionate public debate in a state that has long been a gay rights battleground.

Just seven months ago, former Republican Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed a similar bill because she said it was same-sex marriage by another name.

But civil unions have been heading toward passage since Abercrombie defeated two gubernatorial candidates who opposed them, and only one state legislator who supported them lost re-election.

Hawaii, already known as one of the nation’s premier locations for destination weddings and honeymoons, could see an influx of gay and lesbian visitors hoping to have their partnerships solemnized on sandy, windswept beaches, according to tourism businesses.

“It’s overwhelming,” said Tambry Young, who has pushed for civil unions with her partner for more than two years. “All the families here can now feel like it doesn’t matter what kind of family you have.”

Arguments over civil unions and gay marriage have long divided the state, which nearly became the first in the nation to legalize gay marriage in 1993 because of a state Supreme Court ruling.

But voters overwhelmingly passed the nation’s first “defense of marriage” constitutional amendment five years later, which resulted in a law banning gay marriage but leaving the door open for civil unions.

Since then, 29 other states also have enacted defense of marriage amendments.

Opponents of civil unions say the partnerships could lead to same-sex marriage, likely through a court challenge based on the argument that gay couples aren’t truly being treated equally unless they’re allowed to marry.

State Sen. Mike Gabbard, a leader in the movement against same-sex marriage in the 1990s, called the bill’s signing “a sad day for the people of Hawaii.”

“The people of Hawaii made it clear that they’re against civil unions and same-sex marriage, and the politicians have basically said ‘To hell with you,’” said Gabbard, a Democrat.

The signing coincided with Hawaii-born President Barack Obama’s order Wednesday for his administration to stop defending a federal law banning recognition of gay marriage, and a vote in the Maryland Senate to legalize gay marriage. Illinois legalized civil unions last month.

“It’s a fantastic day,” said Tony Wagner of the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign, who attended the signing. “It’s been a good couple of months thus far since the elections. We’re going to keep fighting for equality day in and day out.”

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The MBFA’s efforts include producing a public service announcement and providing funding and support to Equality Maryland, Trans-United, the Maryland ACLU and other LGBT groups across the state. The organization also appeared in the film “Maryland Voices of Equality” that highlights issues facing LGBT Marylanders.

The last effort to bring marriage equality to Maryland ended when the Court of Appeals in Sept. 2007 upheld traditional marriage in a 4-3 decision. Chief Judge Robert Bell, the first black person to lead the court, dissented from the majority’s opinion. He noted while “there are important differences between the African American experience and that of gays and lesbians in this country [...] many of the arguments made in support of the anti-miscegenation laws were identical to those made today in opposition to same-sex marriage.”

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Carrington supported Bell’s sentiments, adding gays and lesbians were some of the first to support the black civil rights movement.

“Back in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, lesbians and gays joined in the work of the civil rights movement to help African Americans get their full inclusion in our country and into our institutions,” he said. “I don’t see how you can turn your back on a group of folks that are fighting for a chance to have the same rights. As Dr. King had said, anytime that there is a threat to justice anywhere it’s a threat to justice everywhere.”

Read more at edgeboston.com

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WASHINGTON– Vice President Joe Biden said Friday that the country is evolving on the issue of gay marriage and he thinks it’s inevitable there will be national consensus.

He said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” the same thing is happening with the issue of marriage that happened with gays’ service in the military.

Changes in attitudes by military leaders, those in the service and the public allowed the repeal by Congress of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that will eventually allow gays to serve openly in the military.

Gay marriage is still not legal in most states. President Barack Obama recently said his feelings on the gay marriage issue are evolving, but he still believes in allowing strong civil unions that provide certain protections and legal rights that married couples have.

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A dramatic new chapter in the legal fight over Proposition 8 opens today, with debate over the purpose of marriage, the power of social convention and the rights of gay individuals televised live from federal court for the first time.

First, however, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco will hear an hour of debate over whether backers of California’s Proposition 8 even have the right to defend the voter-approved measure.

Discussion of the historic ruling and its constitutional soundness, set for the second half of a two-hour hearing, is sure to be emotional and capture public attention “because it’s sexier stuff, no pun intended,” said Vik Amar, a University of California, Davis, constitutional law expert.

But the debate over merits may matter less, Amar said, if the judges ultimately focus only on the question of standing. They could disqualify the proponents or Imperial County – or both – because they don’t pass the constitutional test for standing in federal court.

The 2008 proposition amended California’s constitution to declare marriage to be only between a man and a woman.

Read entire article at MiamiHerald.com

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On Sept. 22, Benjamin T. Jealous, the charismatic head of the NAACP, made history. On that Wednesday, Jealous spoke at Manhattan’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in Greenwich Village to promote the upcoming One Nation Working Together march on Washington, D.C.

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Glenn Beck thinks gay marriage is not a threat to America.

Why doesn’t Glenn Beck cover gay marriage? Because he doesn’t believe it’s a threat to the nation.

In a conversation with Bill O’Reilly on why he avoids culture war issues, Beck admitted that he doesn’t think marriage should be a political issue.

Read more at HuffPo

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SAN FRANCISCO — The federal judge who overturned California’s same-sex marriage ban ruled Thursday that gay marriages can resume starting Aug. 18.

The decision by Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker means gay and lesbian couples will have to wait six days before they can get married. That gives gay marriage opponents time to appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. If the appeals court fails to act by 5 p.m. local time next Wednesday, then gay marriages can go forward.

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