The state NAACP has called it “an election trick.” A prominent Greensboro African American leader, Shirley Frye, will express her opposition Wednesday at a news conference sponsored by the National Conference for Community and Justice. “I just believe in treating people the way I want to be treated,” she said last week. “It’s unfair for me to intrude on someone else’s life. It’s a personal issue.” Two former Charlotte mayors — one an African American Democrat, the other a white Republican, have teamed for a video against Amendment One — which would constitutionally define marriage in North Carolina as strictly between one man and one woman. Says the Republican, Richard Vinroot: “It’s unnecessary and may have unintended consequences.” Adds Harvey Gantt, the first black mayor of Charlotte: “Even worse, Amendment One writes discrimination into our constitution.” As recently as 2003, some of us were lamenting what we saw as acute homophobia in the black community. A Bennett College forum on that issue, also in 2003, seemed to confirm those perceptions. Even in the wake of the severe beating of a gay Morehouse College student, which had made national headlines, there were snickers and derisive comments, especially among male students from N.C. AT. Nine years later, is the tide turning? It certainly seems that way. In a recent interview with the News Record’s editorial board, Democrats Earl Jones and Marcus Brandon — who agree on almost nothing — both readily expressed opposition to the amendment. Brandon is an openly gay state House member whom Jones wants (very badly) to unseat in the 60th District. Both men are black. Their district is majority black. Jones characterized the amendment as “a distraction and a nonissue” and went so far as to say he would support repeal of the current state law against gay marriage. Added Brandon: “The marriage amendment serves exactly no purpose.” Ditto in an interview last week with another pair of black Democrats, Gladys Robinson and Bruce Davis, who are facing off for a state Senate seat in majority-black District 28. “It shouldn’t be on the ballot,” said Davis, who is running against Robinson for a second consecutive election. Said Robinson: “I’m a Christian and I believe marriage is between a man and a woman, … but I don’t support discrimination.” In 2008 and 2009, a Pew Forum poll found that 62 percent of African Americans opposed gay marriage in 2008 and 2009. By 2010, the number dropped to 59 percent but was still significantly greater than white opposition to gay marriage, which polled at 46 percent in 2010. So what’s happening in 2012? The Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, won’t go so far as to say he supports gay marriage. But he did write in a 2011 op-ed: “The NAACP strongly urges you to reject the so-called same-sex amendment and any other present or future proposals of constitutional amendments that would permanently deprive any person in our great state of his or her inalienable rights.” Barber will attend an anti-amendment rally Monday at Greensboro’s College Park Baptist Church. Two days later Frye, hotelier Dennis Quaintance and former state House Rep. Jim Morgan will speak at the NCCJ press conference at the Proximity Hotel. “Who has the right to tell me who to marry?” Frye said. In an ironic way, the politics of the North Carolina amendment also may have helped stoke this somewhat surprising wave of black opposition. Some view the amendment’s presence on the May 8 ballot more as a clever confection to energize GOP voter turnout than a moral or religious cause. Thus, these developments may signal only a gradual change in black attitudes, not a seismic shift. Which means Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis may have been absolutely right when he predicted of Amendment One: “If it passes, I think it will be repealed within 20 years.” If it passes. Contact Editorial Page Editor Allen Johnson at ajohnson@news-record.com
African Americans traditionally have been particularly conservative on the issue of gay rights, an attitude largely rooted in the black church. In fact, the black vote was instrumental in the passage of a California anti-gay marriage amendment in 2008. One exit poll placed it at 70 percent. Later analysis suggested that the number may have been closer to 58 percent.
But that was still solid support. And black clergy helped lead the charge.
Article source: http://www.news-record.com/content/2012/04/16/article/gay_marriage_debate_may_signal_shift_in_black_attitudes