What's with African American opposition to gay marriage in Maryland?

By Jonathan Capehart

Now that the Maryland state Senate has passed

a marriage equality bill, the action shifts to the House of Delegates where support for and against the measure is almost evenly split. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, African American churches and lawmakers are figuring prominently in the opposition. And they are doing so with outdated and backward arguments that put them in the role of latter-day George Wallaces blocking the doors of marriage to committed gay and lesbian couples.

In his blog on the Maryland state senate debate of the bill, The Post's John Wagner wrote:

Sen. Joanne Benson (D-Prince George's) recalled her late father, a minister and "civil rights warrior," in explaining her intention to vote against the bill. Benson said she watched her father marry many people in their home and that she believes marriage should be reserved for people who can have children. "Two people of the same sex cannot produce children," Benson said.

Let me deal with the procreation argument first. As recently as last week, President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder knocked down this flimsy excuse when they announced that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and would no longer defend it. See the last paragraph in the "Standard of Review" section of the Holder letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). And I suppose straight marriages involving childless couples are invalid and couples who can't or don't want to have children should be denied marriage licenses.

Then there is Benson's invocation of the Civil Rights movement. As if the fight for dignity, equity and fairness is the sole province of African Americans.



Civil rights hero and Medal of Freedom winner Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) has continuously and vocally made the link between the Civil Rights movement and the struggle of gay men and lesbians against inequality, discrimination and second-class citizenship. During the 1996 House debate over the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, Lewis gave an impassioned floor speech.

You cannot tell people they cannot fall in love. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used to say when people talked about interracial marriage and I quote, `Races do not fall in love and get married. Individuals fall in love and get married.' Why do you not want your fellow men and women, your fellow Americans to be happy? Why do you attack them? Why do you want to destroy the love they hold in their hearts? Why do you want to crush their hopes, their dreams, their longings, their aspirations? We are talking about human beings, people like you, people who want to get married, buy a house, and spend their lives with the one they love. They have done no wrong.

Julian Bond, the chairman of the NAACP and another front-line soldier in the civil rights movement, is in complete agreement. In a 2008 interview with me for PBS's "In The Life," Bond called the marriage a civil right that should be open to all.

It seems to me the right to be married is a civil right. And I believe civil rights ought to be extended to everybody. Who ought not have these rights? What category of people ought not have these rights? I can't think of one. I've been married twice and I know...what the benefits are.

Rev. Al Sharpton made his support for marriage equality known during his run for president in 2004. He slammed California's Proposition 8 in a powerful sermon in Atlanta in 2009. And he supports the effort now underway to bring marriage equality to New York State.

If these three giants in the black community and in the civil rights movement can be so forceful, clear and impassioned in their support for marriage equality, why can't black lawmakers in Maryland get there?