“It's bad enough for President Obama to personally support gay marriage, now he and this ad are urging Black Christians to ignore their pastors and are attempting to re-educate the Black Christian community for political gain. This has to stop.”
-- Rev. Williams Owens, President of the Coalition of African-American Pastors
For background, read Voters Can Stop Maryland being Eighth 'Gay Marriage' State and also read Black Pastors Line up to Oppose Obama as well as Black Pastors Split with NAACP, Obama on Gay Agenda
-- From "President Obama’s voice featured in new same-sex marriage radio ad in Maryland" by John Wagner, The Washington Post 10/25/12
The ad, produced by Marylanders for Marriage Equality, highlights the emphasis both sides have put on wooing African-American voters, who make up a larger share of the electorate in Maryland than in any state outside the Deep South.
Proponents have also featured civil rights leaders and black ministers in their ads, arguing that allowing gay people to wed is the fair thing to do whether one personally approves or not.
They have also emphasized Obama’s conversion and the endorsement of same-sex marriage this spring of the NAACP.
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From "Black vote key to Maryland gay marriages" by Pamela Nonga Ngue, California News Service 10/31/12
Increasing acceptance of same-sex marriage among African American voters could propel Maryland to become the first state to legalize same-sex marriage through a ballot referendum.
Initially, opposition among African American churches presented a formidable obstacle in a state whose population is almost one-third black and is among the nation's most reliable Democratic states.
But recent polls have revealed a shift in African American attitudes, which could have implications for same-sex measures around the nation, including those in Minnesota, Maine and Washington state. Support for marriage rights from President Obama has contributed to a growing acceptance among blacks that parallels evolving attitudes in the population as a whole.
A Washington Post poll this month showed the measure ahead by nine percentage points, though a Baltimore Sun poll released last weekend showed it a dead heat. If approved, the law will go into effect on Jan. 1.
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From "Black Shift on Maryland Gay Marriage Pits Clergy Against NAACP" By William Selway, Business Week 10/19/12
Black voters have traditionally opposed gay marriage. . . .
[However,] Black opinion in Maryland shifted after Obama this year publicly backed same-sex marriage and the NAACP announced its support. A Pew Research Center national poll yesterday on Hispanics found that 52 percent said they supported gay marriage, a shift from 2006 when 56 percent opposed it.
. . . backers of gay marriage are making a direct appeal to blacks, who make up a quarter of the state’s voters, using television ads that feature ministers and a civil-rights leader explaining their support.
The Maryland ballot initiative is pitting minister against minister.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Maryland voters' support for same-sex marriage slips" by Danielle Ryan, Los Angeles Times 10/31/12
The change appears to be partly driven by black pastors in Maryland urging their congregations to vote against the measure.
The latest polling for the [Baltimore] Sun, conducted Oct. 20-23 by the Annapolis, Md., firm OpinionWorks, now shows 50% of black voters against same-sex marriage, with 42% supporting the idea.
Turnout in the state is likely to be driven by the presidential election, with Democrats expected to show up in big numbers. In the 2008 election, African Americans accounted for 25% of the Maryland vote.
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From "Black Pastors: Pro-Gay-Marriage Ad ‘Manipulating the Black Community’" by Matt Cover, CNSNews.com 11/1/12
A group of African-American pastors is slamming a political ad that urges Marylanders to vote for a ballot referendum that would legalize same-sex marriage, calling it an attempt “to re-educate the black community” on the issue.
“This ad is the worst attempt at pandering and manipulating the Black community to ignore their own pastors who rightfully uphold the sanctity of traditional marriage. President Obama, whose support for same-sex marriage is used in the ad to explicitly pressure Black listeners to ignore their church's teachings, must disavow the ad and its message,” Owens said.
Black Christian churches traditionally have opposed homosexual marriage on religious grounds, often frustrating the attempts of liberals who try to enact it. In Maryland, the state legislature passed a same-sex marriage bill earlier this year, prompting the ballot measure as a last-chance effort by opponents of gay marriage to stop the law from taking effect.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Gay Marriage On Ballot In Four States; Obama Endorses Measures" by Liz Halloran, National Public Radio 10/26/12
. . . over the past decade and a half, each of the 30 states to consider constitutional amendments that would outlaw such unions has adopted the ban — from Alaska in 1998 to North Carolina earlier this year.
That may change on Election Day, when voters in Maryland, Washington, Maine and Minnesota — awash in money, messages and advertisements from both sides of the issue — will make their decision on whether to recognize gay marriage.
The Maryland Marriage Alliance has featured black preachers in its ads, and a note opposing gay marriage written by a niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. appears on the organization's website.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
