Group uses NAACP convention to tout Florida marriage amendment

Blacks for Marriage Coalition: Gay rights aren’t the same as civil rights

OKALOOSA ISLAND — A new coalition chose the NAACP’s state convention to announce its support Thursday for passage of Florida’s Marriage Protection Amendment.

It was a strange place for the announcement; the Florida State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People had come out against Amendment 2.

“We are against Amendment 2 and our reason is the amendment would allow a way for discriminatory practices to be used,” said Adori Obi Nweze, president of the state conference. “(The NAACP) has been around for 99 years fighting discrimination in this country. It makes no sense we still have to face it in these times.”

Amendment 2 would make marriage between a man and woman the only “legal union” considered “valid or recognized” in Florida.

Nweze said the Marriage Protection Amendment, which will be on the Nov. 4 election ballot, was abominable in its discrimination against people in domestic partnerships.

However, Brenda Lewis with the Blacks for Marriage Coalition, which organized the news conference, disagreed.

“How dare anyone compare the struggles and beatings that African Americans endured in their fight for equality to homosexual struggles,” Lewis said. “The comparison is far stretching and offensive to the many African Americans who lost their lives in our fight for equality. Gay rights are clearly not the same as civil rights.”

Mary Esther Mayor Chuck Bolton, who spoke at the news conference, said the Mary Esther City Council voted unanimously to support the “Vote Yes on 2” movement.

“I’m offended when people say the effect of the amendment is to take rights away from anyone,” Bolton said. “We’ve got to protect marriage the way it was designed centuries ago.”

The Blacks for Marriage Coalition’s news conference was held after a debate on Amendment 2 at the NAACP’s convention. The debate was between John Stemberger, state chairman of Yes2 Marriage.org, and Nadine Smith with the Fairness for All Families Campaign.

Stemberger said the passage of Amendment 2 would protect the institution of marriage. Smith countered that it takes away protections and benefits from people in all domestic partnerships, not just gays and lesbians.

About a dozen ministers and several residents attended the debate.