Opponents of same-sex marriage will not succeed in driving a “wedge” between African-Americans and gay-lesbian community, Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker, one of America’s most prominent young back politicians, said in Seattle on Friday night.
“I know that deep in the core of the black community is a call for justice . . . I think the trend is more and more toward equality,”Booker said in an interview.
Discriminatory laws have “pushed a large section of the population to second class citizenship” j
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Opponents of same-sex marriage will not succeed in driving a “wedge” between African-Americans and gay-lesbian community, Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker, one of America’s most prominent young back politicians, said in Seattle on Friday night.
“I know that deep in the core of the black community is a call for justice . . . I think the trend is more and more toward equality,”Booker said in an interview.
Discriminatory laws have “pushed a large section of the population to second class citizenship” just as occurred with blacks in years past, Booker said. He estimated that more than 1,000 laws in America are interpreted in different ways for gays and lesbians.
As a “straight, male African-American,” said Booker, he looks on the issue through the prism of history.
“Number one, as an American, this is an issue of justice and equality,” he said. “African Americans have a legacy of being denied equality. We are obligated in that we remember the justice denied to our community. You cannot have justice denied for any Americans.”
Booker was given marks for being bold when he delivered an early, emphatic endorsement of marriage equality. He has defined same-sex marriage as a civil rights issue, using that as grounds to oppose Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s call for a statewide vote.
African-American voters in California, four years ago, broke in favor of Prop. 8, a measure that rolled back same-sex marriage in the nation’s largest state. Prop. 8 carried narrowly while President Obama was sweeping California.
In a memo exposed during a Maine lawsuit, the National Organization for Marriage — which leads opposition to marriage equality — spoke of same-sex marriage as a “wedge” issue for dividing blacks and gays. The two groups are core constituencies of the Democratic Party.
The memo also spoke of using the issue for “sideswiping Obama.”
It may have underestimated the persuasive powers of the first President who is African-American.
Very recent polling has shown a major shift in favor of marriage equality since Obama’s “evolving” stopped with his May 9 declaration of support for same-sex marriage. The President reiterated that call on Friday as he proclaimed June as LGBT Pride Month.
Cory Booker was here to speak at a convention banquet of the state Democratic Party.