NBJC: Equality Secured in California

16 May 08 12:00 AM EDT

 NBJC: Equality Secured in California 

 

 

 

 

WASHINGTON, DC --Today thousands of residents in the state of California were granted the freedom to marry the person that they love. The state Supreme Court ruled in favor of legalizing unions between people of the same gender thus affirming decades of progress made within the LGBT movement in the state of California.

Darryl Moore, Berkeley, CA City Councilman and NBJC Board Member

As a tax paying citizen, resident, and a publicly elected official in the state of California, I am overjoyed with today's ruling. It has taken many years to get to this point, but through the efforts of NBJC along with dozens of other LGBT organizations across the state, today I have every right to marry the man that I love.

Today's decision sends a strong and affirming message to the rest of country and the world that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender men and women have the same value and worth as their straight counterparts. And with the legal right to marry, they are also able to protect one another and their families.

 H. Alexander Robinson, NBJC Exec. Director and CEO

As a former resident of California and as a partnered gay man, I was absolutely euphoric in learning of today's ruling.  This decision is a crucial step in the direction of living up to the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that "all men are created equal."  Today the state of California took one giant leap forward in realizing the vision of one America.

We stand at a pivotal point in LGBT history between discrimination and progress with NBJC pushing the envelope forward every day.  And although thousands of men and women will now experience the joys of matrimony in the state of California, our work as an organization is still not done. 

Until marriage equality is realized in every state across America, NBJC will be vigilant on the issues by educating the black communities, lobbying African-American legislators, and working with black faith institutions in order to build a broad-based coalition championing the civil rights of same-gender marriage.