How civil rights leaders see gay marriage

Several recent letters have given their opinions that "gay bias is the same as racial bias."

Less than one year ago, a vast array of church leaders representing millions of worshippers in the state of Michigan filed legal briefs in the federal appellate court supporting Michigan's ban on gay marriage. They support the legal brief brought by Attorney General Bill Schuette in his efforts to defend the state's voter approved ban on same-sex marriage, which was over turned earlier this year by a federal judge in Detroit.

Here we have another example of individual judges in their infinite wisdom overturning the will of the people. The most interesting part of this case is that most of the members who brought this legal suit in Michigan were black - in many cases, black leaders who have advocated for strong civil rights for many decades.

These same black ministers who have been in the front lines fighting for civil rights now are critical of people who compare the struggle for same-sex marriage to the black civil rights movement, saying such a comparison is offensive and historically inaccurate, noting that millions of blacks were killed by slavery and public lynchings.

These black leaders have said that backers of gay marriage who compare their movement to black struggles are being intellectually dishonest. Their brief criticized the idea that allowing same-sex marriage is the same as allowing interracial marriage. Comparing the gay rights movement to black civil rights is "ignorant and myopic" said Richard Thompson, president of the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

I find it very interesting that black leaders who understand civil rights and racial bias better than most are telling us their is no moral equivalency between gay rights and to black civil rights.

Larry O'Neill

Palatine