That is basically the meme in the media over the past couple of days in response to liberal group Human Rights Campaign leaking an internal memo from the National Organization for Marriage.
One of the memos read…
The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks — two key Democratic constituencies. Find, equip, energize and connect African American spokespeople for marriage; develop a media campaign around their objections to gay marriage as a civil right; provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots. No politician wants to take up and push an issue that splits the base of his party. Fanning the hostility raised in the wake of Prop 8 is key to raising the costs of pushing gay marriage to its advocates … find attractive young black Democrats to challenge white gay marriage advocates electorally.
Now if we were only able to get a peak behind the veil of liberal groups political strategy…. But I digress. Would I write the memo this way? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with the overall strategy.
Look to the Proposition 8 vote back in 2008. Black voters came out en masse to vote for Barack Obama. They also voted en masse against gay marriage. Hispanics typically hold to traditional values. They also are highly churched being predominately Catholic. A large percentage of Blacks are also churched.
It would be stupid for NOM not to reach out to these segments of the population as they can unite people around a common belief about marriage. The simple fact is this – most minorities reject the argument that same sex marriage is a civil right issue. So this really shouldn’t be a surprise or be considered news.
I’m reminded here in Iowa one of the prominent leaders to defend marriage is Rev. Keith Ratliff who was formerly the head of the Iowa/Nebraska NAACP. Below is a video of a speech he gave during a marriage rally last year at the Iowa Statehouse:
Are they trying to get minorities on board? Of course they are. Not to cause racial division, but to unite people of all races around traditional marriage.
Now how much division has been caused by trying to change the way Western civilization has defined the institution of marriage for thousands of years. You don’t see this story getting reported that way.