Local
NAACP president: Md. same-sex marriage law guarantees religious freedom
Benjamin Jealous spoke at Baltimore press conference on same day Julian Bond ad debuted on D.C. television stations
NAACP President Benjamin Jealous (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
The head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People stressed on Monday that Maryland’s same-sex marriage law guarantees religious freedom.
“We’re pleased that Question 6 is very clear: This is about civil marriage,” said Benjamin Jealous during a press conference at his organization’s Baltimore headquarters. “Question 6 goes on to be very clear that every church, every house of worship, every synagogue in the state can have faith that everything will be respected and protected not only by the U.S. Constitution but by Question 6 itself.”
Jealous, whose parents traveled from Baltimore to D.C. to get married in 1966 because Maryland did not allow interracial marriages, reaffirmed his support of Question 6 on the same day a Marylanders for Marriage Equality television ad that features NAACP Chair Emeritus Julian Bond began airing in the D.C. media market.
“I know a little something about fighting for what is right and just. Maryland’s gay and lesbian families share the same values and they should share in the right to marry,” says Bond. “I believe people of faith understand this isn’t about any one religious belief. It’s about protecting the civil right to make a lifelong commitment to the person you love. Join me in supporting Question 6. It’s the right thing to do.”
Reverend Dr. Todd Yeary of Douglass Memorial Community Church in Baltimore echoed Bond.
“I affirm the NAACP’s position that civil marriage is indeed a civil right,” he said. “This really is not a religious issue. The wording of Question 6 is very specific in accepting religious protections. All persons can honor their own personal convictions without imposing them on anyone else.”
A Gonzales Research poll last month indicates 44 percent of black Marylanders back marriage rights for same-sex couples, compared to 52 percent who oppose nuptials for gays and lesbians. A Hart Research Associates survey conducted in late July found that 44 percent of black Marylanders would support Question 6, compared to 45 percent who would vote against it. A Public Policy Polling poll in May found 55 percent of the state’s black voters support marriage rights for same-sex couples.
The NAACP Board of Directors in May passed a resolution in support of nuptials for gays and lesbians after President Obama publicly backed the issue for the first time during an interview with ABC News’ Robin Roberts. Bishop Harry Jackson of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville remains one of the most prominent opponents to Maryland’s same-sex marriage law, but the first Marylanders for Marriage Equality television ads in support of Question 6 that began airing last week on WBAL in Baltimore feature Rev. Delman Coates of Mount Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton in Prince George’s County and Rev. Donté Hickman of Southern Baptist Church in Baltimore.
Jealous acknowledged that the NAACP is concerned that same-sex marriage opponents are “duping” black Marylanders to vote against Question 6. He further cited previously confidential National Organization for Marriage documents that indicate the group sought to use the issue to divide black and LGBT voters.
“The NAACP has fought for civil rights for over 103 years and we recognize civil marriage as a civil right,” said NAACP Maryland State Conference President Gerald Stansbury during today’s press conference. “When we speak of civil marriages, we speak of it in a context of a civil issue and not a religious one. We understand the difference between a civil marriage and a religious marriage.”
Maryland NAACP Youth and College President Chizoba Ukairo agreed.
“We are clear that equal access to legal marriage for same-sex couples is a basic issue of fairness and equality,” she said.
District of Columbia
Mayor Bowser signs bill requiring insurers to cover PrEP
‘This is a win in the fight against HIV/AIDS’
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on March 20 signed a bill approved by the D.C. Council that requires health insurance companies to cover the costs of HIV prevention or PrEP drugs for D.C. residents at risk for HIV infection.
Like all legislation approved by the Council and signed by the mayor, the bill, called the PrEP D.C. Amendment Act, was sent to Capitol Hill for a required 30-day congressional review period before it takes effect as D.C. law.
Gay D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5) last year introduced the bill.
Insurance coverage for PrEP drugs has been provided through coverage standards included in the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. But AIDS advocacy organizations have called on states and D.C. to pass their own legislation requiring insurance coverage of PrEP as a safeguard in case federal policies are weakened or removed by the Trump administration, which has already reduced federal funding for HIV/AIDS-related programs.
Like legislation passed by other states, the PrEP D.C. Amendment Act requires insurers to cover all PrEP drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Studies have shown that PrEP drugs, which can be taken as pills or by injection just twice a year, are highly effective in preventing HIV infection.
“I think this is a win for our community,” Parker said after the D.C. Council voted unanimously to approve the bill on its first vote on the measure in February. “And this is a win in the fight against HIV/AIDS.”
District of Columbia
Blade editor to be inducted into D.C. Society of Professional Journalists Hall of Fame
Kevin Naff marks 24 years with publication this year
Longtime Washington Blade Editor Kevin Naff will be inducted into D.C.’s Society of Professional Journalists Hall of Fame in June, the group announced this week.
Hall of Fame honorees are chosen by the Society of Professional Journalists’ Washington, D.C., Pro Chapter. Naff and two other inductees — Seth Borenstein, a Washington-based national science writer for the AP and Cheryl W. Thompson, an award-winning correspondent for National Public Radio — will be celebrated at the chapter’s Dateline Awards dinner on Tuesday, June 9, at the National Press Club. The dinner’s emcee will be Kojo Nnamdi, host of WAMU radio’s weekly “Politics Hour.”
“I am tremendously honored by this recognition,” Naff said. “I have spent a lifetime in the D.C. area learning from so many talented journalists and am humbled to be considered in their company. Thank you to SPJ and to all the LGBTQ pioneers who came before me who made this possible.”
Naff joined the Blade in 2002 after years in print and digital journalism. He worked as a financial reporter for Reuters in New York before moving to Baltimore in 1996 to launch the Baltimore Sun’s website. He spent four years at the Sun before leaving for an internet startup and later joining the mobile data group at Verizon Wireless working on the first generation of mobile apps.
He then moved to the Blade and has served as the publication’s longest-tenured editor. In 2023, Naff published his first book, “How We Won the War for LGBTQ Equality — And How Our Enemies Could Take It All Away.”
Previous Hall of Fame inductees include luminaries in journalism like Wolf Blitzer, Benjamin Bradlee, Bob Woodward, Andrea Mitchell, and Edgar Allen Poe. The Blade’s senior news reporter Lou Chibbaro Jr. was inducted in 2015.
Maryland
Supreme Court ruling against conversion therapy bans could affect Md. law
Then-Gov. Larry Hogan signed statute in 2018
By PAMELA WOOD, JOHN-JOHN WILLIAMS IV, and MADELEINE O’NEILL | The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against a law banning “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ kids in Colorado, a ruling that also could apply to Maryland’s ban on the discredited practice.
An 8-1 high court majority sided with a Christian counselor who argues the law banning talk therapy violates the First Amendment. The justices agreed that the law raises free speech concerns and sent it back to a lower court to decide whether it meets a legal standard that few laws pass.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the court’s majority, said the law “censors speech based on viewpoint.” The First Amendment, he wrote, “stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.”
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Mayor Bowser signs bill requiring insurers to cover PrEP
JD Vance to travel to Hungary next week
Pam Bondi ousted as attorney general
VIDEO: Gay journalist detained for booing Trumps at ‘Chicago’ opening night
Idaho Gov. signs harshest anti-trans bathroom bill in the country
‘Out for McDuffie’ event held at D.C. gay bar
‘Jonah’ an undeniably compelling but unusual memory play
The Oscar-losing performance that’s too good to miss
Thousands attend ‘No Kings’ protests in D.C.
