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NAACP’s support of gay marriage reverberates at convention

* Support for same-sex marriage has risen among blacks

* Resignations over resolution

By Deborah Quinn Hensel

HOUSTON, July 12 (Reuters) – The biggest U.S. civil rights

group’s two-month-old decision to support same-sex marriage has

opened rifts at its convention in Houston this week, pitting

religious conservatives against political progressives.

The 103-year-old National Association for the Advancement of

Colored People’s support for same-sex marriage is “a

continuation of its historic commitment to equal protection

under the law,” the organization said in a statement when the

resolution was approved at a board meeting in Miami on May 19.

Since then a furor has erupted among members unrivaled since

the group passed a resolution in 2010 that called on Tea Party

groups to repudiate racist elements within their ranks, said

Anita Russell, a member of the NAACP’s national board and

president of its Kansas City, Missouri, branch.

“But that was from the outside,” she said of the

controversy. “This is internal.”

A few local chapter leaders — and the Reverend Keith

Ratliff of the NAACP national board — resigned because of the

resolution, which passed 10 days after President Barack Obama

announced his support for same-sex marriage.

With his announcement, Obama, who is not attending the NAACP

convention, made a political bet in advance of the Nov. 6

presidential election against likely Republican opponent Mitt

Romney, who addressed convention attendees on Wednesday. Romney

told the audience he will defend “traditional marriage.”

The split in opinions on the resolution was evident among

NAACP members attending this week’s convention. Rashida Martin,

an NAACP chapter officer at Indiana University Bloomington, said

she agreed with the action taken by the country’s largest civil

rights group.

“The world is changing, and we should open our minds a

little,” she said.

The Reverend James Nash, pastor of St. Paul’s Missionary

Baptist Church in Houston, said he disagreed with the resolution

and that many people in his congregation called him to say they

were outraged about the stance taken by both the NAACP and

Obama.

“I’ve got gay people in my congregation, but I would not

marry them,” Nash said. “That’s not the will of God, but who am

I to tell them what lifestyle choices they can make? As a

preacher, I have to preach against that, but I’m not going to

hate on anyone.”

Polls show that there has been an increase in support for

same-sex marriage among Americans. A recent Gallup poll said

that half of Americans believe same-sex couples should be

allowed to marry. Eight states and the District of Columbia

allow same-sex marriage.

But until recently, polls also showed that support for gay

marriage among African-Americans lagged the general population.

The support among blacks has risen since Obama’s announcement,

polls show.

Russell said the resolution is in keeping with the group’s

mission to support equal rights for all people.

“If we explain that enough to our members and supporters,

they will understand why we took the stance we did,” Russell

said. “We’re not asking them to change their beliefs. It’s not a

moral or a religious issue.”

‘HIJACKING CIVIL RIGHTS’

Ratliff, the national board member who resigned in protest,

said at an Iowa statehouse rally last year that “deviant

behavior is not the same thing as being denied the right to vote

because of the color of one’s skin.”

“Gay community, stop hijacking the civil rights movement,”

he said.

Another convention attendee, the Reverend Elston McCowan,

pastor of Star Grace Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis,

Missouri, said his local chapter and his church both had a mixed

reaction to the resolution. Some people were concerned that the

association had taken such a controversial position, he said.

McCowan declined to say what he thought of the resolution

but noted: “I don’t always agree with every position that the

NAACP takes.”

(Editing by Corrie MacLaggan and Cynthia Osterman)