Open Thread: Prop. 8 Edition

The California Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday for and against overturning Proposition 8, which would bar same-sex marriages in the state. Last May, the Court ruled 4-3 in a landmark decision that equality under the law required that gays and lesbians could not be discriminated against by forbidding them to marry one another. You can hear a good discussion on the subject on the Patt Morrison show by clicking on the  March 5 archive.

Meanwhile, as Adam Serwer wrote Wednesday at The American Prospect:

The NAACP Takes a Stance Against Prop. 8

Back in November, the wounds in the black community over California's Proposition 8 were still fresh. The community was divided between more conservative leaders, often clergy, who oppose marriage equality for religious reasons, and civil- and human-rights activists who saw the ballot initiative to prohibit same-sex marriage as a civil-rights violation they could not countenance. While the California chapter of America's oldest civil-rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, had come out in opposition to Prop. 8, the national office had remained silent.

The NAACP has been walking a tightrope on gay rights. Polls show that African Americans overwhelmingly oppose gay marriage, but much of the high-level leadership of the nation's oldest civil-rights organization opposes legal efforts to deny gays the right to marry. Last week, the national office of the NAACP leapt into the fray when it sent a letter to California legislators urging them to support legislation that would repeal Prop. 8. After meeting with the National Black Justice Coalition, a black LGBT-rights group, and the leadership of the California State Conference, NAACP Chairman Julian Bond and NAACP President Ben Jealous agreed to come out publicly in support of repealing Prop. 8.

The move thrusts the NAACP into the middle of a fight that, until now, it has largely avoided, because of the risk of alienating both board-level leadership and rank-and-file members. ...

Jason Bartlett, deputy director of the National Black Justice Coalition, was excited by the NAACP's move: "It's the boldest thing I've seen in some time, definitely the boldest thing that they've done on gay rights. ... It's historic." Bartlett argues that the NAACP intervening on behalf of gay rights will give other black leaders and organizations cover to do the same.

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The Overnight News Digest is posted and includes the story, FDIC warns US bank deposit insurance fund could tank.