The inimitable DJ and video blogger Jay Smooth put out a new ill doctrine blog shortly after President Obama made his decision to (publicly) support marriage equality (with his voice) that among other nuggets of wisdom, reminded everyone that it was the activists pushing for this that should get the credit in this moment — even though it was well overdue. It turns out that having pushed the President to finally change (ahem) may have started a real rhetorical domino effect towards marriage equality — especially amongst black Americans.
Witness yesterday’s also-overdue NAACP endorsement:
The NAACP Constitution affirmatively states our objective to ensure the “political, education, social and economic equality” of all people. Therefore, the NAACP has opposed and will continue to oppose any national, state, local policy or legislative initiative that seeks to codify discrimination or hatred into the law or to remove the Constitutional rights of LGBT citizens. We support marriage equality consistent with equal protection under the law provided under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Further, we strongly affirm the religious freedoms of all people as protected by the First Amendment.
This comes three years almost to the day after NAACP president Ben Jealous told CNN that the NAACP wouldn’t take a national position on marriage equality. The walls are tumbling down on this issue, and Melissa will not only speak to that in her “Footnote” essay today, but she’ll welcome back Aisha Moodie-Mills of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. She is also advisor at the LGBT Policy & Racial Justice and director of the FIRE Initiative.
We’ll also welcome a panel of young women students, including high-schoolers Emily Carpenter and Leslie Cardona, to talk about ground breaking in the battle for women’s rights, and how that has increased the visibility of the feminist movement in what Nation columnist Jessica Valenti is calling the “Year of the (Young) Woman.” We’ll also welcome women who have been in a literal war, fighting not just enemies on foreign soil, but sexism and violence within their own ranks.
Melissa will have a discussion about the Clarence Aaron clemency case with the ProPublica senior reporter who broke big news on it this week, Dafna Linzer. And last, but certainly not least, Melissa will speak with former New York Knick, Democratic Senator, presidential candidate Bill Bradley about his new book, “We Can All Do Better.” Other guests on our list include: As always, folks — be sure to interact with us during the show here in the comments of this post, on Facebook, and on Twitter, using the hashtag #nerdland. We look forward to having you join us at 10am ET on msnbc!
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