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Note from Vienna

Just a quick note from Vienna. The city is absolutely amazing but the time change has been hella difficult (=no sleep) and I'm trying to meet several deadlines. No posts today and hopefully I'll be recharged overnight. Thanks for understanding.

Anti-Gay Black Pastors "Warn" Obama: Repeal DOMA and "Risk" Losing Black Support

President Barack Obama should "tread gently regarding the issue of gay marriage" if he wants to keep black support, warns a new "coalition" of black pastors and "community leaders" which calls itself the Black Coalition Against Gay Marriage, reports BET.com and EURWeb.

Groups calling themselves the Black Coalition against Gay Marriage have sent a letter to President Obama, in effect, warning him not to endorse marriage between same-sex couples or risk losing much of his African American support base.  The coalition, which includes the veteran civil rights the group Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Concerned African-American Pastors and other religious organizations, is particularly worried about Obama’s intentions regarding the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Gay activist groups have been pressuring the Obama administration to work to change or weaken the Act. However, in its letter, the Black coalition asserts, "Changing the definition of marriage will have many unintended consequences which will hurt generations to come."

Meanwhile, a question remains as to how effectively the Coalition can deliver on its warning to undermine the president’s support base. Most major civil rights groups either support much of the gay rights agenda or remain officially neutral on the issue of homosexual marriage. And CORE, while a veteran group in the Civil Rights Movement, has become increasingly conservative in recent years and has largely been pushed to the fringes of the modern civil rights effort.

CORE has not only become "increasingly conservative" but it's become increasingly irrelevant. Although CORE was a key player in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, the organization led by black conservative Roy Innis and his son Niger Innis is largely a shell of its once-gloried existence. Niger Innis regularly spouts anti-gay and pro-DOMA rhetoric for FOX and the Washington Times. CORE supported California's Proposition 8 because "too many black children are [already] being raised outside of marriage", Niger Innis told USA Today.

At the organization's website, this priceless footnote: "Membership in CORE is open to anyone who believes that 'all people are created equal' and is willing to work towards the ultimate goal of true equality throughout the world"

The Obama Administration "pushing" to end DOMA? That surely would be newsworthy. Even if that were to happen, the president would only lose a few black religious voters. White evangelicals and conservatives? Now that's a different story.

Obama Pressured by Gay Marriage Opponents[EUR]
BCAGM Sends Pres. Obama a Letter [BET.com]