NAACP Board Chair Julian Bond spoke Sunday evening at a gathering of Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights organization, in Los Angeles.  In his 25-minute speech, he eloquently compares the push for gay marriage rights to the struggle for civil rights for people of color.

As you may or may not be aware, there has been a lot of friction within the gay community since the passage of Proposition 8 in California, over the way that pro-gay marriage campaigners failed to effectively engage the communities of color, including gay and lesbian people of color.  In the days after Proposition 8 passed, there were nasty attempts to pin its passage on the members of black churches who turned out in record numbers to vote for President Obama.

It is against this backdrop that the words of Mr. Bond are especially important to listen to.  This is a man who has been involved in the struggle for civil rights and who has joined his gay and lesbian friends as they push for equality.