On Saturday, all but 2 NAACP board members voted in favor of a resolution endorsing gay marriage. One of the dissenters might have been the Rev. Keith Ratliff Sr., the board's most vociferous opponent of gay rights.

The largely symbolic move was made during the group's quarterly board meeting in Miami and comes a little over a week after President Barack Obama made his historic shift from supporting civil unions to marriage for gay and lesbian couples.

The resolution stated in part: “We support marriage equality consistent with equal protection under the law provided under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”

A breakdown of how the 64-member board voted was not available, but one of those most likely to have voted against the resolution is Ratliff.

Ratliff ministers at the Maple Street Missionary Baptist Church in Des Moines, Iowa and is the president of the Iowa-Nebraska chapter of the NAACP.

He was among the first to condemn the Iowa Supreme Court's 2009 unanimous ruling legalizing gay nuptials, speaking out during a prayer rally on the steps of the Capitol organized by the Iowa Family Policy Center, which has since folded into Bob Vander Plaat's The Family Leader.

“Let them understand, oh God, that your way is the way that we must live,” he said at the gathering, “that separation of church and state did not mean that man should live unholy.”

Ratliff would go on to endorse Vander Plaats in his unsuccessful bid to become governor of the state.

“He's talked about the importance of defending the institution of marriage,” he said during a press conference. “That takes backbone and determination. That's what I want in my governor – and that's why I'm standing here today to show my support for him.”

In a Des Moines Register editorial, written by Ratliff and three clergy, the group said: “To anyone who reads and believes the Bible, there is no room for compromise on the issue of homosexuality. To those who look to 'natural law,' homosexuality will always be un-natural and un-healthy for a myriad of obvious reasons. … The Iowa Supreme Court has now issued its opinion, but it fundamentally changes nothing. Now it is up to the people and their elected officials to correct the court's error through the constitutional amendment process.” The four religious leaders called for “Biblically justified civil resistance.”

At a 2011 rally held on the steps of the Iowa Statehouse, Ratliff told about 500 people that he was insulted at the suggestion that the late Rev. Martin Luther King would support LGBT rights.

Ratliff claimed that gay rights advocates had “hijacked” the civil rights debate.

“For deviant behavior is not the same thing as being denied the right to vote because of the color of one's skin,” Ratliff told the crowd. “For deviant behavior is not the same thing as being denied where one may sit on a bus.”

“What an insult to the civil rights movement.”

“While I enjoy the conversations of those who love to suggest that if the late Rev. Doctor Martin Luther King were alive he would be supportive of gay, lesbian marriage and bisexual and transgender relationships, well, there is nothing in King's writings or speeches that suggest that.”

“Gay community, stop hijacking the civil rights movement,” he added. (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page. Visit our video library for more videos.)