Julian Bond, chairman emeritus of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP),
has called the National Organization for Marriage's (NOM) race
strategy to defeat gay marriage “scary.”
Gay rights advocate the Human
Rights Campaign (HRC) on Monday posted four of NOM's internal
strategic memos from 2009, which were unsealed in the course of NOM's
ongoing legal challenge to Maine's campaign reporting laws.
The memos
have caused an uproar for stating the “strategic goal of the
project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks – two key
democratic constituencies.”
Appearing on CNN's Anderson Cooper
360, Bond, a strong supporter of gay marriage, told host Anderson
Cooper that NOM thinks they can play with black people like chess
pieces.
“I think it's one of the most cynical
things I've ever heard of or ever seen spelled out in this way,”
Bond said. “The idea that these people are just pawns and can be
played with, the black people who oppose gay marriage, the black
people who support gay marriage just can be moved around like pieces
on a chess board. It's scary.” (The video is embedded in the
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