Page "Christianity and homosexuality" Paragraph 31

Al Sharpton, former Pentecostal minister, now a Baptist minister and Civil rights leader, during his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 said that asking whether gays or lesbians should be able to get married was insulting: " That's like saying you give blacks, or whites, or Latinos the right to shack up – but not get married [...] It's like asking ' do I support black marriage or white marriage '...

The inference of the question is that gays are not like other human beings ".

The support of Sharpton and other Black religious / political leaders ( e. g. Harvard's Peter Gomes, Jesse Jackson, Coretta Scott King ) is especially helpful for Black gays and lesbians who are negotiating the challenges of being gay in black communities.