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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (May 23, 2012)
< I i « May 23, 2012 ®** ÿ o rtla n ô (Observer Page II NAACP Endorses Marriage Equality Activists stand against same-sex discrimination (AP) — NAACP President Ben jam in Jealous said M onday he hopes the group's resolution sup porting same-sex marriage will en courage blacks to support marriage equality as a civil right. At a meeting of the 103-year-old civil rights group’s board of direc tors on Saturday, the organization voted to support marriage equality as a continuation of its historic Benjamin Jealous commitment to equal protection under the law. The resolution was help ensure that our country's more approved about two weeks after recent tradition of using federal and P resid en t B arack O bam a a n state constitutions to expand rights nounced his support for gay mar continues, we will be very proud of riage. our work." "I hope this will be a game- Jealous struggled to speak while changer," Jealous told The Asso recalling how his white father and ciated Press in an interview. "There black mother confronted marriage is a game being played right now to laws that forced them to marry in enshrine discrimination into state Washington, D.C., in 1966 because constitutions across the country, interracial marriage was illegal in and if we can change that game and Maryland and his mother’s home Census Shows Racial Changes might take decades to overcome," For the first Harrison said. As a whole, the nation's minor time, majority ity population continues to rise, following a higher-than-expected bom are Hispanic count in the 2010 census. Minorities increased 1.9 percent to non-white 114.1 million, or 36.6 percent of the (AP) - For the first time, racial and ethnic minorities make up more than half the children bom in the U.S., capping decades of heady immigration growth that is now slowing. New 2011 census estimates high light sw eeping changes in the nation's racial makeup and the pro longed impact of a weak economy, which is now resulting in fewer Hispanics entering the U.S. "This is an important landmark, " said Roderick Harrison, a former chief of racial statistics at the Cen sus Bureau who is now a sociolo gist at Howard University. "This generation is growing up much more accustomed to diversity than its elders." The report comes as the Supreme Court prepares to rule on the legal ity of Arizona's strict immigration law, with many states weighing simi lar get-tough measures. "We remain in a dangerous pe riod where those appealing to anti immigration elements are fueling a divisiveness and hostility that e e• t • w« • • r r T total U.S. population, lifted by prior waves of immigration that brought in young families and boosted the number of Hispanic women in their prime childbearing years. But a recent slowdow n in the growth o f the Hispanic and Asian populations is shifting notions on when the tipping point in U.S. diversity will come — the time when non-H ispanic whites be come a m inority. A fter 2010 cen sus results suggested a cross over as early as 2040, dem ogra phers now believe the pivotal m oment may be pushed back sev eral years when new projections are released in December. The annual growth rates for His panics and Asians fell sharply last year to just over 2 percent, roughly half the rates in 2000 and the lowest in more than a decade. The black growth rate stayed flat at 1 percent. Minorities made up roughly 2.02 million, or 50.4 percent of U.S. births in the 12-month period ending July 2011. That compares with 37 per cent in 1990. «eoe« e-1 -» «e »-• «•’ town of Baltimore until 1967. Jeal ous noted that the civil rights orga nization has opposed laws barring gay marriage in the past. "What has changed is that this is the first time that we have made a full statement on marriage equal ity that goes beyond the circum stances of any one proposed law or any one state," Jealous said. Roslyn Brock, who chairs the NAACP board of directors, empha sized that the resolution focused on marriage equality in the eyes of government, not religion. "As the nation's leading and old est civil rights organization, it is not our role, nor our intent, to express how any place of worship should act in its own house," Brock said. Same-sex marriage is legal in six states and the District of Columbia, but 31 states have passed amend ments to ban it in their constitu tions. The federal government also doesn’t recognize gay marriages under the Defense of Marriage Act. Upholstery Cleaning • Sofa/Loveseat • Pet Stains • Flood Restorations 5 0 3 -7 0 5 -2 5 8 7 |2 Rooms + Hall "] ¡Extra j I rooms $10 | each with , c o u p o n . __________ Expires 5/31/12. 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