Jackson wary of same-sex rift
CAMBRIDGE -- The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson yesterday said he supports "equal protection under the law" for gay couples, but stopped short of supporting same-sex marriage, a distinction that has been roiling the black leadership in Massachusetts.
Appearing at Harvard Law School, the civil rights leader and former presidential candidate also disputed the position that some black leaders and other liberals have taken in equating the gay marriage cause with the civil rights movement.
"The comparison with slavery is a stretch in that some slave masters were gay, in that gays were never called three-fifths human in the Constitution . . . and in that they did not require the Voting Rights Act to have the rights to vote," Jackson said. "What is the same is that we all as citizens have the right to choose our partners."
On Beacon Hill, prominent black legislators are taking a lead in fighting efforts to prohibit gay marriage. Last week, all the state's black legislators voted against a constitutional amendment proposed by Representative Philip Travis to ban gay marriage without explicitly providing for civil unions.
In contrast, Greater Boston's three major associations of black clergy support a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to a man and a woman.
The legacy of Jackson's 1984 presidential campaign was the official topic of a daylong conference at Harvard run by Charles J. Ogletree, a professor at the law school. But Jackson and his supporters spent much of yesterday talking about the major grass-roots effort he said his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition will undertake in an attempt to help defeat President Bush in November.
When Jackson was asked about gay marriage at a small lunchtime news conference, state Senator Dianne Wilkerson was sitting silently to his left. Wilkerson had made a passionate speech in the Legislature's constitutional convention last week, shedding tears as she recalled growing up black in Arkansas, where her mother was not allowed to give birth in the public hospital.
"I know the pain of being less than equal and I cannot and will not impose that status on anyone else," Wilkerson said last week. "I was but one generation removed from an existence in slavery. I could not in good conscience ever vote to send anyone to that place from which my family fled."
In contrast to that view, the Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston, the Boston Ten Point Coalition, and the Cambridge Black Pastors Conference said in a statement earlier this month: "Each of the traditions we represent has long upheld the institution of marriage as a unique bond between a man and a woman."
Jackson, who appeared annoyed when he was asked his view on same-sex marriage, suggested the topic could be treacherous territory for the Democratic Party this election season.
"It will not be the dominant issue in the 2004 campaign the right wing wants it to be," said Jackson, who also criticized the media for focusing on it. "It's a Republican tactical strategy to distract from such issues as foreign policy and education."
The two-time presidential candidate said the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition will work in 35 battleground states, especially in the South, to register voters, get people to the polls, and help frame issues that will convince whites and minorities alike to support the Democratic nominee.
"If we get blacks to vote hope over cynicism, and we get poor whites to vote economic interest over racial politics, we will win," Jackson said in a morning address to several hundred people.
Jackson did not endorse any candidate in the primary campaign. Yesterday he said that Massachusetts Senator John Kerry's position looks strong, but that there's no reason to rush in anointing a party leader. He also said several times that the most important factor is grass-roots support, not the names on the ticket.
"We will win because of the mountain, not the snowcap," he said. "We are the mountain."
While the coalition is holding a fund-raiser in Boston this week, Jackson said he didn't know how much the campaign would cost. He said he would name someone to head the organizing effort in the next few days.
Supporters of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition will be involved in the party nominee's campaign from top to bottom, Jackson said. "It's not just a few blacks and browns waving on TV," he said. "We want participation at every level of the infrastructure of the campaign."
Jackson also criticized the Bush administration for not supporting President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti, who faces mounting political and violent opposition. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said last week that "regime change" in Haiti is not US policy.
"We were willing to fight to create democracy in Iraq, but not to defend one in our own hemisphere," Jackson said.
Marcella Bombardieri can be reached at bombardieri@globe.com.
