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Loading ...Cincinnati NAACP appoints anti-gay lawyer to board
03.26.2009 4:16pm EDT
The president of NAACP’s Cincinnati chapter has appointed an anti-gay lawyer to its board.
New board member Chris Finney wrote Article 12, a 1993 city charter amendment that prohibited city officials from passing laws that protected gays and lesbians, according to Cinncinnati newspaper CityBeat.
It was repealed by voters in 2004 after a national boycott resulted in $45 million in lost convention business.Christopher Smitherman, the Cincinnati NAACP’s president, said that no one should be judged on one issue alone. Chris Finney “has earned our confidence in him with our legal work. I cannot be concerned with the interests of any other constituency group. I must look out for the interests of our membership,” Smitherman said.
Finney was asked in a 1994 court hearing why sexual orientation should affect who can eat in a restaurant or be employed by a company.
“Because there may be some who don’t want their family dining next to a homosexual couple whose actions they find offensive,” Finney said.
This is disappointing. It will only make many of us suspicious of the commitment of blacks to equality. It will certainly make many of us think that we should only be concerned with our own interests rather than attempt to build coalitions.
Hmmm. Must not appreciate what it was like to be black in this country fifty years ago. Did he ever consider that a white family might not want to sit next to a black one?
What on earth are these folks thinking? Nationally, the NAACP is certainly on our side; the California chapter is on our side not only with respect to our rights but on the issue of marriage equality as well.
I can’t imagine therefore what the Cincinnati chapter is doing appointing someone so obviously bigotted to their advisory board.
“There may be some who don’t want their family dining next to a homosexual couple whose actions they find offensive?” What on earth did he mean? Homosexual couple…openly dining? Openly…being gay? What?
This is the sort of rationale that could and did serve as cover for discrimination on the basis of race. I certainly hope this fellow has grown up since he made such an idiotic statement.
I will keep this sentiment in mind the next time the local NAACP requires any non-white contributions to their political efforts.
My answer will be ‘Get help from your own membership.”
What a moron!
Sounds like it’s time for the GLBT community to boycott Cincinnati and to let them know exactly why. Mr. Smitherman is an ass and needs to be forced out.
Cincinnati is cool, Yes there are problems like all cities. The NAACP is NOT Cincinnati. Just another bigot org that hides under a so called minority flag. Its the the National that has to be reprimanded. By the way I don’t recall hearing anything about Ca. NAACP stepping up to the plate let alone the National concerning Prop H8. (I’m not talking monetary contribution)
I also don’t deal with the UNCF as they are of the same mind set. “LGBT hurt the negro community”
Yes, because of course there are no black gay people.
Probably the NAACP in Cincinnati is contolled by crazy black ministers, who are more interested in fleecing their flock, than in equal rights. As Bob said, nationally the NAACP has been very supportive of equal rights, but local chapters are often very parochial. That must be true of Cincinnati. After the passage of Proposition 8, I decided to keep my checkbook closed to all charitable and political causes that do not recognize equal rights for glbtq people as important.
John the Apostle: the NAACP Legal and Educational Fund filed a friend of the court brief urging the California Supreme Court to strike down Proposition 8 as unconstitutional.
It seems like when we take 2 steps forward, and 10 steps back.
Thank god for President Obama, and then the hiring of this idiot ass, shame on the NAACP.
That was 15 years ago. What does Finney say today?
Sin City as it is known in Ohio,Has been in the news several times about gay issues. Ohio in general does NOT like US. I spent 49 years there and it sucks. My wife and I moved to Maryland last year and love it. We can fly our flag and hold hands down the street. No neighbors yelling names or their kids messing with our property. We have no desire to return to a state that has done so much to let us know we are NOT welcome. You would think that Sin City would have learned something after a $45 million loss in conventions and tourists.
I am ashamed to admit I am from Ohio sometimes. In the land of Quakers and Amish and the Underground railroad one would think that Ohio is free of discrimination and hate but it is not. There are towns sprinkled around that have NO people of any color including the rainbow.
Christopher Smitherman, the Cincinnati NAACP’s president, said that no one should be judged on one issue alone. Chris Finney “has earned our confidence in him with our legal work.
I’m sure Smitherman’s response would be quite different if this were a white supremacist lawyer. I also find it very difficult to believe this guy was hired with any approval of Dr. Julian Bond who is, and has been, a friend to the SCC Community.
“I cannot be concerned with the interests of any other constituency group. I must look out for the interests of our membership,” Smitherman said.”
How is excluding a portion of your (gay) black community looking out for their best interests? Smitherman doesn’t deserve his position and should be removed.
What do you expect from ignorant, backwood Southerners? Oh wait, Ohio isn’t in the south. Well, well….
Once again, CINCINNATI is an embarassment to my home state of Ohio. Can we just quietly give this red corner of my state to say Kentucky or Indiana or some other equally backward and biggoted area. God I am so tired of the narrow-minded idiots in this part of the state….from the current NAACP, to Mr. Finney, to our previous Governor, Taft, to the authors of the Ohio DOMA and other recidive laws, rules and comments…