A CQ Politics piece on the Reverend Eric P. Lee, Chariman of the Los Angeles chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, who hs fought against Proposition 8, despite his organzation’s neutral stance on the ballot measure.

CQ’s Tracie Powell interviewed Lee and goes into the racial and historical direction of the organization, founded after the Montogomery Bus Boycott.

“Any time you deny one group of people the rights and privileges that other groups enjoy, it is fundamentally and unequivocally a denial of their civil rights. That makes it a justice issue,” Lee said in a telephone interview from California. “Because of black people’s history of being oppressed and discriminated against in this country, and because of our legacy of fighting against those things, we have earned the right to be the moral authority on justice issues. In fact, we are obligated to speak out.”

Above, a marriage rally in San Francisco, courtesy of Flickr user Swedeinsf.