“The NAACP’s mission is to help create a society where all Americans have equal protection and opportunity under the law. Our Mission Statement calls for the ‘equality of rights of all persons.’ Prop. 8 strips same-sex couples of a fundamental freedom, as defined by the California State Supreme Court. In so doing, it poses a serious threat to all Americans. Prop. 8 is a discriminatory, unprecedented change to the California Constitution that, if allowed to stand, would undermine the very purpose of a constitution and courts – assuring equal protection and opportunity for all and safeguarding minorities from the tyranny of the majority.”

“I think that for too long, we have accepted this failed strategy of allowing our rights to be debated state by state, county by county, city by city. We’ve settled for compromises for far too long. We’ve settled for fractions of equality. And I think that that is going to end. And that we’re now going to insist on full equality, equal protection under the law in all areas governed by civil law in all 50 states. And I hope people see this film (Milk) and are inspired by what we did in San Francisco in 1978 (in defeating the Briggs Initiative, Prop 6). But for strategy, I think people need to look back to 1964 when it became clear to the great leaders of the civil rights movement that many of the Southern states and many others probably would never willingly extend equal protection under the law to the African Americans. It was then that President Johnson and the Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, extending equal protection under the law in all areas of the country. That’s what we need today. That’s what we’re calling upon the leaders of Congress and Barack Obama to do.”