Springsteen Endorses Gay Marriage: Gay Rights are Civil Rights

photo by Richard Perry / New York Times

Pictured in the New York Times is my courageous family member Hannah Johnson tearing up as she applauds a New Jersey Senate committee vote on a bill to legalize gay marriage. The bill cleared the committee, 7-6, and will be voted on by the full New Jersey Senate on Thursday. Last night on his website Bruce Springsteen lent his voice in support of marriage equality:

A BRIEF STATEMENT FROM BRUCE
Like many of you who live in New Jersey, I've been following the progress of the marriage-equality legislation currently being considered in Trenton. I've long believed in and have always spoken out for the rights of same sex couples and fully agree with Governor Corzine when he writes that, "The marriage-equality issue should be recognized for what it truly is -- a civil rights issue that must be approved to assure that every citizen is treated equally under the law." I couldn't agree more with that statement and urge those who support equal treatment for our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters to let their voices be heard now.

The New York Times reports that "Julian Bond, chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, cast the issue as the next front in the battle for racial equality and women’s rights:
'Gay rights are civil rights,' Mr. Bond said, invoking during his testimony the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the women’s suffrage movement and the abolition of slavery."

This morning, The Philadelphia Inquirer declares in an editorial that "The New Jersey Senate should approve a bill to authorize gay marriage, and advance the cause of equality for so many of the state's citizens."

Over a hundred years ago a painter from Philadelphia, Thomas Eakins, ventured over to the Jersey side to paint a portrait of a supporter of civil rights for all - Walt Whitman. Walt Whitman would be proud to know how far his state has come.


Thomas Eakins
Portrait of Walt Whitman
oil on canvas 1887
"The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters is simplicity. Nothing is better than simplicity... nothing can make up for excess or for the lack of definiteness. To carry on the heave of impulse and pierce intellectual depths and give all subjects their articulations are powers neither common nor very uncommon. But to speak in literature with the perfect rectitude and insouciance of the movements of animals and the unimpeachableness of the sentiment of trees in the woods and grass by the roadside is the flawless triumph of art."
-Walt Whitman form the introduction to Leaves of Grass

More at:
Springsteen's Statement
Bruce Springsteen Speaks Out for Gay Marriage: The Boss lets New Jersey's new governor know who's really in charge....
Springsteen Endorses Gay Marriage