BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- With his public endorsement of legalizing same sex marriage in May and last week's inaugural speech linking the civil rights movement of the 1960s to the struggles facing LGBT activists today, President Barack Obama has forced black civil rights leaders to confront an issue that sometimes divides them.
Many in the black community -- as in the white community -- oppose gay marriage because of religious beliefs, although civil rights leaders who disagree with gay marriage say it is not their place to judge or mistreat anyone. Other prominent civil rights leaders have said they believe same sex couples should be allowed to marry.
"It's very important you love everybody, not judge everybody," said Bishop Calvin Woods, president of the Birmingham chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. But, as a preacher, Woods said he believes people of the same sex should not marry.
"The president is dealing with it from the standpoint of the law. I'm a preacher of the gospel. That gospel teaches me a man should marry a woman and a woman should marry a man. I wouldn't marry a man to another man. However, I love everybody the same and everyone is entitled to their beliefs and opinions," Woods added.
On the other side of the issue in the metro area is Hezekiah Jackson, president of the Birmingham chapter of the NAACP, who said he sees a "similar scenario" facing gay rights activists and the civil rights marchers of the 1960s and believes same sex marriage should be legal nationwide.
"At the end of the day, equality is equality," Jackson said. "If any group of people is denied rights by law that is a challenge that we must face."
The divide has also unfolded in the council chambers of Birmingham City Hall.
During an October council meeting, Birmingham City Councilwoman Lashunda Scales said she was "floored" by the "Living in Limbo: Lesbian Families in the Deep South" photo 'display at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, calling it an inappropriate comparison to the black struggle for civil rights and said linking the two threatened to dilute this year's celebration of the 1963 fight for equal rights for blacks.
"That's a choice," she said. "I didn't choose to be black. I came here black. That's the difference. I know there's a difference between a choice and being black."
Councilman Steven Hoyt disagreed saying, "It should not dilute the civil rights movement, it should amplify it, because the movement was not just about black folks. The movement was about human rights, and most of them happened to be black folks."
Scales later wrote an editorial arguing her statement was taken out of context.
"We know that to mistreat individuals or groups solely based upon their race, creed or sexual preference is wrong, and I do not condone that kind of behavior. However, to minimize one kind of struggle for another is not wise. It is not fair to the persons who sacrificed their lives for the sake of civil justice and basic equality," Scales wrote.
It's a divide that can also be seen at a national level.
President Obama, after announcing his support of gay marriage in May, conducted a conference call with several prominent black ministers to explain his position.
"They were wrestling with their ability to get over his theological position," the Rev. Delman Coates, the pastor of Mt. Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, Md., who was on the call, told The New York Times. "Gay marriage is contrary to their understanding of Scripture. There are people who are really wrestling with this."
The announcement was greeted in an open letter signed by Rev. Al Sharpton, Huntsville native Rev. Joe Lowery, NAACP Chairman Emeritus Julian Bond and Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition for Black Civic Engagement, who said they agreed with Obama's stance on gay marriage, MSNBC reported.
"We also affirm that individuals may hold different views on this issue but still work together towards our common goals," the letter stated. "It is our hope that conversations on strengthening African-American families continue in a civil and respectful way, on all sides, both with those who support the ability of same-sex couples to marry, and those who do not."