Rev. Eric Lee, President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles, and I arrived in D.C. Thursday night on what has been a non-stop mission to engage the nation’s most influential African-Americans in U.S. politics. From a White House briefing with nationally known African-American faith leaders and community partners to the National Newspaper Publishers Association (Black Press) reception to the Annual Congressional Black Caucus Faith Roundtable and Phoenix Award Gala, we have been working tiressly to frame the issue of marriage equality as a morally imperative justice issue in need of their attention.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama attended the Congressional Black Caucus Phoenix Award Gala on Saturday night, walking out on stage to a thunderous applause and standing ovation by almost four thousand of the nation’s most influential African-American politicos before the President passionately made the case for health care insurance and education reform as defining issues for the Congressional Black Caucus and U.S. Congress at-large, after highlighting the budding success of his administrations actions to stem the hemorrhaging job losses of The Great Recession that continue to challenge communities across the country.

“Bringing hope and opportunity to places where they are short in supply—that’s not easy. It will take a focused and sustained effort to eradicate the structural inequalities in our communities—structural inequalities that make it difficult for children of color to make a success of their lives, no matter how smart or how talented or how driven they are,” said President Obama.

While President Obama’s remarks shed great light on the challenges facing people of color in great proportions, Rev. Lee sees these challenges as an opportunity to better inform the marriage equality and greater progressive movement.

“Marriage equality is not a priority in African-American community when we have the highest levels of unemployment, health care disparities, high rates of HIV/AIDS infections among young people and African-American women, a growing cribs to prison pipeline, and education inequity in public schools. Justice however is always a priority and marriage equality is a justice issue,” said Rev. Lee during today’s Washington Post interview.

The Courage Campaign, Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles, and International Federation of Black Prides have been working closely since the “Meet in the Middle” march and rally in Fresno, CA designed to chart a course for justice that would become increasingly more inclusive of communities habitually left out of LGBT coalition and agenda building efforts. The support of Rev. Lee by Courage Campaign and the International Federation of Black Prides offers advanced evidence of the growing repudiation of the narrow and self-serving politics that fractures communities, creates distrust, and keeps us from becoming a progressive state and country that affirms the dignity of all Americans.

Rev. Lee left a copy of his recently published book, "Marriage Equality: Proposition 8, The California Divide" with a high-level Obama Administration staffer following our Friday afternoon White House briefing as a resource for President Obama.

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