Julian Bond records pro-marriage ad in Md.

Former NAACP Chair Julian Bond — a longtime ally of the LGBT community — recorded a radio ad encouraging Md. residents to support a ballot question that would legalize same-sex marriage in the state. (Photo by Jim Wallace via wikimedia commons)

BALTIMORE — Julian Bond, the former chair and current Chairman Emeritus of the NAACP has taken to the airwaves with his support of a law extending marriage rights to same-sex couples.

“I know a little something about fighting for what’s right and just,” the Washington Post reports Bond says in the ad, which will air in D.C. and Baltimore. “Maryland’s gay and lesbian families share the same values, and they should share in the right to marry.”

Last November, Bond — a long-time supporter of LGBT causes — came out publicly in favor of the same-sex marriage push in a video for the Americans for Marriage Equality project led by the Human Rights Campaign, prior to the bill’s successful passage in the legislature and approval by Gov. Martin O’Malley.

Bond also uses the ad to confront religious objections to the civil institution, saying “I believe people of faith understand this isn’t about any one religious belief – it’s about protecting the civil right to make a lifelong commitment to the person you love.”