Two prominent African American clergy members said during a recent appearance at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club that LGBTs need to do more work with other communities if they want to succeed in the fight for marriage equality.

There has not been much progress in such coalition building, judging from the remarks of the Reverend Eric Lee, president and CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference-Los Angeles, and the Reverend Deborah Johnson, founding minister and president of Inner Light Ministries, at the club's Market Street headquarters Thursday, March 24.

The lack of such outreach became apparent in the aftermath of the Proposition 8 campaign in 2008. After the same-sex marriage ban was passed, the No on 8 campaign was broadly criticized for failing to reach out to blacks, Latinos, and others.