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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyJanuary 16th, 2012
CNN’s John Blake asks
We know what King thought about race, poverty and war. But what was his attitude toward gay people, and if he was alive today would he see the gay rights movement as another stage of the civil rights movement?
It’s a careful consideration that seeks input from those who worked closest with Dr. King – while also acknowledging the position of those who claim his mantle but barely knew the man.
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Reed Boyer
January 16th, 2012
I’ll take Coretta’s word over Bernice’s any day of the week.
Soren456
January 16th, 2012
At the time he died, and certainly in the years of his activism, we were not yet making much of a case for ourselves. Except for the example of Rustin, King probably had next to zero good information about what it meant and felt like to be gay. He probably never even thought of it in the terms we have historically used, and use today.
I think a bridge to his eventual thoughts would be his view of women, of “women’s liberation” particularly. If I’m not mistaken, feminism was the first major extension of civil rights outside the focus on race. It was also bitterly opposed by some in the civil rights movement, and a stretch to accept for many others.
I see King as a pastor. A good one. I think he was always willing to listen, to consider and to learn. I think that given time, and compelling evidence, he would have embraced us.
Lindoro Almaviva
January 16th, 2012
What truth is there that one of his closest advisors was a gay man that was out to him?
Muscat
January 16th, 2012
@Lindoro – The linked article discusses his connections with Bayard Rustin, who is the person you’re referring to.
Erin
January 16th, 2012
I’ve read about the Civil Rights movement a lot for my classes at school. I actually read, before the 1950’s the African-American community was more accepting of homosexuals and gender-bending performers. Than the emphasis on Christian and Capitalist values just increased to the max during the Cold War. Some of the female activists, and certainly those who had Socialist and Communist sympathies, were kind of pushed to the background, while the male, religious leaders got pushed to the front. There was some beef in the black community between King and other Civil Rights leaders about his approach. I hate to say it, because I really do respect his contribution, but I have to be realistic. I think he would have distanced himself so far from gay rights had the movement gained any kind of following while he was still alive. And it probably wouldn’t have been because he personally had a problem with them. It would have been because he was trying to make change that was possible and effective for his time. Now if he had lived a long life, and had the chance to look back later on, I suspect his tune would have changed, and he would speak in support of us like his late wife. But I could be wrong. There are still some leaders in the African-American community that don’t see that treating LGBT people equally fits the exact same principle they fought for. You don’t have to understand the members of a group or be part of a group to know that human beings should all have the same basic human rights.
Lindoro Almaviva
January 16th, 2012
Thank you Muscat. The links would not open here at work. i tried but it might be something about the filters. Strange because our filters tend to be pretty open.
Timothy Kincaid
January 16th, 2012
That’s because while Dr. King was fighting for “equal rights”, they were fighting for “their rights”. While in practice the two might address the same problem, in perspective they have nothing in common. One is principled and build on notions of shared humanity, the other is just a product of self interest and greed.
Regan DuCasse
January 16th, 2012
Those closest to King, and who were in the trenches as young people and directly suffered the sting of systemic bigotry, have publicly and emphatically supported gay equality.
And still do.
Andrew Young
Julian Bond
Rep. John Lewis
Coretta S. King
Yolanda King
Maya Angelou…
Cornel West
The list of distinguished people of color who support equality is actually quite long.
And there were those whose own tribulations to marry echoed what happens now.
Mildred Loving, for example in no uncertain terms, lent her voice in support of marriage equality for gay couples.
This should be enough for those who never have, and never will know what Jim Crow actually was like, to respect those whose experience and empirical proof of their support must mean. That they know something people like Maggie G and Rick Santorum don’t.
And that is what truly frosts me, how DARE someone like Brian Brown act like HE knows something that Coretta King or Julian Bond don’t?
Timothy Kincaid
January 16th, 2012
ding ding ding ding ding I think you hit the jackpot with that one.
Mark F.
January 17th, 2012
It’s hilarious how people argue over these unprovable “what ifs.”
John
January 17th, 2012
I would hazard a guess that his wife knew him best and she has stated publically that he would have supported LGBT rights, as did she.
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