Martin luther king jr on gays

During his lifetime, Martin Luther King Jr was not a vocal advocate for gay rights (he was assassinated a year before Stonewall, in ), nor did he speak out against them. Although Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is well known for his leadership in the civil rights movement, a new upcoming book is set to make the controversial claim that he would have been an advocate for gay marriage.

By Jason Carson Wilson. Jury’s out

This essay by Bayard Rustin reveals a personal account of MLK's feelings toward gay people. With racial injustice and LGBT rights making headlines daily, Martin Luther King Jr. Day has taken on a special significance in recent years. What are the links between these two communities? What are the lessons of the civil-rights movement that LGBT people can share with the world?.

Bayard Rustin was an indispensable force behind the Civil Rights Movement and openly gay. Martin Luther King Jr. Day will mark its 31st anniversary since it was first observed on January 20, If he were alive today, King would be 88, and he would have seen that a lot has changed in the U. The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer LGBTQ communities, in particular, have been reviled for not only naming our struggle as a civil-rights issue, but also for naming MLK as one of the civil-rights icons that would speak on our behalf.

All the hagiographies written about King immediately following his assassination in the previous century have come under scrutiny as we come to understand all of King — his greatness as well as his flaws and human foibles. James Cone, father of Black Liberation Theology and author of a book and several articles on King, states that we must understand King within the historical context of the black church.

And in so doing, I find it ironic that the public King we witnessed on a national stage talked vociferously about social justice and civil rights for all people yet his personal life did not reflect the same ethos concerning women and gays. King understood the interconnections of struggles. Eventually the civil-rights movement will have contributed infinitely more to the nation than the eradication of racial justice.

In her speech, she said queer rights and civil rights were the same. There was ample opportunity for him to champion gay rights during his lifetime, and he did not do so. And that might be true. On the national stage, he talked vociferously about social justice and civil rights for all people, yet his personal life did not reflect that ethos concerning women and gays.

In the civil rights movement, Rustin was always the man behind the scenes and a large part of that had to be due to the fact that he was gay. Because of their own homophobia, many African-American ministers involved in the movement would have nothing to do with Rustin, and they intentionally rumored throughout the movement that King was gay because of his close friendship with Rustin.

In a spring interview with Rustin in Open Hands, a resource for ministries affirming the diversity of human sexuality, Rustin recalls that difficult period quite vividly. Martin set up a committee to discover what he should do. They said that, despite the fact that I had contributed tremendously to the organization … they thought I should separate myself from Dr.

This was the time when [the Rev. Adam Clayton] Powell threatened to expose my so-called homosexual relationship with Dr. Much to his chagrin, King did not reject the offer. At the time, King was also involved in a major challenge to the conservative leadership of the National Baptist convention, and one of his ministerial lieutenants in the fight was also gay. The rising Black Power movement thus challenged his movement of nonviolent direct action.

Followers of King felt he gave more attention to loving the enemy than doing something about the suffering of black people. Young urban black males in particularly felt alienated from the civil-rights leadership of King because his nonviolent ideology relied too heavily on the largesse of the white establishment, concentrated too much on eliminating segregation and winning the right to vote in the South, and ignored the economic problems of blacks in the northern urban ghettos.

I now not only believe that King would not have supported LGBTQ rights, but his voice and importance on social issues would have continued to wane considerably.

Did Martin Luther King Jr. But would King have spoken on our behalf? Bernice King, thinks otherwise. What do you think? Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email. Speaking Topics.