This MLK Day, let's reflect on Coretta's words on gay rights...

[bliss_eternal]

which are HUMAN rights and as such matter to us ALL.

Apparently there was some controversy within the family of MLK. Two of his children support homophobia, but his wife/widow and daughter Yolanda King have been allies FOR the rights of the glbt community. On today, the day we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King jr. I wanted to share some of the words of Coretta Scott King on this issue:

(this comes from a link, provided below. Keep in mind the source is a bit dated, but no less relevant).

Coretta Scott King: Homophobia Same as Racism

Of course, there's a reason the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force links the issues of African-American civil rights and gay civil rights: Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King's widow, told them to. In a remarkable address before the Task Force's annual meeting, Mrs. King gave a forceful statement on the importance of gay rights to the overall civil rights struggle (read Mrs. King's entire speech here.)

And this was not the first time Mrs. King made it clear that groups like the Concerned Women for America have no idea what they're talking about when they try to speak on behalf of African-Americans by criticizing the struggle for gay equality. Excerpts of Mrs. King's numerous public statements in favor of gay civil rights are posted below. Please feel free to cite any of the following quotations the next time a far-right extremist dares to speak on behalf of Martin Luther King and America's African-American community:


Make Room At The Table for Lesbian and Gay People

Coretta Scott King, speaking four days before the 30th anniversary of her husband's assassination, said Tuesday the civil rights leader's memory demanded a strong stand for gay and lesbian rights. "I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice," she said. "But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'" "I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people," she said. - Reuters, March 31, 1998.

----------------------------------snip--------------------------------------------

Mrs. King is Outspoken Supporter of Gay and Lesbian People

"For many years now, I have been an outspoken supporter of civil and human rights for gay and lesbian people," King said at the 25th Anniversary Luncheon for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.... "Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, in Albany, Ga. and St. Augustine, Fla., and many other campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement," she said. "Many of these courageous men and women were fighting for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own, and I salute their contributions." - Chicago Tribune, April 1, 1998, sec.2, p.4.

----------------------------snip---------------------------------------------------


taken from:

http://www.hatecrime.org/subpages/coretta.html

Happy MLK Day Everyone! :hi:

[MadMaddie]

1. Oh to have leaders like those that have passed on....

Whose convictions of equality triumphed all other issues...

Happy MLK Day:hi:

[bliss_eternal]

2. Wouldn't it be grand...?

(sigh)....to have leaders like that?

:hi: Good to see you--hope you are enjoying your MLK Day!

[MikeNearMcChord]

3. Injustice for one group=Injustice for all!

We all live in one nation, and one planet. One day MLK's dream will come true. As Adam Clayton Powell once said Keep The Faith.

[bliss_eternal]

12. I appreciate this...

:) Thank you! :hi:

[Jella]

4. An MLK quote that rings true

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

[bliss_eternal]

11. Great quote...

Thanks for sharing it! :)

[Jella]

14. Ubet

I believe it.

[cboy4]

5. I just can't express how much I miss Coretta. What a

wonderful, human being.

It's just not the same without her speaking on this day in Atlanta.

And what can one say about MLK?

I don't remember him, but he was of course one of a kind.

I am so happy and proud of what he stood for and what he accomplished as the greatest civil rights leader. Ever.

Happy, happy MLK Day to you Bliss!

[bliss_eternal]

10. I miss her, too...

cboy! :hug: It's so strange seeing them build the memorial now, and not seeing her there, saying a few words to bless the project. (sigh)

[tuvor]

6. sfgate 2004: King Would Not Have Marched Against Gay Marriage

King Would Not Have Marched Against Gay Marriage
by Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Published on Tuesday, December 14, 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle


The sight of the youngest daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. standing at her father's gravesite Saturday with thousands of demonstrators to denounce same-sex marriage was painful. The Rev. Bernice King and march organizers deliberately chose King's resting place in Atlanta to imply that he would have stood with them. But Martin Luther King's uncompromising battle against discrimination during his life -- and his persistent refusal to distance himself from a well-known gay civil rights leader -- show that King never would have endorsed an anti-gay campaign.

It's not the first time that a King family member has sullied King's name and legacy to torpedo gay rights. In 1998, King's niece, Alveda King, barnstormed the country speaking at rallies against gay-rights legislation. In case anyone missed the King family connection, her group is named King for America. Gay-rights groups everywhere countered King's "repent and save yourself" message to gays by quoting a public statement Coretta Scott King issued in 1996, in which she said that King would be a champion of gay rights if he were alive.

At Saturday's event, King's daughter was careful not to mention same-sex marriage in her talk. Her mentor and march organizer, Bishop Eddie Long, cautiously downplayed the issue, though media reported that Long's Web site listed promoting a federal amendment against same-sex marriage as a major goal of the march. But Bernice King is an outspoken evangelical, and in the last couple of years she and other black evangelicals have marched, protested, and written letters and petitions denouncing such marriages. Polls show that black evangelicals' hostility to same-sex marriage is much stronger than that of white evangelicals.

In the 1960s, gay rights were invisible on America's public policy radar, and homosexuality in both black and white communities was hushed up. There's not a word about homosexuality in any of Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches or writings. There's a way, however, to gauge what his feelings were on the issue, and that is the longtime personal and political relationship that King had with Bayard Rustin. Best known as the driving force behind the historic 1963 March on Washington, Rustin was a close King associate and a known homosexual. (In 1953, Rustin was convicted on "morals" charges -- the parlance, in the frozen mood of that day, for homosexual acts.) King knew this, as did top FBI officials, black elected officials, civil-rights leaders and the tight circle of black ministers around King. That didn't deter King from embracing Rustin.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/12/14/EDGEBAB7KB1.DTL

[bliss_eternal]

9. Thank you for sharing this...

:hi: Great article! I will never believe that King would have embraced the ideals of Berniece or his son.

I like your pin up picture, too. Is that a Vargas?

[tuvor]

13. My pleasure.

And yes, it's a Vargas. Glad you like my including it. I try to change the pinups every week or so.

[sui generis]

7. That's why it's so ironic that her daughter Berniece

stands against civil marriage.

I also find it appalling that every time we call our travails civil rights issues somebody brings up that we can't compare to the Jim Crow era. A straw man. We're not talking about Jim Crow. We're talking about the mentality that lead to it; and ironically often from the very people who are descendants of it. Matthew Shepard was not fished out of a river like Emmet but he was beaten to death just the same, and we are beaten to death, robbed, murdered all over this country every single day but it doesn't make the news unless they're young and photogenic. There are most certainly places a gay man or woman should fear to walk in America because of what some people presume we do with our gonads.

Dave Chapelle had an insightful skit - a notorious white supremacist who finally consents to be interviewed turns out to be blind . . . and black. The greater irony is that when you subtract features and skin color from hatred and prejudice and continue to maintain that hatred and prejudice, it is even more inane, as inane as a blind black man being a white supremacist.

Coretta Scott King was an activist her entire life, herself, even before she met her husband. She believed her words and the words of her husband applied to all people, not just some people because of their skin color. Ironically.

[bliss_eternal]

8. I was shocked...

...that she, Berniece used her mother's funeral as a forum for her own ignorance and hatred. Toward the end of the service, she tossed off some nasty comments, it took me a while to realize what she was talking about (not knowing her prior history). I wrongly assumed that surely she would be like her parents.

I shouldn't be surprised, though. I've seen many families torn apart by religion.

I love the Chappelle's show example you used. :thumbsup::hi: