A really beautiful essay. With some history I had no idea about, or at least had only heard inklings of. One of MLK's top advisers was "a known homosexual." And in spite of pressure from just about everyone to drop the "homosexual," King stood by him, and kept him as a top adviser. Read this article. (Thanks to Larry Yates for bringing this to my attention in the comments to another post.)
The sight of the daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., standing at the gravesite of her father with thousands of demonstrators to denounce gay marriage was painful and insulting. The Rev. Bernice King and the march organizers deliberately chose King's gravesite to imply that King might well have stood with her and them in their protest. Given her father's relentless and uncompromising battle against discrimination during his life, it defies belief that he would back an anti-gay campaign....
King risked much to work with and defend Rustin during the tumultuous battles of the civil rights era. He valued him as an ally and a major player in the struggle. He also believed that deeply embodied in the civil rights fight was a person's right to be whom and what he was. While King may have praised his daughter for having the courage and conviction to march for her beliefs, bigotry is still bigotry, whether it's racial or sexual preference. He would not have marched by her side.
