As one of the 25,000 who joined the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. 40 years ago in the Selma March into downtown Montgomery, Ala., I cannot recall his ever writing, or saying, anything to equate the cause of civil rights with sodomy acceptance.
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But his widow, Coretta Scott King, did just exactly that, during a March 23rd lecture at Richard Stockton College in Pomona, N.J. Mrs. King said:
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Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union. A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages.
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At the college, the sponsoring organization said, when I asked, that Mrs. King did not attribute her position to anything written or said by her husband.
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Her statement undercuts a declaration by more than two dozen of Atlanta's black pastors, who affirmed:
To equate a lifestyle choice to racism demeans the work of the entire civil-rights movement ... People are free in our nation to pursue relationships as they choose. To redefine marriage, however, to suit the preference of those choosing alternative lifestyles, is wrong.
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From Atlanta, the Associated Press reported:
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"More than two dozen black pastors added their voice to the critics of same-sex marriage, attempting to distance the civil-rights struggle from the gay-rights movement and defending marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
"'When the homosexual compares himself to the black community, he doesn't know what suffering is,' said the Rev. Clarence James, an African-American Studies professor at Temple University in Philadelphia.
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"'It is a threat to who we are and what we stand for,' said Bishop William Shields of Hopewell Baptist Church. 'If nothing else gets us out of the pews, this ought to.'"
Earlier, page one of the Washington Times (but not the New York Times or the Washington Post) reported "Congressional black Democrats said comparisons shouldn't be made between the struggle by homosexuals to legalize same-sex 'marriage' and the civil-rights movement of the 1960s."
"Members of the Congressional Black Caucus said they are on shaky ground with their constituents after the presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry compared the two issues during a town hall meeting in Jackson, Miss., last week.
"Mr. Kerry was asked during the forum if it was fair for homosexual-rights activists to use prominent figures of the civil-rights movement in their effort to legalize same-sex 'marriages.' The Massachusetts senator said he saw a correlation between the issues, which didn't fare too well in the heavily black deep South.
"Caucus members said the comparison is wrong.
"'The first time I heard the comparison was Sunday,' said Rep. Bennie Thompson, Mississippi Democrat, who attended the town hall meeting. 'And my approach to [homosexual rights] is, it is a separate issue.'
"A handful of black pastors in Boston have also voiced their disapproval of the same-sex rights and civil-rights link. And the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, founder and president of Los Angeles-based Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny, called on black ministers across the country to oppose same-sex "marriage" and to support the proposed federal marriage amendment."
