After two posts
fantasizing writing about gay sex, anti-gay activist Peter LaBarbera has s
witched to a different tone, one a bit more insulting:
I saw this on Twitter tonight. The conservative news site Hawaii Free Press identifies the Ebony issue in which this advice column by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. appeared as January 1958. HFP, citing CNN, offers the full Q &A with King, which we have reprinted under the graphic. – Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH:
I would caution my lgbt brothers and sisters to use discretion AND their intellects before getting their tempers up and saying things from the hip.
For one, remember this was a different time in America and King died before the lgbt movement for equality was in full swing. He was assassinated before Stonewall and also before the American Psychiatric Association declared homosexuality not to be a mental illness.
And even if you want to discount that, remember this is Peter LaBarbera we are talking about. Like so many other anti-gay activists, once he gets something he can construe to be against homosexuality, he will exploit it without taking the time to see the big picture.
And if one would take a look at the
2012 CNN article, one would see that there is a lot more to the story of King's column:
The CNN article said that this was the only time King spoke about the morality of homosexuality. However, his feelings about lgbt equality wasn't known. That's interesting in light of the fact that one of his closest allies at the time, Bayard Rustin - the man who organized the 1963 March on Washington - was openly gay.
And speaking of MLK and Rustin, the article goes into long detail about the relationship between the two and how King resisted calls to dismiss Rustin from the 1963 March on Washington because of his sexual orientation.
Lastly, keep this in mind from the
CNN article:
Ravi Perry, a political science professor at Clark University in
Worcester, Massachusetts, said King’s widow once said in a public speech
that everyone who believed in her husband’s dream should “make room at
the table of brother and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.”
There is no private or public record of King condemning gay people,
Perry says. Even the FBI’s surveillance of King’s private phone
conversations didn’t turn up any moment where King disparaged gay
people, she says.“If Dr. King were anti-gay, there would likely be a sermon, a speech, a
recording of some kind indicating such,” she says. “And knowing how
closely his phones were tapped; surely there would be a record of such
statements.”
King was more than a civil rights leader. He was more than just a man who made a "I Have A Dream" speech. He was a trailblazer who stood up for simple right and wrong no matter the consequences. A lot of folks don't remember that King was one of the first prominent leaders to speak against the war in Vietnam. He lost a lot of popularity for it but stood his ground because he recognized the futility of that war.
And I have a feeling that if King had been alive during the birth of the modern lgbt equality movement, he would have been recognized the inherent goodness of our cause - to have ourselves and our families be treated equally under the law - and would have spoken in favor of our cause.
"(Homosexuality) is a very dangerous lifestyle that countries like Russia are, in addition to reestablishing and saying no, marriage is what it's always been, they're saying additionally we are going to stop this homosexual activist propaganda from corrupting children in our nation and we need to see that right here in the United States." - Matt Barber of the Liberty Counsel and "dean" at Liberty University
