Today is "Martin Luther King Jr. Day" and as I reflected upon this yesterday and in the early hours of this morning, I wondered to myself what Dr. King would tell his GLBT brothers and sisters if he could speak to us today. Then I recalled a speech in which he did just that...
There are those who would lie and say that Dr. King was no friend of GLBT peoples, but the truth is that he understood that we are just another glorious manifestation of God's most wonderfully diverse creation, humankind. What proof do I offer, just this, never far from Dr. King's side was his friend, openly gay and openly proud to be a black man, Bayard Rustin (although mostly out of the frame, he's standing just behind Dr. King's left shouder).
Not only was Bayard Rustin, Dr. King's close friend and confidant, but he was the one man who was most instrumental in bringing Dr. King's message of love to a world weary from bearing the chains of prejudice and oppression and crying out for a standard bearer to hearld freedom. Dr. King acknowledged many times that without Bayard Rustin, there could have been no "March on Washington" in 1963 which was the turning point in the fight for civil rights.
And so, again, what would Martin Luther King, Jr. say to his GLBT brothers and sisters today? Exactly what he said to those who braved the bombs, the dogs, the billy clubs and the firehoses to march on the state capital at Montgomery, Alabama to proclaim that "I am a man!" He would remind us as he reminded them:
"How long? Not long!"
"Because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."
"Fear Eats the Soul"
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