Mlk gay
Home / gay topics / Mlk gay
Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.”
Frank Kameny, an early gay leader in the ‘homophile movement’ of the 50’s, agreed. "LGBT equality, in our minds, is consistent with many other justice issues, so it's important that we're present."
For LGBT people, the fight is not yet over for the values of equality King stood for, says Darlene Nipper of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
He was an advocate for nonviolent resistance, and taught Martin Luther King many of the principles of nonviolent civil disobedience.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Quinton E. Baker, February 23, 2002. Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina brought nationwide media attention to Bayard after claiming that the march was being organized by “Communist, draft-dodger and homosexual.”
But it would seem that the impact of what was once the movement’s Achilles’ heel had lost its effectiveness.
Gay rights have been incorporated into the human rights movement.
The Rev. MacArthur Flournoy, who directs faith partnerships and mobilizing at the Human Rights Campaign, said the inclusion of gay rights in the larger civil rights movement has been transformative.
"We see human rights and civil rights as linked. There was the belief that the white press would use that to malign all Black people."
Did Rustin actually play the lute?
In a lighter moment at Rustin's apartment, the film touches on the fact that he was an accomplished singer and instrumentalist who recorded several albums.
“To this very day, you can go and buy ‘Elizabethan Songs and Negro Spirituals,’” Wolfe says.
In 2013, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his unyielding career in civil rights activism.
But after King’s assassination on April 4, 1968, Rustin agreed to fly from Memphis to help lead the campaign in King’s absence.
BAKER:
Rustin died on August 24, 1987, but his fight for nonviolence lived on among the countless people inspired by the 1963 March on Washington. Colman Domingo (“Zola”) stars as Rustin, a Black gay activist who preached nonviolent protest and was a top aide to King.
“He was incredibly committed to equality and helping those in need,” says director George C.
Wolfe (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”). What did his life, and his death, mean for the struggle of gay men, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people for their equality?
The big civil rights effort of the 1950’s and 60’s was to overcome the legacy of slavery and a bitter civil war in our country, and bring true equality to blacks and other minorities.
That was very important to him, because it’s all in the details.”
So how much of "Rustin" is true? Not to dismiss what he contributed, but it was put together by women. His widow, Coretta Scott King believed she knew, though. So the exposing of it and the timing of it is completely accurate."
Were Rustin's love interests Tom and Elias real people?
Along with his tireless efforts as a community organizer, the movie explores Rustin's romantic relationships with fellow activist Tom Kahn (Gus Halper) and Elias Taylor (Johnny Ramey), a married pastor.
Although Kahn was real, "Elias is a creation," Wolfe says.
“That seemed to be ingrained in his entire being.”
"Rustin," which counts Barack and Michelle Obama among its producers, charts the exhaustive work that went into assembling the march, which was attended by more than 250,000 people.
Watch it here: Stream your favorite shows, the biggest blockbusters and more.“It was one of the things that was very important to President Obama,” Wolfe says.