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King's own family reflects larger debate over gay marriage
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| Contributor | None Entered |
| Last Edited | None Entered Jan 18, 2005 04:20am |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Saturday, January 15, 2005 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | When Martin Luther King Jr.'s youngest child lit a torch at her father's tomb last month to kick off a march advocating a ban on gay marriage, it created a strong image linking the slain civil rights icon to a heated social debate.
Another indelible image: King's widow addressing audiences at a New Jersey college just nine months earlier, defending the rights of gays and lesbians.
In a year that saw the issue of gay marriage cause a split across the black community, the debate hit no harder than in the home of King himself.
The famed leader never publicly spoke on gay rights while leading the charge toward racial equality in the 1950s and '60s, but the clash over gay marriage has prompted those close to his legacy to pick sides and interpret how King would stand on the issue if he were alive today.
Coretta Scott King, a longtime supporter of gay rights, has often invoked her late husband's teachings while advocating tolerance and equality for homosexuals. Most recently, she denounced a proposed national constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in a speech at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.
"Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union," she said in her March 23 address. "A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages."
The Kings' youngest child, Bernice King, took a very different stand when she helped lead thousands of people in an Atlanta march last month that drew national attention for its anti-gay agenda.
The march, organized by Bishop Eddie Long and his 25,000-member New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, also advocated other issues, including education reform and affordable health care, but the first goal listed by the church was to push for a constitutional amendment to "fully protect marriage between one man and one woman." |
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