As the nation celebrates the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day, there is a renewed interest in the legendary civil rights leader's views on homosexuality and if he would have eventually spoken out for gay rights. Absolutely, says his late widow Coretta Scott King, who became a tireless LGBT ally. Some others disagree and say given the history of the black church, MLK may have remained silent on that issue.
Rev. Irene Monroe writes a must-read op-ed at Bay Window on Bayard Rustin, the openly gay black man who was King's top lieutenant. "Rustin, the gay man who was chief organizer and strategist for the 1963 March on Washington that further catapulted Martin Luther King onto the world stage, was not the beneficiary of King’s dream."
In the Civil Rights movement, Bayard Rustin was always the man behind the scenes, and a large part of that had to due with the fact that he was gay. Because of their own homophobia, many African American ministers involved in the Civil Right movement would have nothing to do with Rustin, and they intentionally rumored throughout the movement that King was gay because of his close friendship with Rustin. In a spring 1987 interview with Rustin in Open Hands, a resource for ministries affirming the diversity of human sexuality, Rustin recalls that difficult period quite vividly. Rustin said, "Martin Luther King, with whom I worked very closely, became very distressed when a number of the ministers working for him wanted him to dismiss me from his staff because of my homosexuality. Martin set up a committee to discover what he should do. They said that, despite the fact that I had contributed tremendously to the organization ... they thought I should separate myself from Dr. King. This was the time when [Rev. Adam Clayton] Powell threatened to expose my so-called homosexual relationship with Dr. King." When Rustin pushes him on the issue to speak up on his behalf, King did not.
In John D’Emilo’s book Lost Prophet: The Life and times of Bayard Rustin, he wrote the following on the matter: "Rustin offered to resign in the hope that his would force the issue. Much to his chagrin, King did not reject the offer. At the time, King was also involved in a major challenge to the conservative leadership of the National Baptist convention, and one of his ministerial lieutenants in the fight was also gay. ’Basically King said I can’t take on two queers at on time,’ one of Rustin’s associated recollected later." When Rustin was asked about MLK’s views on gays in a March 1987 interview with Redvers Jean Marie he stated, "It is difficult for me to know what Dr. King felt about gayness."
There is an excellent documentary, Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, that explores his many accomplishments. It's generally regarded that Rustin's open sexuality, which was very rare for black men of his generation, is the reason why many of his accomplishments have been ignored or minimized by black historians.