LGBT Orgs: Where's the Love for MLK?

If you do a search for Reverend Martin Luther King and LGBT rights, you'll find a plethora of sites - some stating that Dr. King would have been in full support of LGBT equality and some stating that because he was a man of the cloth, Rev. King would have either not supported LGBT equality or he would have neglected to have an opinion either way.

Because Dr. King is no longer with us, the question has been posed to his widow and other family members. King's widow, Coretta Scott King, often spoke in support of LGBT equality stating: "Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood", she stated. "This sets the stage for further repression and violence that spread all too easily to victimize the next minority group." Mrs. King linked civil rights and LGBT equality at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's "Creating Change" conference and invited the Task Force to take part in the 40th anniversary of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Mrs. King also publicly denounced a federal amendment proposed by then-president George W. Bush banning equal marriage rights for LGBT couples.



So, how has the most dynamic, impassioned and influential speaker on civil rights and his equally impassioned wife been honored by the LGBT community?

They haven't.

Not a dinner, not a commemorative video, not an award in his name - in most cases not even a mention on their websites!

Let's look at the very organization Coretta aligned herself with and invited to the 40th anniversary of King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech. According to Wikipedia, this was the first time an LGBT organization was invited to a national black event. How does the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force honor Coretta? It doesn't. There's been no mention of Coretta on the Task Force's website since she passed away in 2006. As for Dr. King, I expected to at least see a captioned picture on the front page but instead I saw only a banner ad of the Task Force's upcoming conference and further down, a link to a press release (dated January 17th, the day MLK Day was observed not even his actual birthday of January 15th) on how The Task Force acknowledges his birthday and his commitment to civil rights.

I'm disappointed.

Let's try GLAAD. I had to use the search feature on GLAAD's site to find anything about MLK and what I did find was relegated to the "Communities of Color" section. Interestingly enough, though, the headline is "Remembering Dr. King's Legacy" yet the blog entry has nothing to do with Dr. King and is nothing more than a veiled advertisement for a GLAAD show called "In the Life".

Let's try my local Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. The only mention of MLK on that site is to let visitors know it would be closed "in observance of Martin Luther King Day".

HRC? If not for this post by a guest blogger, there would have been no acknowledgment of MLK's birthday since a press release the HRC put out in 2008.

Freedom to Marry - no official acknowledgment but a press release announcing that executive director Evan Wolfson will be speaking at University of Michigan's MLK observance.

Need I go on?

The only LGBT groups I can find paying homage to the man who did so much for the betterment of others were the LGBT groups catering to the African American community. In my local area, the Jordan Rustin Coalition and Here to Stay organized an LGBT contingent in the Los Angeles Martin Luther King Day parade. The Here to Stay group was formed solely to galvanize LGBTs for the King Day parade to increase visibility in the African American community and to acknowledge Dr. King's commitment to civil rights. This is their 4th march.

There are few American leaders who did as much for civil rights as Martin Luther King. It's saddens me that organizations who claim that LGBT rights are the "Second Civil Rights Movement" don't do more to acknowledge a man who did so much for the first (and many argue only) one. For so many LGBT organizations to be so dismissive of Dr. King's legacy leads me to believe they haven't done their homework on how to galvanize disparate communities or honor leaders of the past. Hopefully in coming years, more local and national LGBT organizations will wake up and give Dr. King his due.