"Bigots Go Back to Lithonia"

Well this is discouraging. Yesterday in Atlanta, Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church led a march supposedly aimed at celebrating the need for morality in the black community. That's all well and good, considering the topic has been a talking point since Bill Cosby comments this summer have elevated him to golden-boy status for the Right. However, many progressives, including myself, have shunned Long's message, not because of its religious rhetoric, but because of its slander against homosexuals.

Thousands of Christian soldiers marched through one of Atlanta's most storied neighborhoods Saturday, opposing gay marriage and promoting what they see as a moral agenda for the country — especially African-Americans.

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Long organized the demonstration and carried an Olympic-style torch lighted from the eternal flame at the King Center, where the march began.

I will be frank, I do not like Bishop Eddie Long. This is primarily because I live right across the street from New Birth. I can walk there from my house in less than 5 minutes, and I've worked out there from time to time. I even had my high school graduation there back in 2001. It is also the location of my polling place. Considering this and New Birth's congregation of 25,000 members, Bishop Long holds a significant amount of power in DeKalb County, as well as metro-Atlanta. I've even had issues with Bishop Long's on-again/off-again relationship with my ex-Congresswoman/Congresswoman-elect, Cynthia McKinney (D-GA). Despite these problems I have with the church, its minister, and its cult-like following, Sunday's march was over the top for me.

Although I disagree with discrimination against homosexuals, I can understand how individuals come to have those beliefs, particularly when raised in an environment that maintains that homosexuality is a sin. I won't blink when people opposed to homosexuality decide to get together and have marches like this; they are enjoying their Constitutional right. My issue with this march, however, is that it was done in the context of a man who gave his life for inclusion and anti-discrimination. To do this in the name of Dr. King is a travesty.

Dr. King never made any public remarks about homosexuality, so for both sides of the debate, there is little to completely vindicate either argument. What we do know, however, is that King's top advisor, Bayard Rustin, was an openly gay man. Most of the people who were closest to King, except for his wife who was the closest, are now deceased. So, what does Coretta Scott King, the last great torch bearer of Dr. King's legacy, have to say about homosexuality and gay marriage?

"Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union," she said. "A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages."

Still, Coretta Scott King is not Martin Luther King, Jr., and must resign ourselves to speculate his beliefs about certain issues. I will end saying that Dr. King was more than a progressive, he was a radical, and I wonder if people like Eddie Long and George W. Bush, the kinds of people who pick and choose the pieces of Dr. King's legacy that is most useful for advancing their agendas; I wonder what they would think if they got to know the real Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

...I hope you will allow me to say to you this afternoon that God is not interested merely in the freedom of black men and brown men and yellow men. God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race. [Applause] And I believe that with this philosophy and this determined struggle we will be able to go on in the days ahead and transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.