On this Mart Luther Kg Day, Autostraddle remembers the activist legacy of Coretta Stt Kg and her fight for gay rights.
Contents:
- CORETTA'S BIG DREAM: CORETTA STT KG ON GAY RIGHTS
- HOW CORETTA STT KG LEVERAGED MLK’S LEGACY TO FIGHT FOR GAY RIGHTS
CORETTA'S BIG DREAM: CORETTA STT KG ON GAY RIGHTS
For more than twenty years before her ath 2006, she fought tirelsly for gay rights and lked the civil rights movement wh the LGBT rights movement, believg all the while that her work was a fahful exprsn of the clive dream shared by her hband. Kg's first public foray to the gay rights movement occurred durg her steady learship of the 20th anniversary of the 1963 march. Durg the n-up to the anniversary, Kg whstood the ti of social nservatism and pledged her support for the Gay and Civil Rights Act then before Congrs -- a groundbreakg bill that would have prohibed discrimatn agast gays and lbians hog, employment and public acmodatns.
Enuraged by gay and lbian lears, Mrs. Given the homophobia of some civil rights lears takg part the rally, Kg's cisn to make room for a lbian speaker was nothg short of prophetic. So was Lor's brief speech:I am Audre Lor, speakg for the Natnal Coaln of Black Gays.
HOW CORETTA STT KG LEVERAGED MLK’S LEGACY TO FIGHT FOR GAY RIGHTS
Today's march openly jos the black civil rights movement and the gay civil rights movement the stggl we have always shared, the stggle for jobs, for health, for peace and for eedom. Kg's public advocy for gay and lbian rights creased after the Supreme Court led, Bowers v.
Hardwick, that gays did not have a nstutnal right to engage nsensual sodomy. She happily agreed and took the ocsn to exprs her "solidary wh the gay and lbian movement.
Kg also unseled and forted gay iends sufferg om the ravag of HIV and AIDs. Wh help om her special assistant Lynn Cothren, an openly gay man, she created a welg environment at the Kg Center and ed the Center's rourc to te the lol muny about the disease. Kg was so touched when one of her close gay iends died that she hosted his fay and circle of iends for a quiet day of sewg stch on a panel that would bee part of the AIDS Memorial Quilt.