Professional “former homosexual” and white male Randy Thomas had this to say over at his blog today:
At today’s press conference one of my heroes, Rev. Bill Owen, spoke very passionately about what civil rights means to the African American community and how the fight over marriage is nothing comparable to that. Rev. Owen was friends with Dr. King and I think he would know.
So who knew Dr. King best? Oh, I don’t know… There has been all this talk from the religious right about the sacred God-ordained institution of marriage so maybe we autta think about that. I mean it’s only the most important institution in almost 5000 (laugh) years of human history.
However, in this case observing the most intimate bond two people can share is an inconvenience to Thomas’ worldview.
Thomas and Owens conveniently forget that interracial marriage was until recently forbidden in several states under the same reasoning: “Marriage is not a right, so let’s use it as a weapon to promote bigotry.”
The issues of civil and constitutional rights may well be distinct from the privileges of marriage. But the antigay marriage amendment is not just about marriage: The amendment is erodes the sovereignty of “the people” of each state, and it erodes religious freedom.
Specifically, the amendment denies the people of each state the option to choose marriage laws appropriate for their state. It discriminates against the ability of religious bodies to marry those whom they deem to be worthy of marriage. It imposes one politicized religious movement’s definition of marriage upon people of all religious faiths.
And it consists of shoddy constitutional law: It fails to define “legal incidents” of marriage, it fails to state its intent, and it violates 200-plus years of constitutional tradition reserving most rights to states and individuals.
Randy Thomas claims Martin Luther King Jr. and other African American pastors as “heroes.” But Thomas’ ideology says otherwise.
As near as I can tell from his past writing, Randy Thomas opposes equal employment opportunity and its constitutional precedents; opposes protection of African Americans and Muslims under hate-crime laws; opposes social welfare programs to remedy past discrimination; and favors capital punishment that in Texas is disproportionately carried out against minority convicts.
Thomas’ claim that African American civil rights leaders are his heroes is an example of self-delusion, astonishing historical and political ignorance, and selective bigotry.
I wonder what Thomas and Owens have to say about Bayard Rustin. Thomas probably doesn’t even know who Rustin is.
Dead heroes are so convenient; you can praise them while ignoring everything they had to say.
But, then again, we shouldn’t be surprised. This comes from the brand of Christiany that can praise Christ while ignoring all of what he had to say.
I continue to be annoyed at the audacity of people like this (or this) to claim that “gays are hijacking the civil rights movement.” The only ones hijacking it are people like this, who seem to believe that the civil rights movement–hell, civil rights themselves–are only for black people.
Let’s also not forgot that one of Kings most trusted advisors and friends was Mr. Julian Bond, who is gay, and was known to be gay by Mr. King. Bond was central to all of the key decisions of the civil rights era of the last 40 years and the King legacy. King trusted and worked with a gay man well before others would have even done so. Not a “former homosexual” but an out and proud gay black male.
Christopher, I believe you are referring to Bayard Rustin, not Julian Bond (both IIRC were close advisors to King, but Rustin was the one known to be gay). In fact, Rustin is now given much of the credit for organizing the ’63 March on Washington.