Great commentary in today's St Pete Times on some points of intersection and divergence.

It's important today to honor Dr King, and to celebrate his legacy, profoundly human as it is.

I totally agree. His widow, Coretta Scott King, is on record repeatedly supporting full and equal rights for gays and lesbians, and has worked to ensure that no one (including his somewhat daft sons) exploit his name for anti-gay purposes.

Today, a black Baptist minister in South Carolina, in praising King, went out of her way to repeat that idiotic Adam-and-Eve-not-Adam-and-Steve comment (ed. comment: lady, God created everything and everyone, so your comment is inane by any measure!), and Gen. Wesley Clark, who was present, made it quite clear that he did not agree with her statements. We need more candidates to be pro-active and not namby-pamby about our rights--ours, or any Americans'.

As an Irish-American from Massachusetts, I am always amazed at how quickly those who were once only oppressed can become oppressors once they gain power. It certainly happened to the Irish in Mass (the Irish went from facing "Irish Need Not Apply" signs in businesses to actively stopping other ethnicities from lucrative jobs with city governments), and it seems to be happening to some in the African-American community. Although anti-gay blacks themselves have struggled against stereotypes and bigotry that unfairly limited their lives, they cannot or will not make the leap to understanding their own predjudices and bigotries.

Like the minister in the article who does not want his child to play with the child of two lesbians - is that really any different from a white parent saying they don't want their children playing with black kids?

And as for the "God made Adam and Eve" it is interesting to note that Adam and Eve then made Cain and Abel, but Cain killed Abel and then took a wife - who made the other woman?

Bayard Rustin was one of King's closest advisors
http://www.rustin.org/
http://www.lambda.net/~maximum/rustin.html