Was martin luther king jr gay

He relied on Bayard Rustin (and resisted many attempts to purge this brilliant strategist) and. Martin Luther King Jr. was neither an advocate or enemy of gay rights, but both sides of the debate use his words in their arguments. Therefore, it is necessary to deal with this problem by getting back to some of the experiences and circumstances that lead to the habit.

There are still people who think like this today and they are rightly reviled for it. See a psychiatrist, King advises. In , when Martin Luther King Jr. The full document is available here. Bayard Rustin was an indispensable force behind the Civil Rights Movement and openly gay.

His widow cited them in her campaign for gay rights, while his daughter used them in her rejection of same-sex marriage. Below, we examine five ways the legacy of Martin Luther King as it applies to the LGBT community. You are already on the right road toward a solution, since you honestly recognize the problem and have a desire to solve it.

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom espoused the idea that all Americans were equal, and were to be judged on their actions, not on immutable factors like race. The federal government barred the employment of any homosexual on the grounds that they were at grave risk of blackmail, and thus were security threats.

Seen through this presentist lens, what King did was appalling. He was born in and writing in In , gay sex was almost universally criminal across the United States. Your reasons for adopting this habit have now been consciously suppressed or unconsciously repressed.

Is there any place where I can go for help? He appears to have been relatively unbiased against gays, but never saw them in civil-rights terms. You can be cured. During his lifetime, Martin Luther King Jr was not a vocal advocate for gay rights (he was assassinated a year before Stonewall, in ), nor did he speak out against them.

Question: My problem is different from the ones most people have. My being gay was not a problem for Dr. King but a problem for the movement. Hatred and fear of homosexuality were so common that it was physically, financially, and reputationally dangerous to be openly gay.

King does not condemn the young man. The type of feeling that you have toward boys is probably not an innate tendency, but something that has been culturally acquired. Even as historians are increasingly reckoning with King’s complicated private life, King’s views on sexuality are a matter of public record.

From , Martin Luther King Jr. had a monthly advice column in Ebony, a magazine directed toward an African American readership. Answer: Your problem is not at all an uncommon one. That is the world in which King lived and wrote his words. In order to do this I would suggest that you see a good psychiatrist who can assist you in bringing to the forefront of conscience all of those experiences and circumstances that lead to the habit.

What can I do? To be gay was to be sick, perverted, disgusting. I am a boy, but I feel about boys the way I ought to feel about girls. He finally came to the decision that he needed to talk with some people in his organization. Gay people were almost never openly gay in mainstream society because they faced profound social stigma.

There was no gay rights movement. In fact, in some jurisdictions, what King wrote could be illegal. Reverend Thomas. The first is through the lens of the present: This is a young man expressing homosexual desire and King tells him he is sick. However, it does require careful attention.