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MLK Widow Condemns Anti-Gay Amendment
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

(Pomona, New Jersey) Calling same-sex marriage a civil rights issue, Coretta Scott King denounced a proposed constitutional amendment to ban it.

The widow of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King told an audience in New Jersey Tuesday that constitutional amendments should be used to expand freedom, not restrict it.  

"Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union," she said in a speech at The Richard Stockton College.

"A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages."

King also criticized a group of black pastors in her home state of Georgia for backing a bill to amend that state's constitution to block gay and lesbian couples from marrying.

On Monday, more than two dozen African American church leaders rallied against gay marriage declaring that same-sex marriage should not be equated with civil rights. (story) 

"To equate a lifestyle choice to racism demeans the work of the entire civil rights movement," the statement said. "People are free in our nation to pursue relationships as they choose. To redefine marriage, however, to suit the preference of those choosing alternative lifestyles is wrong."

King called the pastors' stand :"misinformed".  She has been a frequent supporter of gay rights issues and said that her husband believed in gay civil rights. King also likes to point out that Bayard Rustin who organized 1963 March on Washington was gay.

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