What Would Dr. King Do?

I just finished writing my news blog and that got me thinking about Dr. King’s dream. He argued for the equality of everyone, but he was a minister so I wonder what he would say about gay rights. The optimist in me feels that he would understand the wish to be seen as equal, but the realist in me, wonders if he would have been able to maintain his followers or if he would have lost them when he addressed the issue.

I was curious so I looked online to see what I could find. There are people arguing both positions, some say that Dr. King would have to support gay rights because he was an advocate for human rights for all, but others say that his religion would prevent him from supporting gay rights. I’d like to believe that Dr. King, being the leader that he was, would have understood that he should support gay rights regardless of his personal reservations. He was always outspoken and he wasn’t afraid to speak up when he felt something was wrong, and I want to believe that he would speak up for a person’s right to love whomever they choose to love because he would understand that the fundamental argument is not about personal beliefs, but rather personal rights.

One of his daughters doesn’t think that her father would have supported gay rights and maybe she knows something I don’t. I will say this though, if Dr. King was still alive and he did not support gay rights, I would have less respect for him, because we’re either all equal, or we’re not. Discrimination in any form is still discrimination, and you can’t stand up against discrimination and then discriminate yourself. He wouldn’t have to agree with whom some people love, but he couldn’t stand up and profess equality of all in one breath and then explain why certain people shouldn’t have equal rights with the other. Things don’t work that way. There’s a name for people who say one thing and do another: politicians. No I’m just kidding, they’re called hypocrites and I don’t think Dr. King would have been one, because not only was he better than that, he was also smarter than that. He was smart enough to separate his religious beliefs from his beliefs about human rights and to understand that the two did not necessarily have to always be the same.

Emotional status: Not so good. I was feeling rather reflective today. I always wanted to make a difference in the world and I’m starting to realize that may never happen and that makes my heart hurt.