Looks like Rev. Al Sharpton isn't the only leader supportive of marriage equality. Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis, smacks down anti-gay pastors and those who think gay rights are not civil rights:Terry Gross: (At the 22:00 mark) I want to quote something that you wrote in an op-ed piece in October of 003, and this was about gay rights and the right for gay people to marry. You wrote, “I have fought too hard and for too long against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up against discrimination based on sexual orientation. I’ve heard the reasons for opposing civil marriage for same-sex couples. Cut through the distractions, and they stink of the same fear, hatred and intolerance I have known in racism and in bigotry.” …I’ve heard some African-American leaders say that it’s wrong to make a connection between the civil rights movement and the gay rights movement because discrimination against African-Americans and discrimination against gays are completely different things. And being gay and being black are completely different things. What’s your take on that?
Rep. Lewis: Well, I do not buy that argument. I do not buy that argument. And today I think more than ever before, we have to speak up and speak out to end discrimination based on sexual orientation. Dr. King used to say when people talked about blacks and whites falling in love and getting married — you know one time in the state of Virginia, in my native state of Alabama, in Georgia and other parts of the South, blacks and whites could not fall in love and get married. And Dr. King took a simple argument and said races don’t fall in love and get married. Individuals fall in love and get married. It’s not the business of the federal government, it’s not the business of the state government to tell two individuals that they cannot fall in love and get married. And so I go back to what I said and wrote those lines a few years ago, that I fought too long and too hard against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up and fight and speak out against discrimination based on sexual orientation.
And you hear people “defending marriage.” Gay marriage is not a threat to heterosexual marriage. It is time for us to put that argument behind us.
You cannot separate the issue of civil rights. It is one of those absolute, immutable principles. You’ve got to have not just civil rights for some, but civil rights for all of us.
And you hear people “defending marriage.” Gay marriage is not a threat to heterosexual marriage. It is time for us to put that argument behind us.
You cannot separate the issue of civil rights. It is one of those absolute, immutable principles. You’ve got to have not just civil rights for some, but civil rights for all of us.
Terry Gross: And when you say not civil rights for some, you even mean civil rights for African-Americans and for gay people too?
Rep. Lewis: Not just civil rights for African-Americans or other minorities, but civil rights also for gay people.
Lewis was heavily involved in the movement, serving as head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which lead many sit-ins, and were also the victims of the violent attacks displayed on national television. Lewis himself was beaten at the march on Selma by Alabama State Troopers. Clearly he, Coretta Scott King and fellow ally Julian Bond, know what they're talking about when speaking about LGBT rights.
Wow. Pro-gay comments from two powerful, straight black male leaders in less than two weeks. Change must really be comin':). Listen to the NPR podcast here.
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