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MLK Day & LGBT Civil Rights

By Charlotte Robinson, January 20, 2014

Every year as we celebrate Martin Luther King Day we talk about how King would have supported full LGBT civil rights. Jack O'Dell, former Southern Christian Leadership Conference activist & aide to Dr. Martin Luther King stated, "Dr. King would have fully supported gay marriage." The late Coretta Scott King agreed stating, “Gay & Lesbian people have families & their families should have legal protections. A constitutional amendment banning gay marriage is a form of gay bashing & will do nothing at all to protect traditional marriage.” Now that the US Supreme Court has ruled DOMA the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional we move a little closer to sharing King’s dream. This year for the first time our LGBT community will be able to file for federal rights & protections for our families. We owe a lot to the legacy of Martin Luther King. We have fought hard but we still have a ways to go until our LGBT community has full equality in America. But King would have been very proud about the advancements we have made in the last decade. Until this country wakes up to the fact that the majority should never vote on the rights of a minority our hard work will continue. When we asked singer & gay ally Patti Austin on OUTTAKE VOICES™ what Martin Luther King Day means to her Austin stated, “When Martin Luther King was alive I was very active politically. I was in high school at the time. I was truly a political activist...So I was kind of all over that stuff. And by now I’m exhausted from the whole experience. It just represents a lot of pain & a lot of hard work & a lot of anguish because I lived it.”   Listen to Audio Byte:
Listen: MEUSA Brian Silva On Gay Marriage In 2014

Hear Audio Interviews w/ LGBT Leaders @OUTTAKE VOICES™
OUTTAKE VOICES™ NOW ON HUFF POST...:)
SUPPORT OUTTAKE™ @ OUR EQUALITY STORE
View Our Historic Short Trailer on Gay Marriage

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