King Family Split on Gay Marriage

From the AP, via the Boston Globe,

Martin Luther King Jr.'s youngest child lighted a torch at her father's tomb last month to kick off a march advocating a ban on gay marriage, creating a strong image linking the slain civil rights icon to today's heated social debate.

But nine months earlier, King's widow defended the rights of gays and lesbians in a speech at a New Jersey college….

The Kings' youngest child, Bernice King, helped lead thousands of people in an Atlanta march last month that had an antigay agenda. The march, organized by Bishop Eddie Long and his 25,000-member New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, also advocated issues such as education overhauls and affordable healthcare, but its first goal listed was an amendment to "fully protect marriage between one man and one woman."…

Alveda C. King -- niece of the slain civil rights leader, founder of the faith-based King for America Inc., and a vocal opponent of gay marriage -- said she joined her cousin in the Atlanta march because she believes her uncle never intended gay rights to be part of the civil rights movement. "Bernice says herself that she knows deep within that her father did not march and did not take a bullet for same-sex marriage," Alveda King said.

Whole thing, which notes that Martin Luther King, Jr. never addressed the issue of gay rights, here.