Letters to the Editor
-
Before you start lecturing people about the Civil Rights Movement...
healthyskeptic, you need to do more than read a few articles and watch a PBS documentary. Especially since you can't even be bothered to remember a name. Bayard Rustin is the gay man you referred to who was one of the architects of the Civil Rights Movement in the 50's and 60's--but he wasn't behind the scenes because he was part of some deliberate decision not to promote gay rights. He was behind the scenes because that was his personality: he determined he worked best as a "power behind the throne" kind of guy.
And, he didn't distance himself from the Movement because he was "outed." Number One, he was never IN the closet, so no one could OUT him; and, Number Two, the Movement changed after the deaths of Malcolm X and MLK: the people who had done a lot of the marching and sit-ins were tired of doing both, and the younger people that were coming along no longer felt that those types of protests were necessary or effective. What Rustin did was become a mover in the Gay Rights Movement, which was at that time starting to do marches and protests in urban areas--Rustin always believed these were effective tools for social change. In other words, the Gay Rights Movement was the perfect fit: its practices were a continuation of what he believed worked to better society.
healthyskeptic, don't write about things of which you have scant knowledge. What am I saying: if you followed my advice, you wouldn't post at all.