Bayard Rustin & The Black Civil Rights Movement

[rawTOP]

Here's a bit of history about one gay man that made a big difference but paid a huge price for being gay...

[rawplayboston]

thanks for posting this rawTOP; I appreciate it as an African-American, too often gay Black men get left out of our LGBTQ history.

[MascMountainMan]

rawplayboston, have you seen this story about the Georgia state representative, Rashad Taylor, who recently came out of the closet? He was pushed, but seems to have handled himself very gracefully. I'd say given his position, he's making a bit of history himself.

[Hotload84]

Bayard Rustin was from West Chester, Pennsylvania, a mid-sized town in the remote (very white) suburbs of Philadelphia. Back in 2002 when the West Chester School District entertained naming a new school after Bayard Rustin, opponents to the proposal tried to derail the proposal with the argument (in part) that it was inappropriate to name a school after a homosexual. I wondered those opposing the naming were no less alarmed about honoring a black man, but admittedly that's speculation on my part. Happily the school district stuck to its guns and named the school after Rustin. The sort of controversey erupted in the '50s, albeit without the element of racism, when the Delaware River Bridge Authority announced plans to name a new bridge between Philadelphia and Camden after Walt Whitman, the famous poet who spent the last few decades of his life in Camden. The counter-argument, lead by the Diocese of Camden, was similar to that raised against the West Chester school district's decision to name the school after Rustin: it was inappropriate to name a bridge after an avowed homosexual. Happily that effort was also unsuccessful.

Both examples recall the adage: he who writes history controls the past. In this case the opponents to the two proposals tried to write two important gay men out of history.