The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) has announced election of The Reverend Bernice King, the youngest daughter of The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. (the organization's founder), as its eighth president.
The announcement has raised concern among the LGBT community and its supporters. Bernice King has been vocal against marriage equality and has stoked the homophobic fires when she said, "I know in my sanctified soul that he (Dr. King) did not take a bullet for same-sex marriage."
Rev. King also has been associated with the notoriously homophobic New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., convincing her family to hold Coretta's funeral there instead of Coretta's church home, Ebenezer Baptist Church. She also participated in a march against same-sex marriage in downtown Atlanta in 2004.
The Reverend Eric P. Lee, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the SCLC and an outspoken advocate of social justice, says, "My hope is that Reverend King will follow in the spirit of her father and her mother. We know that her mother, Coretta Scott King, was supportive of LGBT equality, and we believe that Dr. King would have been as well."
SCLC criticized Rev. Lee last year for his advocacy in favor of LGBT marriage equality during California's Proposition 8 controversy. "It's going to be a tough role for her because, of course, sexism still plagues our society. My hope is that her election is a sign that the SCLC is returning to its spirit of equality for all people. The need for the SCLC is more critical than ever at this time. Our society is facing the challenges of healthcare reform, immigration reform and education reform. Reverend King and the SCLC have the opportunity, and the obligation, to once again ensure justice is provided to all people."
Reverend Lee is the author of the book, Marriage Equality: Proposition 8, The California Divide, and the co-producer of a 90 minute documentary film on the failure of public education for African American and Latino children entitled, Who Is Accountable?
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