Anti-gay rights pastor Brian Tamaki has been invited to take part in an American fundie Christian broadcast to commemorate civil rights legend Dr Martin Luther King. Tamaki and his Destiny Church have continually evoked the name of the late Dr King to posthumously support their anti-gay agenda, despite having a request for official support from the King Centre – and King's widow Coretta Scott King – denied. The broadcast will be on America's Trinity Broadcasting Network, best described as a CNN for fundies. "Many people don't know that Dr Martin Luther King was a minister and that his civil rights movement was birthed out of a church,” Tamaki commented in a press release. “He was a man of great faith and conviction who stood for what he believed." King was also a man whose closest personal advisor, Bayard Rustin, was gay. Ironically, it was Rustin who organised King's historic 1963 civil rights march which culminated in the famous “I Have A Dream” speech. This march and others like it have been the inspiration behind Tamaki's anti-gay hate marches. Then-Democrat senator Strom Thurmond attempted to discredit the famous march before it took place by calling attnetion to Rustin's homosexuality. The plan didn't work, however – Dr King stood in defense of Rustin.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Saturday, 15th January 2005 - 12:00pm