Julian Bond's Civil Rights resume places him in league with giants. He's been at the fore of the fight for equality since he was a student at
Morehouse College, where he co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960.
More recently, Bond has thrown his support behind the right for gays and lesbians to legally wed. Gay marriage, a contentious issue, has been opposed by several prominent African American leaders such as Rev. Willie Wilson, Bishop Eddie Long and
T.D. Jakes, who support the Federal Marriage Amendment, which seeks to amend the Constitution to recognize marriage as only between a man and a woman.
His gay marriage endorsement is also something of a break with the traditions of the Civil Rights movement, which in many ways was a conservative, religious-based campaign.
Bond, who did not attend
Coretta Scott King's funeral for this very reason, likens gay rights to civil rights, saying that "everybody has the right to civil rights," and
writing op-ed pieces on the right for gay marriage in newspapers and magazines.
The former Georgia state legislator, who currently teaches history at the University of Virginia and George Mason University, is also deeply involved in the Living Wage movement. He is chariperson of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a position he has held for almost 20 years.
Black Voices: Is it your objective to change people's minds about gay marriage? Especially those who believe in Biblical literalism?No, it's my objective to say, you can believe whatever you want to believe but marriage is a CIVIL affair, and you don't have a right to impose your rights on the civil society. If you want to say gay people can't be married in your church, OK. But you can't say they can't be married in City Hall because of something you read in the Bible.
Historically, the Civil Rights movement has had its foundation in the black church. How can gay rights be reconciled if most of its opposition comes from the pulpit?Well, yes and no. The Civil Rights Movement had the support of a number of ministers but typically, if you look at Montgomery in 1965 and '66 or Birmingham in '63, it was a minority of ministers who were engaged in the movement and who had their congregation engaged. The rest of them are sitting on the sidelines saying, 'Good, keep it up, I'm with you,' or doing nothing at all. And that pretty much is the condition now. [The clergy] is a fairly conservative bunch of people. There not as much into social change as we'd like to think they are.
Why do you think that a lot of black folks feel that when others gain rights, theirs are reduced?I don't know. I think it's because they don't have an understanding of the universality of rights. They somehow think, wrongly, that if Joe gets rights, then John loses rights. Which of course, doesn't make sense. This is a win-win game for everybody. I don't think we do it in order for them to become your allies. I think you do it in the hopes that they'll become your allies. But there are no guarantees that they will. And experience teaches us that many of them will not. No matter who the "they" is. You don't do it for any profit for yourself, you do it because it is right.
Where do you think MLK would stand on gay rights? Malcolm X?I think
Martin King would stand as his widow stood -- in favor of them. And I think he would be astounded at the behavior of his daughter [Bernice King]. I don't know about Malcolm X. But you have to think that people develop as they get older. He developed from one set of values to another, one set of beliefs, to another.
What do you think needs to happen for gay rights -- is the battle in courts or public opinion?All the things that have to happen with almost every movement -- you've got to have a change in laws. You've got to have a change in attitudes primarily because there's a frightening level of homophobia in the black community. And there's a frightening level of ignorance. Because there are many people who believe that somehow gay and lesbian people choose to be gay and lesbian. And that's just nonsense. And it goes against all the science that we know about. And how people can believe it is just a mystery to me.
Why did you not attend the funeral of Coretta Scott King?I knew her fairly well; we were neighbors for [over 20 years] when I lived in Atlanta. There was a house between us. And I knew her attitude toward gay and lesbian rights. And I just couldn't imagine that she'd want to be
in that church with a minister who was a raving homophobe. And I couldn't see myself in my church either. Although I have a great deal of respect and affection for her, I thought that I could show a lot more by staying away. We were neighbors and her children and my children grew up together and I saw her quite a bit. I couldn't do it.