Winston Johnson of Atlanta, who was a longtime friend of Coretta Scott King, will take part in a discussion with Dave Hayward of the gay Atlanta history project Touching Up Our Roots at YouthPride tonight. A reception begins at 6:30 p.m. with Johnson speaking at 7:30 p.m. The program is part of Atlanta’s numerous MLK Weekend events.

Johnson, who is gay, met Mrs. King right after the assassination of her husband, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. They became close friends and he eventually helped her begin her vocal gay advocacy after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in in 1986 in  Bowers v. Hardwick — a case that arose from Atlanta — that it was within a state’s right to arrest gay people who violated the state’s sodomy law.

Numerous parties are also taking place tonight as part of MLK Weekend, including an appearance by “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Sheree Whitfield at Vita.

 See Friend of late Coretta Scott King to discuss her gay activism
Southern Voice, GA -

Gay protest likely at King Day service

Members of metro Atlanta’s gay community plan to protest Monday when the Rev. Rick Warren speaks during the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Service at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Warren, the pastor of an evangelical megachurch in California, is known for inspiring Christians across the country to serve the poor and needy. Last summer, he also helped rally support in California to outlaw same-sex marriage.

 See Gay protest likely at King Day service
Atlanta Journal Constitution,  USA 

No one should be surprised that President-elect Barack Obama would choose self-promoting Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inaugural. Warren has been hustling for years to make himself the “new Billy Graham” — seeking to fill the vacating role of spiritual adviser to presidents, be they born-again Republicans or born-right-the-first-time Democrats.

Obama, always on the watch for ways to broaden his base of support, has been developing a relationship with Warren for many years, as he has with other fundamentalist preachers who try to put a smile on their intolerance.

Back in December 2006, when he was merely a senator with unannounced presidential ambitions, Obama delivered a smart, sensitive address at Warren’s “2006 Global Summit on AIDS and the Church,” a high-profile event on the pastor’s Saddleback Church campus in Lake Forest, Calif.

Twenty months later, as the soon-to-be Democratic presidential nominee, Obama went back to Saddleback for an unfortunate joint appearance with Republican John McCain — the last major misstep of the senator’s bid for the nation’s top job.

Past is prologue, and Obama’s dalliances with Warren, for better or worse, always pointed to the placement of this particular pastor on the inaugural stage.

What will be significant about Warren’s remarks, however, is that they will be so insignificant.

Warren’s invocation will be forgotten five minutes after it is finished.

Indeed, the only “news” that will come from his appearance at the inaugural is the controversy surrounding it — and the protests that controversy may spark.

Far more significant, and encouraging, than his off-putting selection of Warren to deliver the invocation is Obama’s choice of a genuine spiritual progressive to deliver the benediction.

It is the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery who will present the far more uplifting and meaningful religious message on Inauguration Day. And in his appealing selection of the 87-year-old Lowery, Obama has made a choice that is far more adventurous — even, dare we say, radical — than his unappealing designation of Warren.

Lowery was the longtime president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which he co-founded in 1957, before Obama was born, with the Revs. Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy and Fred Shuttlesworth. An essential player in the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, Lowery was sent by King to deliver the demands of the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march to Alabama’s segregationist governor, George Wallace, and it was to Lowery that Wallace apologized three decades later.

Long after King and most of the other founding fathers of the civil rights movement had been buried, Lowery carried on the struggle. He led the 1982 drive to extend the federal Voting Rights Act. In 2005, when it came time to renew the act once more, Lowery famously cornered Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a memorial service for Rosa Parks to ask for maintaining voting rights protections. Why did Lowery choose so somber a setting to make his appeal to the most prominent African-American member of President Bush’s Cabinet? “Because I knew she could not move,” he explained.

 See Lowery’s Preaching, Not Warren’s, Will Illuminate Inaugural Day The Nation.

Gay Asian Pacific Alliance (GAPA) held their 20th anniversary celebration, “Urban Jungle,” at the SF Zoo on Dec. 6, featuring keynote speaker, comic actress Margaret Cho, and some lively singing and dancing. Tita Aida emceed the awards banquet and introduced F.U.S.I.O.N. (Funky Unique Styles In One Nation); GAPA Dance Company performing “Korean Fushion” to Madonna’s Music” and “Fan Dance” to “Please Don’t Stop the Music;” and the GAPA Men’s Chorus singing “My Romance” and several other songs.

“There are many civil rights milestones to be reflected upon,” said Co-chair Francis Tsang. “Forty years ago, Martin Luther King changed history with the Civil Rights Movement; thirty years ago, Harvey Milk changed history with the Gay Rights Movement; and twenty years ago, GAPA changed history for the Asian and Gay Community.” He said the purpose of establishing GAPA was “empowering the Asian and LGBT community, breaking stereotypes and fighting against the status quo, so that we can live our lives out loud and proud.” Co-chair Raphael Buencamino said, “In a time when HIV was devastating our communities, and a time when same-sex marriage was a fantasy, and when gay API people were turned away at bars and clubs, GAPA fought to bring our community out of the shadows to stand up and fight all those forces against us.” He added, “GAPA continues to lead the fight against HIV, especially among the API community at large. Now is the time to fight in courts, stand up, protest, and do what we can to bring change that we have dreamed of.”

 See Margaret Cho was in a Zoo for GAPA
San Francisco Bay Times, CA