http://www.postherald.com/me011705.shtml
By DANIEL JACKSONBIRMINGHAM POST-HERALD
Martin Luther King Jr. never publicly addressed discrimination against homosexuals in the 1950s and '60s.
But gays and lesbians have always been part of the civil rights movement, said Rev. J.R. Finney II, a black and openly gay pastor at Covenant Metropolitan Community Church in Birmingham.
In fact, Dr. Bayard Rustin, a gay black man, helped organize the 1963 March on Washington, where King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, and was one of King's closest advisors, Finney said. In 1956, Rustin, who had extensive knowledge of the nonviolent tactics used by Mahatma Ghandi in India's fight for independence from Great Britain, was sent to Montgomery to assist King with the bus boycott.