Split within King's family fuels gay marriage debate

Coretta Scott King, a longtime supporter of gay rights, has often invoked her late husband's teachings while advocating tolerance and equality for gays and lesbians. Most recently, she denounced the proposed national constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in a speech at New Jersey's Richard Stockton College.

''Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union," she said in her March 23 address. ''A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing, and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages."

Martin Luther King III also has condemned homophobia. As an organizer of the 40th anniversary commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington, King and his mother invited gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender groups to participate.

But the Kings' youngest child, Bernice King, helped lead thousands of people in an Atlanta march last month that had an antigay agenda. The march, organized by Bishop Eddie Long and his 25,000-member New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, also advocated issues such as education overhauls and affordable healthcare, but its first goal listed was an amendment to ''fully protect marriage between one man and one woman."

Bernice King, an elder in the church, has repeatedly declined interview requests over the past month.

Alveda C. King -- niece of the slain civil rights leader, founder of the faith-based King for America Inc., and a vocal opponent of gay marriage -- said she joined her cousin in the Atlanta march because she believes her uncle never intended gay rights to be part of the civil rights movement. ''Bernice says herself that she knows deep within that her father did not march and did not take a bullet for same-sex marriage," Alveda King said.

''I don't believe that people should be penalized for their affections, but we need to be clear on the purpose of sexuality and marriage, that purpose being procreation," she said. Beyond King's family, many who marched alongside him during the equality movement for blacks have drawn on his message of inclusion.

''Martin Luther King was one of most tolerant and understanding and generous persons I've ever known, and I'd never heard him make a judgmental statement about anyone's sexuality except his own," said former UN ambassador Andrew Young, who was a top aide to King.

US Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, who helped organize the March on Washington where King gave his famous ''I Have a Dream" speech, has been a visible supporter of gay activists, filing a friend-of-the-court brief in the Massachusetts case that led to that state becoming the first in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage.