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CIVIL SEX - episode 3-08
Before I wrote this story I had no idea who Bayard Rustin was. Although he played a key role in the pacifist and civil rights movements, Bayard Rustin died in relative obscurity. And the reason we have not read about him in our history books is not merely because we are Canadian. Bayard Rustin was an openly gay African American man in an openly racist and homophobic world. But it was his sexual orientation, ironically, not his racial identity that had a huge role in him being relegated to the dustbin of history. And what Bayard Rustin's life teaches us is that we cannot separate a person's "black identity" from their "gay male identity." Rustin placed the demand for the right to be sexual on an anti-racist agenda. He was unable to separate his sexuality from the fight for civil and human rights. He was a central figure in the pacifist, labour and world peace movements and he was a passionate gay man. What's interesting is that at the close of the year 2000, we are finally "rehabilitating" him as an important civil right's activist. We are at the point in our culture where we can pay tribute to him as someone who fought for gay rights without being involved in the "gay rights movement." We have reached the point where we don't separate the "gay liberation movement" from the struggle for human rights. As his nephew says, "Bayard was simply trying to teach us that we're all one human family here." Michelle Melles
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