Must. Fight. Urge. To. Make. Reggie. Love. Joke.
Via CNS News:
President Barack Obama on Wednesday awarded the highest honor that can be bestowed on a civilian – the Presidential Medal of Freedom – to 16 people, including a homosexual who led the socialist party in the United States and astronaut Sally Ride, whose partner “outed” her as a lesbian in Ride’s obituary last year.
On Bayard Rustin’s website, his lover and the executor of his estate, Walter Naegle, wrote about the gay activist’s life, including his 10-year homosexual relationship with the author and his national chairmanship of the Social Democrats USA, formerly the Socialist Party of America.
“As a gay man, relatively open for his time, Bayard Rustin experienced anti-gay prejudice in addition to racial discrimination,” stated Naegle’s essay, posted along with a photograph of the two men together and one of Naegle wearing a woman’s skirt. “Because of his sexual orientation as well as his controversial political positions, he was often relegated to a behind-the-scenes role in various campaigns.”
According to an Aug. 29 interview with Naegle on thegrio.com, the two men met in Times Square in 1977 when Naegle was 27 and Rustin was 65. According to Naegle, Rustin legally adopted him as a son, because they could not be married.