Bayard Rustin had just given a speech on colonialism in West Africa. He was on a high. But later that night, on January 21, 1953, the civil rights leader was arrested in Pasadena, California – and forcibly put on a sex offender registry! Why?
Rustin was sentenced to 60 days on a “morals charge,” which they used to criminalize anyone they suspected of being LGBTQ+. It wasn’t Rustin’s first time behind bars – he’d gone before for fighting the draft in 1944.
But this time, he was arrested … for being gay.
Rustin had to resign from a pacifist organization, cancel speaking engagements, and work as a furniture mover to get by. Other Black civil rights leaders even exiled him!
It wasn’t until he became a chief organizer of the March on Washington in 1963 that he finally got the support he deserved.
In 2020, Rustin was pardoned. But Black men are actually disproportionately represented on sex offender registries TODAY – even though they AREN’T committing more sexual assault.
And 25% of people on sex offender registries today are UNDER 18, many of them LGBTQ+ youth!
Rustin refused to be silenced about his sexuality or his fight for Black liberation. Those battles are intertwined! And if we're all going to fight for Black liberation, we cannot silence and exile our own.