This past year we have celebrated the centennial of the birth of Bayard Rustin, the brilliant strategist of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and ...

To Bayard Rustin, fighting for his equality as a black man, while leaving his identity as a gay man unspoken, would have been an unthinkable betrayal. This Black History Month, we should not forget trailblazers like Rustin.

Civil rights leader Bayard Rustin was a visionary and an openly gay man who dared to be out in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, when homophobia was at an ...

Though it is clear that King's words resonate with our cause, I now believe that not only would King not have supported LGBTQ rights but his relevance on social issues would have continued to wane considerably had he survived.

We still have a lot of work to do, but when the president finally openly affirms that gay and lesbian Americans should have the same rights under the law that straight women and men enjoy, it seems OK, for just a day, to celebrate, sit back, and reflect on how far we have come.

This month LGBTQ communities are celebrating Bayard Rustin's 100th birthday anniversary. For LGBTQ African Americans, Rustin is the only open gay hero we have, and for many of us, his work and words give us courage to fight homophobia in ourselves and in our communities.

March 17, 2012: St. Patrick's Day, yes, but also the centennial of Bayard Rustin's birth. Rustin's name does not ring bells for most Americans. Yet the impact that this life-long agitator for justice had on America was profound.

One hundred years ago today, an unsung hero of the civil rights movement was born. Bayard Rustin's contributions to the world far outweighed his credits -- and his 100th birthday is an opportunity to appreciate how his lifelong fights for equality live on today.