So, all the hoo-hah of the Michael Jackson memorial service is over. I didn't really spend much time watching it. I tuned in about the time Brooke Shields was doing her thing. I stayed around for a few minutes and watched Martin Luther King III give his speech. Then, I was stunned when hateful, bigoted, homophobe Bernice King stepped up to speak. At that point, I shut it off.

If you're not familiar with hateful, bigoted, homophobe, Bernice King, she is the youngest daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr. She would have been about 4 or 5 when King was assassinated. Yet, she feels she knows the heart of King, and that he would NEVER have approved of comparing the gay rights movement to the black civil rights struggle, not to mention marriage equality.

Never mind that King's wife and his eldest son have come out in favor of gay rights. Never mind that King's closest advisers have come out in favor of gay rights, and believe that King, if alive today, would never tolerate the discrimination gays feel in this country. Little Bernice King, barely older than a toddler when her father died, knows all. She has organized and led anti-gay marches, organized opposition to any legislation that would provide some form of equality for gay Americans, and she has been very vocal in her opposition to marriage equality. She has been quoted as saying that she knows deep within herself that her father did not march and did not take a bullet for same-sex marriage.

Well, Bernice, let me throw a couple of quotes your way, from people who would know the heart of your father a hell of a lot better than you:

"Gay and lesbian have families, and their families should have legal protections, whether through marriage or civil unions. A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay-bashing, and would do nothing to protect traditional marriages." -- Coretta Scott King.

"I don't recall any experience that would put Dr. King in the category of excluding people." -- the Rev. Joseph Lowery, co-founder of the Christian Leadership Conference with Dr. King, when asked what King's stance would be on gay rights.

"Martin Luther King was one of the most tolerant and understanding and generous persons I have ever known, and I never heard him make a judgemental statement about any one's sexuality, except his own." -- Former UN Ambassador Andrew Young and top aide to King.

That last quote from Young is my favorite. I wish all the other hateful, bigoted black ministers would take that to heart.