After several failed attempts to understand the nature of a disturbing letter written to me by Chairman of the NAACP board of directors Julian Bond in October 2005, I am for the first time publicly releasing the content of the letter.
Bond's letter to me --on official NAACP stationary-- seemed to indicate he was using the weight of his status to bear down on me. I responded to the letter (we'll post that too), but never got a reply from Bond. An aide from his office did call but left no meaningful explanation as to why he would make accusations he could not or would not defend.
An alleged "ardent defender" of First Amendment rights, Bond told FreedomForum writer David Hudson, "The First Amendment must protect unpopular speakers," he says. "You have to remember that my views and the civil rights movement were unpopular views. We must protect the unpopular views or we cannot protect the popular ones."
We can only wonder if Bond extends those same rights to former homosexuals like myself whose unpopularity clashes with the du jour rights of the gay community.
Bond's activism regarding African American concerns in fairly well known, but it seems as if the aging civil rights activist has been steadily marginalized by a newer class of African American leaders who want to distance themselves from Bond's increasingly divisive policies. Perhaps this is why he felt it necessary to write me demanding that I call off the dogs so to speak and leave the white gay group Richmond Organization Sexual Minority Youth or ROSMY alone.
Tomorrow's Perspectives will release the contents of Bond's letter, but first we wanted to reintroduce you to the ROSMY files in order to give you a perspective of our concerns and the resultant issues surrounding them.
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