Editing Bayard Rustin (section)

===Gay rights===
Davis Platt, Bayard's partner from the 1940s,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.out.com/news-opinion/2013/08/28/bayard-rustin-walter-naegle-partner-gay-civil-rights-activist-march-washington |title=The Personal Life of Bayard Rustin |first=Robert |last=Drayton |date=January 18, 2016 |work=[[Out (magazine)|Out]]}}</ref> said "I never had any sense at all that Bayard felt any shame or guilt about his homosexuality. That was rare in those days. Rare."<ref name="Magazine of History 2006-03" />

Bayard often would be viewed as bisexual because of those attracted to him. His relationships were mainly with the men, both black and white. However, his longer relationships were with the latter. Rustin did not realize his sexual orientation when he was in school. His awareness left no worry, and his family openly accepted it.<ref name=":02"/>

Rustin did not engage in any gay rights activism until the 1980s. He was urged to do so by his partner [[Walter Naegle]], who has said that "I think that if I hadn't been in the office at that time, when these invitations [from gay organizations] came in, he probably wouldn't have done them."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C1xJ5ONWltYC&q=bayard+rustin,+gay,+book,+voluntarily,+closet|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016235132/https://books.google.com/books?id=C1xJ5ONWltYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=bayard+rustin,+gay,+book,+voluntarily,+closet|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 16, 2015|title=Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin - John D'Emilio - Google Книги|date=October 16, 2015|access-date=October 22, 2018|isbn=9780684827803|last1=d'Emilio|first1=John| publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref> He was an advocate for people with [[HIV/AIDS|AIDS/HIV]], and because of his public works, he may have “came out” to the public. Rustin no longer hid his sexual orientation from others. “His aim--to how people responded to him as a black gay man—was “the new barometer for social change”.<ref>{{Citation |last=Carbado |first=Devon W. |title=Black Rights, Gay Rights, Civil Rights |date=2017-07-05 |work=Sexuality and Equality Law |pages=305–328 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315088051-10 |access-date=2024-04-17 |publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9781315088051-10 |isbn=978-1-315-08805-1 }}</ref>

Because same-sex marriage was not officially recognized at the time, Rustin and Naegle undertook to solidify their partnership and protect their union legally through adoption: in 1982 Rustin adopted Naegle, 30 years old at the time. Naegle explained that Bayard:<ref>{{Cite news|title=Long Before Same-Sex Marriage, 'Adopted Son' Could Mean 'Life Partner'|url=https://www.npr.org/2015/06/28/418187875/long-before-same-sex-marriage-adopted-son-could-mean-life-partner|work=[[Weekend Edition Sunday]] |publisher=NPR.org|access-date=November 16, 2015}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|... was concerned about protecting my rights, because gay people had no protection. At that time, marriage between a same-sex couple was inconceivable. And so he adopted me, legally adopted me, in 1982.

That was the only thing we could do to kind of legalize our relationship. We actually had to go through a process as if Bayard was adopting a small child. My biological mother had to sign a legal paper, a paper disowning me. They had to send a social worker to our home. When the social worker arrived, she had to sit us down to talk to us to make sure that this was a fit home.
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Rustin testified in favor of the [[New York City Gay Rights Bill of 1986|New York City Gay Rights Bill]]. In 1986, he gave a speech titled "The New Niggers Are Gays", in which he asserted:<ref>{{cite news |title=Gays Are the New Niggers |url=http://killingthebuddha.com/mag/damnation/gays-are-the-new-niggers/ |date=June 26, 2009 |first=Osagyefo Uhuru |last=Sekou |newspaper=Killing the Buddha |access-date=July 2, 2009}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|text=Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new "niggers" are gays... It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change... The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people.}}

Also in 1986, Rustin was invited to contribute to the book ''In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology''. He declined, explaining:<ref>Yasmin Nair, [http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Bayard-Rustin-A-complex-legacy/36990.html "Bayard Rustin: A complex legacy"], ''Windy City Times'', March 3, 2012. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414212310/http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Bayard-Rustin-A-complex-legacy/36990.html |date=April 14, 2016 }}.</ref>

<blockquote>I was not involved in the struggle for gay rights as a youth{{nbsp}}... I did not "come out of the closet" voluntarily—circumstances forced me out. While I have no problem with being publicly identified as homosexual, it would be dishonest of me to present myself as one who was in the forefront of the struggle for gay rights{{nbsp}}... I fundamentally consider sexual orientation to be a private matter. As such, it has not been a factor which has greatly influenced my role as an activist.</blockquote>