Leaders of the black GLBT community were shocked and dismayed at the rollercoaster of reconciliation and inclusion, then the last minute rejection of their participation in the Millions More Movement event on the Mall in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 15.

The event served to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March and reinvigorate community empowerment. This time, the Rev. Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam had the support of many other leaders of the African-American community who had shunned the earlier gathering.

In February, Farrakhan publicly welcomed the participation of gays and lesbians in activities but a series of communications between Millions More Movement and GLBT leaders resulted in little progress toward that end. There was a further setback in July when the Rev. Willie Wilson, executive director of the event, made what many considered to be inflammatory remarks about the community while preaching at his church in Washington, D.C.

At a news conference on Oct. 11, the National Black Justice Coalition took Farrakhan to task for continuing to exclude them from the event. That resulted in an Oct. 12 meeting with Farrakhan and Wilson.

“There were times when the discussion was very heated,” said NBJC executive director H. Alexander Robinson. Much of it focused on Wilson’s feeling that he had been attacked by the gay community in Washington, and “he still did not understand the hurtfulness of what he had said about us.”

“Rev. Wilson was a huge obstacle. He refused to shake our hands when we walked in; he yelled and screamed the whole time,” said NBJC president Keith Boykin. “Minister Farrakhan was very understanding, polite and respectful.”

According to Boykin, “Wilson said the gay community attacked him and he feels the same way about the gay community as he feels about white people – a few of them are alright but the rest of them, I don’t want to have anything to do with them.”

Boykin said that at one point Wilson pulled out some sleeping pills and a thong with candy on it and said that lesbians are making women take the pills and wear the thong, and suck off the candy. “And we were just looking at him, stunned,” Boykin said.

Robinson continued, “We had a very good conversation with Minister Farrakhan on a wide range of issues that we share. At the end of the meeting it was Rev. Wilson that suggested that Keith be the speaker, and Minister Farrakhan agreed. I left the meeting thinking that we had some agreement on what would happen [at the march] and the potential for future conversations.”

Boykin said he and his group arrived at 8:00 a.m. on the day of the march to get VIP credentials but none were available. The group was then escorted to the stage area to talk with Farrakhan’s liaison Sister Claudette Muhammad.

Donna Payne, NBJC vice president and a field organizer for the Human Rights Campaign, who was with Boykin at the time, said, “Rev. Wilson came over and said to me, you will not be speaking. He had a smirk on his face.”

Wilson claimed the group had not responded in time and he walked off, Payne said.

Boykin disputed that allegation. “We even tried to fax the organizers a copy of the speech I was going to give, so that he would not be surprised at all by what I was going to say,” he said. “I was very disappointed. I think Wilson is responsible for this. Minister Farrakhan has kept his word with us throughout the entire process, everything he has said he would do, he has done. But Rev. Wilson is a whole different character.”

Robinson said, “It appears that Rev. Wilson is up to his same old games – he says one thing in a meeting and you leave the room and find that things have changed.

“People are disappointed that they reneged on their promise, but frankly, they aren’t that surprised,” he added, “which is bad because it says that the rift between parts of the black family is so deep that people are not surprised by the dishonesty.”

There did end up being a surprise openly gay speaker at the Millions More Movement event, but those on the Mall might not have realized it: Cleo Manago, who founded the Black Men’s Xchange. Manago is a controversial figure within the GLBT community in part because of his rejection of the word “gay” as being white and using terms such as “same-gender loving” in its place.

The NBJC and D.C. Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays had organized a rally as part of the We Are Family Unity Weekend. They gathered on the morning of the Millions More Movement event, a few blocks away at Freedom Plaza, prior to marching to the Mall.

“Rev. Willie Wilson is a snake in the grass, and he must learn that his ignorance, arrogance, and backstabbing will not be tolerated,” Sterling Washington, co-chair of the D.C. Coalition, told the rally. “If he wants a fight, then a fight he will get.”

Bishop Zachary G. Jones, Unity Fellowship Church in New York City, said, “My inside voice says, number one, we’ve got to stop being so dependent. Too many of our organizations are dependent economically on government. … As we move forward as a people, let us recognize what we must do to empower our people economically… that’s what talks in this country.”

Boykin said the point of the speech he prepared for the Millions More Movement was to get beyond the past. “Today, because of one person, we are unable to do that,” he said. Instead, he read the speech at Freedom Plaza, where he profusely praised Minister Farrakhan’s recent acts and statements of inclusion. “The diversity of speakers assembled here today is a powerful signal that we in the black community will not allow ourselves to be divided by differences of opinion, religion, gender, class, or sexual orientation ever again.”