For the first time, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King Honorees include an openly LGBTQ+ couple — Dr. Thea James and Rev. Irene Monroe — at the Embrace Honors MLK annual fête in 2025, which takes place on Sunday, Jan. 19, in Boston.
Joining Dr. James and Rev. Monroe as Embrace Honors MLK awardees are former Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker and First Lady Lauren Baker; former Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick and First Lady Diane Patrick; Sandra and John M. Borders, III; and Jill Medvedow and Richard Kazis.
Sharing why this award is so important to her, says Rev. Monroe:
This year, my spouse, Dr. Thea James, and I are one of the 2025 Embrace Honors MLK Awardees. I cannot adequately convey how overjoyed I am that Thea and I are the first openly LGBTQ+ couple among the honorees for the 2025 Embrace Honors MLK Celebration, and I hope there will be more.
Being openly LGBTQ+ is challenging and an ongoing challenge. However, both Kings understood our challenges and the interconnections of our struggles.
Martin and Coretta King always embraced my community. Martin Luther King, Jr. never said anything disparaging about LGBTQ+ people. In fact, Bayard Rustin, an openly gay man, was King’s chief organizer and strategist for the 1963 March on Washington, which further catapulted King onto the world stage.
Coretta kept King’s words, theology, social gospel, and legacy alive to contemporary social justice issues. 1998, Coretta Scott King addressed the LGBTQ+ group Lambda Legal in Chicago. In her speech, she said queer rights and civil rights were interconnected. “I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King’s dream to make room at the table of brother and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people,” she told the audience.
Receiving this award is a wonderful acknowledgment that the LGBTQ+ community was part of the 1960s Civil Rights movement.
More: embraceboston.org
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