Bernice King Opposes Marriage Equality, But 'I'm Not The Enemy'

Bernice King, the daughter of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., in a new interview is again invoking his memory as reason she opposes marriage equality. But she also wants LGBT activists to know "I'm not the enemy."

King has in the past said her father "did not take a bullet for same-sex marriage," and in 2004 she marched in Atlanta alongside antigay Pastor Eddie Long to protest same-sex marriage.

According to the Georgia Voice, King tells Atlanta Magazine in its upcoming August issue that while she opposes marriage equality, she isn't homophobic.

"People have labeled me homophobic. If I was homophobic, I wouldn't have friends who are gay and lesbian, so that can't be true," she said, according to the report. "But because I have a certain belief system, I am now the enemy. And I'm not the enemy. I have love for everybody, period."

King went on to say she believes marriage should be only between a man and a woman. "Spiritually I value that. Psychologically I value that. I know that the absence of my father in my life had its cost."

The late Coretta Scott King was outspoken in favor of equal rights for LGBT Americans, and noted that her husband sympathized with Bayard Rustin, the gay man who aided his civil rights work.