Coretta Scott King died in Rosarito Beach, Mexico on this day. The great civil-rights activist and tireless supporter of Gay Rights succumbed to complications from a stroke and ovarian cancer. In arguing against a constitutional amendment banning Gay marriage King said, “Gay and Lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union. A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriage.”

In 2003, she invited the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to take part in observances of the 40th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. It was the first time that an LGBT rights group had been invited to a major event of the African American community. King said her husband supported the quest for equality by LGBT people and reminded her critics that the 1963 March on Washington was organized by Bayard Rustin, an openly Gay civil rights activist.