Stamp sought for gay leader Rustin

Many of the groups that pushed the United States Postal Service to issue a stamp for Harvey Milk, the gay San Francisco supervisor, are beginning an effort to have a second gay leader on a stamp.

According to the Washington Blade, the effort for a stamp to honor Bayard Rustin, one of the organizers of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was to be announced at a Houston conference in late January.

“The idea for a campaign to win approval for a stamp honoring Rustin as an openly gay, African-American civil rights icon has been talked about for years,” the paper said Jan. 13. “But the movement finally gained real traction in San Diego with the help of City Commissioner Nicole Murray Ramirez, who will serve as the campaign’s executive director.”

Ramirez told the Washington newspaper, “This stamp would further remind Americans that by honoring Bayard Rustin, you honor a true American hero and champion of civil rights for all people.”

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force was listed as one of “the guiding forces behind the campaign.”

Other national co-sponsors of the campaign were said to include the National Black Justice Coalition, the National LGBT Museum and the GLBT Historic Task Force.