Gays Protest Rejection Of Speaker at Gathering

Donna Payne, an organizer with the Human Rights Campaign who also attended the meeting, said Wilson told them he had to change his telephone number and was worried about his family. He then pulled out a book, "The New Joy of Gay Sex," and accused gay leaders of sending it to him.

Payne also said Wilson accused gay leaders of not knowing what is happening in the community.

Boykin and Payne said Wilson then grabbed a white plastic bag and pulled out a bottle of sleeping pills and a G-string made from Pez candies strung together. He said black girls use the items to try to turn other girls into lesbians.

"We were stunned into silence," said H. Alexander Robinson, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, who attended the meeting. "What do you say to that?"

Wilson, interviewed after speaking about unity at the march, would not comment on the meeting.

Longtime Washington gay activist Phillip Pannell said he thought the offer of a speaking spot to a national gay representative was a ruse by march organizers to silence critics in the days leading up to the event.

"Farrakhan gives us the sugary rhetoric, and Wilson serves up the vinegar," Pannell said. "I think it was by design."

Staff writer Hamil R. Harris contributed to this report.