If the Rev. Al Sharpton thought running for president was tough, it will feel like a breeze once his next campaign gets underway. That is, if he goes through with it.

A couple of months ago, The New York Sun reported that Sharpton had “pledged to jumpstart a grassroots movement that would address the issue of homophobia in the black community.”  The movement was to launch this fall, replete with church forums and public service announcements on black radio.

There are still several weeks left before fall is over, but so far, nothing. One hopes he will pull it together because there is most assuredly work to be done.

It would be a shame if Sharpton made the promise in a sentimental moment among hopeful friends on a summer’s eve. No problem was ever resolved by empty promises, and there has been enough backsliding and backtracking on this matter already.

Why, only Saturday, gays and lesbians were snubbed anew when the organizers of the Millions More Movement allegedly reneged on an agreement to allow a homosexual speaker at the big, day-long gathering on the National Mall that commemorated the 10th anniversary of the landmark Million Man March.

Keith Boykin, a prominent gay rights activist and author, was turned away from the speaker’s podium even though three days earlier, the MMM leaders had, literally, embraced him and invited him to speak.

Boykin and others think they know why they got shot down.  The reason, they say, is named Willie F. Wilson -- a man of the cloth, pastor of Washington’s Union temple Baptist Church whence, in July, he went on a rant about lesbians, blaming them for the demise of the black family and giving a vulgar account of how he thinks it goes down between two women.  This, mind you, from a pulpit before a mixed congregation that included children.

Such brouhaha erupted when word got out about Rev. Wilson’s “sermon.” Wilson, who denies being homophobic, says he was bombarded with hate mail and threats. In response, he wrote on his blog, “As a preacher-prophet it is my responsibility to do critical analysis and assessment of what is going on in society and then to offer a Biblical, spiritual and moral response. This is what I did.”

Boykin and others told the Washington Post that Wilson snubbed them at the planning meeting, refused to shake their hands 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.”

For his part, Wilson has said Boykin was not allowed to speak because he failed to meet “certain conditions.”

Whatever the reason, the gay and lesbian community was not included in the purportedly all-inclusive Millions More Movement that was billed as a solidarity event for all of the oppressed, poor, disenfranchised and dejected.

Such purposeful exclusion suggests that Rev. Sharpton has a hard row to hoe if he’s going to get black America even talking about gay rights, let alone support them. 

Wilson has lots of company in the black community. Last December, Eddie Long -- a self-proclaimed bishop and the pastor of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church outside Atlanta -- led 25,000 people on a march against homosexuality. And it is believed that George W. Bush is back in the White House, in part, because black voters ignored his destitute civil rights record in deference to his last-minute chicanery about gay marriage. 

And all of this head-in-the-sand sanctimony comes when the people most likely to contract, suffer and die from HIV-AIDS are black, in part because of the so-called “down low” -- the pretense of being straight while swinging gay.

Oh, Brother Sharpton. Please deliver on this promise. Stir the nest as only you can.

And be sure to wear your best armor.