Killed because he was black? Or gay?

Marco McMillan/AP photo

The FBI has announced it is officially investigating the death of Mississippi mayoral candidate Marco McMillan as a hate crime.

Black politicians and black civil rights groups are heralding the move.

But, given that there's a black suspect already arrested, it seems that, if this is a hate crime, it's an anti-gay one, not an anti-black one.

Will black civil rights groups address the issue of homophobia among African-Americans? How this drives sex on the "down low," which in turn is driving spiking HIV rates among heterosexual black women? 

Or will many heads remain buried in the sand, the same head-burying that happened during and after the vote on California's Prop. 8? (And I've blogged before that higher black support for the narrowly voted issue was a significant matter.)

Let's see just how this plays out in days and weeks ahead.

Including getting McMillan's family to elaborate on this:

McMillian's family said the mayoral candidate in this town of 18,000 in the Mississippi Delta 70 miles southwest of Memphis had feared for his safety. They want authorities to investigate the murder as a hate crime.

"What's been reported is not the true story of what happened to him," said McMillian's godfather, Carter Womack.

What do they think happened? I hope this isn't the setup for conspiracy theory land, but it reads like it could be.