Goodly, Godly, Gay: Troy D. Perry

What do you do when you're a defrocked gay priest in 1968 looking to support gay Christians, and spread the world that God loves them because God made them the way God wanted them --GAY? Well, you start your own gayish denomination that's what you do.

Meet the good Reverend Troy D. Perry, who has been in Christian ministry from the time he was thirteen. As a young man, he entered full-time ministry in a Pentecostal Church, and even married a pastor's daughter and had two sons. However, he was unable to ignore his gayness, which ultimately brought an end to his marriage and his ministry. He never expected to return to Christian ministry, but God had different plans.

In 1968, Perry, after paying countless witness to the verbal, physical, and mental abuse of gays by gay-haters, felt called to return to his faith and to offer a place for gay people to worship God. Perry took out an advertisement in the Advocate welcoming gay folk to a church service, which would take place in a small rented house Perry shared with a friend. Only 12 people showed up that day (an obviously biblical number), but that 12 would grow and grow into the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) a denomination that now has more that 250 individual congregations world-wide.

Sadly, during this time, many of these congregations were the victims of hate crimes (yeah, that's right, hate the gays so much that you'd burn a church), and sadder still the fact that more than 6000 members died during early AIDS crisis. Through it all, the church burnings, the attacks against his church from other Christian denominations, Perry held strong, and joined many of his activist brothers and sisters in advancing LGBT rights.

Perry stepped down as MCC's leader in 2005, and remains active in the LGBT community. Troy Perry's contributions to introducing a gay-loving God to a gay-hating nation will be remembered, and his fostering of greater acceptance of gays in other denominations, his compassion to his God and church, and his work towards LGBT equality will certainly afford him a spot in any LGBT History book. For more information on the wonderful life of Troy Perry, Click Here, and for more information on the Metropolitan Church, Click Here.