Shepherd the Black Sheep

Himself feeling like an outcast, Rev. Elder Dr. Troy D. Perry was called and rose up to lead others like him, starting a revolutionary movement in Christianity that would redirect the religion, delivering millions of people from suffering.

REV. CATHERINE DEARLOVE

Rev. Elder Dr. Troy D. Perry is an ordinary man with an extraordinary life story; a story that has impacted thousands of lives through an amazing movement.

When you speak to Perry, you find a man who is full of passion for God, the LGBTQIA community and for social justice. However, some 54 years ago, just a couple of years before the Stonewall Rebellion, this was a broken man who attempted to take his own life and nearly succeeded.

Perry was a Pentecostal Minister who was married and had children. He had been passionate about God since he was a child; preaching to his siblings and anyone or anything that would listen. As a child he would even perform funerals for animals. He was passionate about God. However, after an internal battle with his sexuality, he came out as gay. He shared his true identity with his bishop and was told there was no longer a place for him at his Pentecostal church. No room at the inn; a familiar story since the beginning of Christianity.

Perry decided to take his own life because there was nothing left to live for; he slit his wrists and laid back in the bath waiting to die; however, he was found.

Sometime later in 1968 he started Metropolitan Community Churches because he believed that God didn’t have step-children and that everyone should know that even if they were gay, straight, trans or bisexual, God loved them. His first service was themed “Be True to You,” something that had brought him to be in the position he found himself. The service was held in his front room with borrowed chairs and a few things gathered to make it feel like church. Twelve people attended that day (some were friends who didn’t want him to fail!) and within three years there was a congregation in Los Angeles of over 600, with others popping up across the country. Perry knew that there were so many who needed to hear this message of an inclusive loving God, instead of the hatred that was being spewed against the LGBTQIA community. Little did he know how quickly his front room service would evolve into an international denomination.

Perry was the first minister to perform same sex marriages in 1969 and has continuously stepped out in faith and obstinance against the systems that oppress.

From this first meeting of twelve people started a movement that would break barriers across the world. Perry was one of those who worked to oppose Anita Bryant and others who would propose anti-gay and anti-gay marriage propaganda. In fact, it was his own legal case against the State of California for not recognizing his own same sex marriage that would help the arguments in the Prop 8 case; which eventually led to same sex marriage becoming legal across the country. Perry was also invited to the White House by several presidents to work on civil rights.

While Perry retired as the Moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches in 2005, he continues to be a powerful advocate/ voice for justice wherever he feels he is needed. This man, who came so close to death, has in fact created a “spiritual home” where others, just like him, are able to live out their authentic lives. Perry would never say he was a hero, or a legend, but rather would say I have to let them know they are children of God and they are loved.

Metropolitan Community Churches continues to be a powerful presence in the world and especially in Latin America where they are currently struggling with the theology of same sex relationships.

REV. CATHERINE DEARLOVE is Senior Pastor at Trinity MCC in Gainesville, Florida. Although a Christian minister, she has a strong appreciation for all journeys of faith or philosophy and wrote her Masters dissertation on Inter-religious Dialogue. She is currently the Chair of the Campus Multi-faith Cooperative at UF and coordinates the Alachua County Faith Leaders Alliance. Rev. Catherine has lived in the UK, Australia and now USA and has spent most of her life as a social justice warrior and advocate for the integration of sexuality and spirituality. Rev. Catherine believes faith is a journey and should never be static.