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HISTORY OF THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT 1924 - The first gay rights organization, the Society for Human Rights in Chicago, was established. 1945 - Allied troops liberating inmates of Nazi concentration camps did not release those imprisoned for homosexuality. 1948 - Alfred Kinsey publishes Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, revealing that homosexuality was far more widespread than was popularly believed. 1956 - The Daughters of Bilitis, a national lesbian organization, was founded. 1962 - Illinois became the first state in the U.S. to decriminalize homosexual acts between consenting adults in private. 1969 - Patrons of a gay bar in New York's Greenwich Village, the Stonewall Inn, fought back against a police raid on June 27, triggering three days of riots. The Stonewall riots became the symbol of the protest for equal rights. 1972 – The United Church of Christ became the first Christian church to ordain an openly gay person. 1973 - The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its official list of mental disorders. 1982 - Wisconsin became the first state to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. 1983 – Rev. Jerry Falwell described AIDS as a “gay plague.” 1989 - Denmark became the first country to legalize same-sex partnerships. 1992 - The National Council of Churches denied a request for "observer status" by the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches on the basis that it was unwilling to imply an affirmation of homosexual practice. 1993 - The “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy was instituted in the U.S. military. 2000 - Vermont became the first state in the country to legally recognize civil unions between gay or lesbian couples. ********
Troy Perry Perry was born in 1940 in Tallahassee, Florida. Perry began preaching as a child, with the support of his aunts, who were street preachers. He attended both Midwest Bible College and Moody Bible Institute. Perry married and became a preacher at a small Church of God but was dismissed in 1959 for having sexual relationships with men. Perry’s wife also divorced him. Perry then worked for Sears and was drafted into the army in 1965, serving until 1967. In 1968 put an advertisement in a Los Angeles newspaper announcing a religious service for gays. Twelve people responded. Within a few months the congregation was 600. Perry married Phillip Ray De Blieck under Canadian law at Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto. He also was married under California law in 2008. He holds honorary doctorates from Episcopal Divinity School in Boston, Samaritan College ( Los Angeles), and La Sierra University in Santa Monica, California for his work in civil rights Perry has been invited to the White House on several occasions. Perry retired as Moderator of the MCC in 2005, and the Reverend Elder Nancy Wilson succeeded him at an installation service on 29 October 2005. 1968 (the year before the Stonewall Café riot) - The Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) was founded by Troy Perry. 1971 – The congregation dedicated its own building, the “ Mother Church” with 1,000 parishioners in attendance. 1991 - MCC was granted observer status in the World Council of Churches. 1992 - The MCC applied for membership in the NCC but its application for membership was tabled out of concern that conservative denominations, particularly Orthodox groups, would withdraw from membership. MCC was also denied observer status. There are currently approximately 300 member congregations in about 20 countries. About fifteen percent of MCC membership is heterosexual.
MCC is doctrinally conservative but conventionally Christian MCC has developed a theology of love asserting that God accepts and loves all people. The Apostle Paul’s condemnations of homosexuality are treated as cultural accretions. MCC began performing same sex marriages in 1970 and performs about 6,000 same-sex marriages annually.
MCC is widely considered to be a liberal mainline denomination or communion. MCC membership and clergy are predominantly LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) Each affiliated member church of MCC is a self-governing, legally autonomous body, and each local congregation is free to determine matters of worship, practice, theology and ministry. Communion can be presided over by either a member of the clergy or by a designated lay person; in some congregations the pastor or clergy rarely preside. The church gives priority to a social action agenda concerned with gay rights, social justice, and poverty. The current church Moderator is a woman, and a majority of church leaders are women. 1972 - MCC began ordaining women as pastors in 1972. A recent innovation has been for some MCC congregations to explore multi-denominational affiliation. 2003 – MCC’s largest congregation, Dallas's Cathedral of Hope, voted to leave the fellowship. The church was under investigation for fiscal irregularities, but the church also expressed a desire to reach a larger Protestant audience.
Early in MCC history some churches were targeted by vice squads. MCC buildings have been arson targets, including the “ Mother Church” in Los Angeles in 1973. As many as 17 MCC churches have been burned. Troy Perry was rejected by the Evangelical community for his homosexual activity. MCC stands in opposition to the Evangelical community for its support of gay rights. MCC did not receive admission to NCC due to opposition from the Orthodox tradition churches.
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