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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1987)
While it’s sometimes hard to separate Perry’s feelings from UFMCC policy, he is personally opposed to the HIV test. “ I’ve refused to take the test. I tell all my friends. I’ll take the test the day they have Backing down from confrontations isn't part of Troy Perry's the treatment. I just encourage my friends modus ope rand i, although starting confrontations not to do it. They don’t need that extra in a just cause is. stress on their lives. . . . “ I presume we've all been exposed to B Y S T E V Ë W A R R E N the virus. I just take the attitude every gay male has been exposed to the virus, but I refuse to go down there and have my name in some computer somewhere. They will roy Perry was a gay activist before posedly he fell out onto the freeway being have to drag me away to give me any kind the Stonewall rebellion and, God taken to the hospital. The police claim he of a test.” willing, he'll still be one when the kicked the door opert and fell onto the Perry describes three areas of sexual AIDS crisis has passed. By that time his Hollywood Freeway " The verdict Justi expression he has preached against since power base may have shifted from the fiable homicide the beginning of MCC; “ Number one was, spiritual to the political arena “ I've never goiter over that, listen,ng I believe that rape is a sin I believe forcing “ I know anytime I wanted to translate to that story.' Perry says, visibly moved as yourself on someone whodoesn t want my following' into a political base, I he repeats it. “And 1 thought, God, there your attention is absolutely wrong. The could," he says in response to a like- but for the grace of God goes Troy Perry. second one was, 1 had problems with worded question. “ The time has not been . . . That was on Good Friday, 1969. That's people who would go out . . . in broad right. I do a lot of prayer, and 1 have to wait when I got up in my church and said. We daylight and have intercourse in the street. until the right moment. But if — when that have to see the stone of ignorance rolled . . . I’ve always felt that was not appropriate. away from the tomb of truth, and let truth “ The third area was sex with children. I spring forth. . . have problems with adults who go to bed In 1977, Perry was one of 14 lesbians and gay men invited to the White House to ( with seven-, eight- and nine-year-old kids; 1 just do.” discuss our political agenda with Jimmy MCC does not condone adultery, but time comes, and it will, I’ll hit it hard o n .. . . Carter’s assistant. Midge Costanza. See Perry doesn't define the word quite the ing him on television that night resolved “ I happen to be a registered democrat, same way some religious leaders do. but I've learned over the years I have the last doubts any of his Southern family “ That’s the breaking of vows you make to friends in both parties,” Perry says, had about his homosexuality, he says, and another human being," he explains. “ If explaining why he avoids partisan politics when he visited four months later, “ They you have an open relationship and you’re as much as possible. threw barbecues and fish fries all over the honest about that and you’ve both agreed The Rev. Elder Dr. Troy D. Perry, to use w oods It w as like, if I was good enough to that, that’s fine and dandy. If you don’t his earned, elective and honorary titles, for the president I must be all right.” and you lie about it and run around . . . founded the Universal Fellowship of The scandals known as “ Pearlygate” then you're as bad as our enemies.” Metropolitan Community Churches have come as no surprise to Perry, he says. “ In my old denomination if you com- (UFMCC) in his Huntington Park, CA, “ I've always said preachers are as human as anyone else. . . . Coming from my old living room on October 6, 1968. "I didn't view it as a political act at the time,” he Pentecostal background, I could guarantee laughs, “ but everybody else does.” that i f I heard a preacher who did a series of sermons on adultery, week in and week out Perry cites two incidents as central to his for several weekends, he was having in political awakening. The first was in 1968. tercourse with the piano player and they “ My gay activism started when a friend of were getting ready to run off together.” mine was arrested in a gay bar in Los Angeles,” he relates. “ That sparked the With the initial mission of preaching that God loves gays too, UFMCC has never birth of MCC, plus it sparked my attention formulated a rigid moral code that its lead to the way police treated gay people. . . . ers couldn't live up to any better than its When my date and a friend of ours were followers. Instead, an unwritten doctrine arrested for ‘lewd and lascivious conduct,’ of honest and responsible sexuality has which no longer is even a law in the state of sustained the church even in the age of California . . . about ten of us loaded up AIDS, when the sense of responsibility into cars, led by Lee Glaze, the owner of has heightened. the old Patch, which was a gay bar in Los “ You are your brother’s keeper, you Angeles. He got up in his bar after the are your sister’s keeper; you've got to help arrests were made and asked if there was a each other,” Perry says. “ Some gay florist there. He bought all the flowers, people, when AIDS first started, felt like loaded down these cars with them. . . . they could never ‘be into safe sex’ — it just “ It was crazy back then, it wasn’t politi wouldn't work for them. They weren't used cally correct, but it worked. We swept into to condoms. . . . the police station .. . and Lee said, ‘We're “ We’ve all discovered, they're wonder here to get our sisters out of jail.’ The ful, erotic — sex has not stopped at all. police officer asked, ‘Who are your You just don’t exchange bodily fluids.” sisters?' and he said, ‘Tony Valdez and As to the impact of AIDS on the fellow Bill Hastings.’ ship, Perry says, “ Our churches are grow ‘ ‘They were scared. It was the first time ing, our churches are full, but we’re also the police did not know how to react. They seeing the tragedy. . . . ” Four clergy and were used to faggots. They were used to numerous members have been diagnosed queers. They were used to pansies. . . . At Gary Luckey we think good art is with AIDS, and the strain of performing “ That started me, and one thing led to like a good haircut. It takes vision, one funeral service after another is taking another — and continues on It hasn't talent, and inspiration. its toll on the clergy. stopped yet." But unlike good art. a good haircut “ We're the group that, when the South Another incident the following year doesn’t have to cost much. At Gary ern Baptist family finds out their child is pushed more of Perry's buttons. “ We had Luckey on Broadway we’ll shampoo dying with AIDS and all at once can’t have a gay brother who was beaten to death in your hair, massage your scalp, cut, the body shipped back to the local Baptist our city and I went to the inquest, and that style, and blowdry your hair all for church, then someone tells them about really was . . . where 1 consciously became only $17.50. And that’s just one of MCC and we end up performing the politically active. . . {He had been) our many reasonably priced hair funeral for the family . A lot of them are beaten to death by the police in an old hotel care services. people we don't know, who are not a part in downtown Los Angeles where males of MCC. used to go for impersonal sex. . . . Sup Troy Perry, Gospelslinger T mitted adultery you couldn’t come back in the ministry for seven years. If you were a homosexual you couldn't come back for life. I asked them to show me that in Scripture, and of course they couldn’t; and they can’t. That’s why it’s ridiculous. “ We re now moving to make our church property available to Dignity groups — where we own property — all over the nation.. .. We are meeting with Dignity in Miami this summer at the General Confer ence of our denomination. They're hold ing their conference in the same city at the i same time, and on that Saturday (July 25) we're all planning a gigantic worship ser vice together. We say, ‘They’ll know we are Christians by our love,’ and we want to show them that ecumenical relations are possible, at least in the gay and lesbian community " There is no indication of gay Catholics shifting their affiliation from Dignity to MCC in response to the Vatican letter, and Perry wouldn't encourage them to. He thinks some unaffiliated people may be turned off from associating with a Catholic group and would join MCC instead, but, “ There are hundreds of thousands of gay Catholics who would never feel comfort able in any protestant church group, and they would envision MCC as being that; so it’s very important that the work of Dignity goes on.” Rev. Troy D. Perry appears to be in good spirits as UFMCC, coming from a position of strength and growth, prepares for its 13th international conference, July 19-26 at the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach, with the bold theme: “ Perfect Love Will Cast Out All Fear.” • PAINTING BY BOTTICELLI HAIR BY GARY LUCKEY 1323 NE Broadway Like good art — we’ll give you a look you can live with. So the next time you’re feeling adventurous come visit us at our relaxing, smoke free salon (just down the street from Dugan’s and A Woman’s Place Bookstore). And don’t forget to check out our complete line of hair products and accessories. You’ll be glad you did. G/m UUCXEY 281-7831 OSS I Just Out. 15 July. !987