The Metropolitan Community Churches movement was founded in a Huntington Park, CA apartment on October 6, 1968, by Troy D. Perry. Gay and Lesbian spaces were frequently invaded by police in the 60s, careers were ruined when people were outed, and people overwhelmed with fear and imposed shame would often harm themselves, sometimes fatally. Troy himself had suffered from rejection and despair.
And he was inspired to start a church that actively reached out to lgbtq+ folk to let them know that they were the beloved children of God. This was 9 months before Stonewall and 6 months after the assassination of Dr. King. That gathering would grow into a church, and that church would grow into a movement, and that movement would become international. And it all started with the courage and vision of one person who believed God wanted LGBTQ people to experience God’s unconditional and all-inclusive love.
Troy demonstrated that activism is a gospel call and that to be faithful to the gospel is to actively care about the disadvantaged, the oppressed, the silenced, the erased, the dehumanized, and the hurting. MCC is believed to be the world’s first Christian denomination with a primary outreach to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer plus community. It remains one of the few still, though some are more welcoming than they once were.
A difference is not only that MCC was ahead of other denominations, but unlike other denominations, MCC never had to take a vote to accept lgbtq people. Queer sacred value was accepted and celebrated from MCC’s very first moment. Rev. Perry created a home for those rejected by traditional churches. Troy’s performed the first public same-sex union in the U.S. in 1969, co-founded the first LA Pride Parade in 1970, fought discriminatory legislation like the Briggs Initiative,
and spoke at the first March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay rights in 1979. For 57 years, MCC has preached Troy Perry’s 3-pronged gospel:
CHRISTIAN SALVATION (from loneliness, degradation, and despair),
CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY (which is inclusive of non-Christians), &
CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ACTION (social justice activism). Now, Troy is the one who gave the mission that verbiage, but what it really is, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Visit the sick and imprisoned, liberate the oppressed, feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, love every neighbor…that’s the gospel, and the Queer church has been committed to it since day one.
