Why an Out Queer Person in the Gay Liberation Days of the '70s Would Go To Church

"Why would an out queer person in the Gay Liberation Days of the 1970s go to church? What church would they go to? And why would they stay? In the 1960s, and '70s, the separation between God and gays was not as vast as it seemed. Rev. Troy Perry started the first Metropolitan Community Church in his Los Angeles living room. Tired of flying to LA every week, a Navy veteran started the second one in a San Francisco gay bar."

"Rev. Troy Perry started the first Metropolitan Community Church in his Los Angeles living room. Tired of flying to LA every week, a Navy veteran started the second one in a San Francisco gay bar. And the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco was there for a young lesbian as she navigated spirituality, coming out, and her increasingly conservative family. When her friend got sick, she tried to be there for him. Church helped."

In the 1960s and 1970s the separation between God and gay people was smaller than commonly assumed. Rev. Troy Perry founded the first Metropolitan Community Church in his Los Angeles living room. A Navy veteran established a second MCC in a San Francisco gay bar to avoid weekly travel to Los Angeles. The Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco provided spiritual community, pastoral presence, and mutual care to queer people. The church supported a young lesbian navigating coming out and a conservative family and offered companionship and caregiving when friends fell ill.

Read at Slate Magazine