The man who founded the Metropolitan Community Church will visit the Church of the Trinity for a series of programs highlighting marriage equality in February.
The Rev. Troy Perry, who founded the MCC church in his Los Angeles, Calif., home in 1968, performed the first public same-sex wedding in the country in 1969. The following year he filed the first-ever lawsuit seeking legal recognition of same-gender marriages.
Since retiring in 2005, Perry has toured the world, speaking mostly to MCC churches. He has visited Tampa Bay several times and will headline at the Church of the Trinity the weekend of Feb. 11-13.
In a 2007 interview with Watermark, Perry said that the growth of the church took patience and that battling homophobia in all its forms was a larger battle than even he expected..
“When I first started MCC, people just couldn’t get it through their heads,” he said. “People would say that this just had to be a gay person playing church. I think they expected orgies on the alter. I thought, ‘Oh my God, these people are going to be sadly disappointed.’”
Today, nearly 40 years later, more than 300 MCCs have sprung to life in 46 states and on six continents, and same-sex marriage is recognized in a handful of countries, five states and in Washington, D.C.
“In the early days, we were definitely working to get out of the business,” Perry said. “But we didn’t know then just how deeply and hostile homophobia is around the world. We definitely have a long history in front of us.”
On Feb. 11, the church will honor Perry at the Long Boat Key Club. Tickets for the dinner are $100 and are available by calling the church at 941-355-0847. At 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 12, the free “Conversations with Rev. Elder Troy Perry” gives everyone an opportunity to interact with the church founder.
And, in Sunday, Feb. 13, Perry will be on hand to celebrate the installation of Trinity’s new Senior Pastor, Rev. Charles Tigard, at the 10:30 a.m. service.
For more information, visit TrinityMCC.com.
