Lawrence, Mich. (AP) – A Michigan pastor has been sleeping outside in a tent for weeks to protest his denomination’s stance on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.
The Kalamazoo Gazette reports that the Rev. Michael Tupper of Parchment United Methodist Church near Kalamazoo started sleeping in a tent Nov. 30 and plans to continue doing so for 175 consecutive nights. He often pitches the tent in the front yard of his Van Buren County home, but he has also taken it on the road, sleeping in front of United Methodist conference headquarters in Indianapolis and Madison, Wisconsin.
Tupper says his protest is meant to symbolize how the United Methodist Church is pushing the LGBTQ community outside of the church.
Tupper has faced discipline several times for supporting same-sex marriages.
