((PKG)) CHURCH FOR ALL
((Banner: Church for All))
((Reporter/Camera: Genia Dulot))
((Map: Los Angeles, California))
((Main character: 1 male))
((Sub characters: 1 female; 2 male))
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Popup Banner:
2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the Gay Pride Movement with events
and parades across the United States))
((NATS))
((Troy Perry, Founder, Metropolitan Community Church))
Hello. Happy Pride!
It was very interesting. I had started preaching when I was 13 years old. I
was licensed to preach in a Southern Baptist Church at age 15. I felt a call
to ministry. All my life, I felt like I was going to be a clergy person, that I
was going to be a priest. I then later went to visit my church official and I
said, “I’ve learned something about myself.” And he said, “What?” And I
said, “I think I am a homosexual.” All the blood drained out of his face and
he said, “Have you molested kids in the Sunday school class?” And I said,
“No, sir.”
When I was removed from the church as a pastor, because I wanted to
preach to be a pastor so bad, I went through a very bad time. I tried to find
a church to go to. I couldn’t find one. I would last three Sundays. My
mother asked me, “Do you have to tell them every time that you are a
homosexual?” I said, “Mother, I’m never going to lie again.” I said, “I am
who I am.” And so, the third Sunday, I would go back to the same church
and I was not welcome.
And God spoke to me in a still, small voice of the mind’s ear and said to
me, “I love you. You're my son. I don’t have stepsons and
daughters.” And with that, I knew God loved me and I was a gay person. It
took me three months before it downed on me, if God loves me as a gay
person, then God has to love every gay person too. With that, I started my
journey to found the Metropolitan Community Church. October the 6th,
1968, I held the first meeting of Metropolitan Community Church in the
living room of my home in Huntington Park, California. Twelve people
showed up and within a year and a half, we were running over a thousand
in attendance and had bought our first piece of property here in L.A.
((Keith Mozingo, Pastor, Metropolitan Community Church))
You know, I give Jesus credit for saving my soul, but Troy Perry saved my
life. I grew up in Pentecostal church and all of our family, both sides, my
mom’s people, my dad’s people, everybody went to the same church. And
so, it was our source of family. It was our source of social life as well as
our spiritual lives. I knew I couldn’t stay in the church and be gay but
trying to figure out how to get rid of the gay didn’t work. I would pray on my
knees beside my bed. At church, we would have healing lines. You could
go up and ask for prayer and they would lay hands on you and pray for you
and nothing changed. So, when I would ask God to deliver me, it was like
asking God to cut off an arm or cut off a leg. It was a part of me. I was
like, “God, I don’t understand.” When I was in college, I read Reverend
Troy Perry’s book, The Lord Is My Shepherd and He Knows I’m
Gay. When I read that book and found out that it was somebody else who
had gone through that, it saved me from taking my own life. I couldn’t live
without God. I loved God and I knew I was a child of God. But I also was
told by the church that I couldn’t be gay and be God’s child.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Ina Serene, Parishioner, Metropolitan Community Church))
I was so closeted. I knew I was different, but the word transgender had not
come up. Either you conformed or you were a freak. Nobody wanted to be
a freak. Nobody wanted to take that rejection on. And along with the
hiding came the shame and the guilt and also fear. Fear of being
recognized. Fear of being challenged. Fears of going to church. Who
wants to be rejected out of a church in front of your friends? And I walked
into a fundraiser on the 6th of January 2006. So, 14 years ago, my life
changed. And now, I’m getting emotional. There were people that said to
me, “No, we don’t recognize you as trans. You’re just one of us. You’re just
like that,” I love that. We’re just being accepted for who we are.
((Lawrence Rodriguez, Parishioner, Metropolitan Community Church))
And I told my family that.....it came out, it was 1970, I came out to
them. And we talked for maybe two hours and my mother cried, my sister
cried and, you know, my mother’s sister's biggest concern was that I would
get hurt, which I have. I have been gay-bashed, you know. And my dad
didn’t say much through the whole time, which was not unusual for my
dad. He didn’t say much, just kind of sat there. But at the very end, he got
up and he hugged me and he said, “Remember, you will always be
my son.” That’s my image of God. That’s the God that I know. And I
learned that here.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Troy Perry, Founder, Metropolitan Community Church))
I always said, “Jesus died for my sins, not for my sexuality.” I don’t cease
being a sexual person because I’ve become a Christian, whether I’m
heterosexual or homosexual.
((NATS))
((Banner: Church for All))
((Reporter/Camera: Genia Dulot))
((Map: Los Angeles, California))
((Main character: 1 male))
((Sub characters: 1 female; 2 male))
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Popup Banner:
2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the Gay Pride Movement with events
and parades across the United States))
((NATS))
((Troy Perry, Founder, Metropolitan Community Church))
Hello. Happy Pride!
It was very interesting. I had started preaching when I was 13 years old. I
was licensed to preach in a Southern Baptist Church at age 15. I felt a call
to ministry. All my life, I felt like I was going to be a clergy person, that I
was going to be a priest. I then later went to visit my church official and I
said, “I’ve learned something about myself.” And he said, “What?” And I
said, “I think I am a homosexual.” All the blood drained out of his face and
he said, “Have you molested kids in the Sunday school class?” And I said,
“No, sir.”
When I was removed from the church as a pastor, because I wanted to
preach to be a pastor so bad, I went through a very bad time. I tried to find
a church to go to. I couldn’t find one. I would last three Sundays. My
mother asked me, “Do you have to tell them every time that you are a
homosexual?” I said, “Mother, I’m never going to lie again.” I said, “I am
who I am.” And so, the third Sunday, I would go back to the same church
and I was not welcome.
And God spoke to me in a still, small voice of the mind’s ear and said to
me, “I love you. You're my son. I don’t have stepsons and
daughters.” And with that, I knew God loved me and I was a gay person. It
took me three months before it downed on me, if God loves me as a gay
person, then God has to love every gay person too. With that, I started my
journey to found the Metropolitan Community Church. October the 6th,
1968, I held the first meeting of Metropolitan Community Church in the
living room of my home in Huntington Park, California. Twelve people
showed up and within a year and a half, we were running over a thousand
in attendance and had bought our first piece of property here in L.A.
((Keith Mozingo, Pastor, Metropolitan Community Church))
You know, I give Jesus credit for saving my soul, but Troy Perry saved my
life. I grew up in Pentecostal church and all of our family, both sides, my
mom’s people, my dad’s people, everybody went to the same church. And
so, it was our source of family. It was our source of social life as well as
our spiritual lives. I knew I couldn’t stay in the church and be gay but
trying to figure out how to get rid of the gay didn’t work. I would pray on my
knees beside my bed. At church, we would have healing lines. You could
go up and ask for prayer and they would lay hands on you and pray for you
and nothing changed. So, when I would ask God to deliver me, it was like
asking God to cut off an arm or cut off a leg. It was a part of me. I was
like, “God, I don’t understand.” When I was in college, I read Reverend
Troy Perry’s book, The Lord Is My Shepherd and He Knows I’m
Gay. When I read that book and found out that it was somebody else who
had gone through that, it saved me from taking my own life. I couldn’t live
without God. I loved God and I knew I was a child of God. But I also was
told by the church that I couldn’t be gay and be God’s child.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Ina Serene, Parishioner, Metropolitan Community Church))
I was so closeted. I knew I was different, but the word transgender had not
come up. Either you conformed or you were a freak. Nobody wanted to be
a freak. Nobody wanted to take that rejection on. And along with the
hiding came the shame and the guilt and also fear. Fear of being
recognized. Fear of being challenged. Fears of going to church. Who
wants to be rejected out of a church in front of your friends? And I walked
into a fundraiser on the 6th of January 2006. So, 14 years ago, my life
changed. And now, I’m getting emotional. There were people that said to
me, “No, we don’t recognize you as trans. You’re just one of us. You’re just
like that,” I love that. We’re just being accepted for who we are.
((Lawrence Rodriguez, Parishioner, Metropolitan Community Church))
And I told my family that.....it came out, it was 1970, I came out to
them. And we talked for maybe two hours and my mother cried, my sister
cried and, you know, my mother’s sister's biggest concern was that I would
get hurt, which I have. I have been gay-bashed, you know. And my dad
didn’t say much through the whole time, which was not unusual for my
dad. He didn’t say much, just kind of sat there. But at the very end, he got
up and he hugged me and he said, “Remember, you will always be
my son.” That’s my image of God. That’s the God that I know. And I
learned that here.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Troy Perry, Founder, Metropolitan Community Church))
I always said, “Jesus died for my sins, not for my sexuality.” I don’t cease
being a sexual person because I’ve become a Christian, whether I’m
heterosexual or homosexual.
((NATS))
