WEBVTT 00:00:00.700 --> 00:00:02.423 This is Queer we Are. 00:00:02.423 --> 00:00:12.044 I'm Brad Shreem and on Queer we Are. 00:00:12.044 --> 00:00:15.291 There's no pretending the world is all rainbows and unicorns. 00:00:15.291 --> 00:00:20.768 It can be rough out there, but each week I give you a break from those ugly headlines. 00:00:20.768 --> 00:00:24.769 Now we may bring those challenges up, but we don't stay there long. 00:00:24.769 --> 00:00:33.265 We don't dwell on the problems my guests share, what they're doing to make a difference or how they keep hope alive when it's hard to do so. 00:00:33.265 --> 00:00:36.927 Or maybe they're just here to entertain, which is a gift. 00:00:37.740 --> 00:00:44.206 My guest is Reverend Troy Perry and, based on feedback, I know many of you just cringed because I said the word Reverend. 00:00:44.206 --> 00:01:02.191 And yes, troy is a Christian and a religious leader, but remember, martin Luther King was a minister too and, like King, reverend Perry has served all people, regardless of their religious beliefs or lack of it, and also regardless of sexual identification. 00:01:02.191 --> 00:01:07.790 Troy relates to those who, with religious backgrounds that left them scarred. 00:01:07.790 --> 00:01:09.703 He had the same issue. 00:01:09.703 --> 00:01:13.826 Now, if that defines you, he gets it and he understands. 00:01:13.826 --> 00:01:26.950 It may never be for you, but 55 years ago this month, reverend Perry started the Metropolitan Community Church in the living room of his Los Angeles home, with 12 congregants. 00:01:26.950 --> 00:01:34.813 Now that's a humble beginning, but today there are over 222 congregations in 37 countries. 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:45.945 Now, many people refer to the MCC as the gay church, but it's much, much more than that, and shh don't tell anyone, but there's actually some straight people there too. 00:01:45.945 --> 00:02:02.191 So, in addition to succeeding and launching and growing the MCC, he has a history and several rights for all LGBTQ people, including, but not limited to, co-founding the Christopher Street West, which organized the first Pride March in 1970. 00:02:02.191 --> 00:02:15.012 In 1973, he rushed to New Orleans to support the community after the horrific fire at the upstairs lounge gay bar, the worst incident of his kind until the Pulse nightclub incident in Orlando in 2016. 00:02:15.012 --> 00:02:23.973 In 1979, he helped organize the March in Washington, which had 100,000 LGBTQ people there. 00:02:23.973 --> 00:02:27.587 So don't say that we can't join together and work together. 00:02:27.587 --> 00:02:31.426 I'm going to hold you for a minute for exciting news. 00:02:31.426 --> 00:02:41.129 Right now, the QueerWeRShotcom is open for business and you can click the link in the show notes now and still listen to this episode. 00:02:41.129 --> 00:02:44.347 And with me is my graphic designer, denise. 00:02:44.347 --> 00:02:45.442 Hi Brad. 00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:48.206 Denise has worked with me for years. 00:02:48.206 --> 00:02:52.429 She designed my websites, several of my logos, my book covers. 00:02:52.429 --> 00:02:54.401 The list goes on, in fact. 00:02:54.401 --> 00:03:00.909 Every week, at the bottom of the show notes, you'll see a link to UmiWorks, which is Denise's business, and you can check on her work as well. 00:03:00.909 --> 00:03:04.929 Now, denise, here's what we know that people are going to find at QueerWeRShotcom. 00:03:04.929 --> 00:03:11.998 Every podcast has their t-shirts and maybe one or two more, but we actually don't have any. 00:03:11.998 --> 00:03:19.502 We have many t-shirts, plus, we have sweatshirts and coffee mugs, with more in the way as winter is biting our heels. 00:03:19.502 --> 00:03:21.986 We also have other exciting products. 00:03:21.986 --> 00:03:25.703 We're busy designing, and hoping to have soon, many home products. 00:03:25.703 --> 00:03:31.771 We were lazy, though, and we copied all the designs that we could see from Amazon and Redbubble. 00:03:32.641 --> 00:03:33.504 No way, brad. 00:03:33.504 --> 00:03:43.169 You do have some hot, trendy slogans that you've probably seen before, like Queer AF and Stay Woke, but we also have plenty you won't see anywhere else. 00:03:43.169 --> 00:03:47.909 I think we've come up for some pretty fun and sometimes thought provoking designs. 00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:50.945 We thought them up, so how could there be anything less? 00:03:50.945 --> 00:03:52.622 Right right. 00:03:54.300 --> 00:04:03.288 I'd podcast no matter what, but putting on a quality show takes money, so I'll be promoting the shop without beating you over the head with them. 00:04:03.288 --> 00:04:06.205 This store is bigger than the show, though. 00:04:06.205 --> 00:04:07.602 This is a career. 00:04:07.602 --> 00:04:28.105 So I'm not doing Patreon, though it is under consideration because some listeners have asked for it, but I won't bore you with ads for that online therapy company you keep hearing on other shows or that place that delivers actually, there's several of them delivers fresh, expensive foods to your door, so check the shop now QueerRShopcom. 00:04:28.105 --> 00:04:32.470 So, regarding Troy Perry, denise, don't go anywhere. 00:04:32.470 --> 00:04:37.627 As I said, I'm Brad Shrieve and my guest is Troy Perry and Queer. 00:04:37.627 --> 00:04:45.069 We Are Happy 55th anniversary to Metropolitan Community Church. 00:04:45.069 --> 00:04:47.562 Reverend Troy, thank you so much. 00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:54.312 It's been 55 years since that first service in Huntington Park, california. 00:04:54.312 --> 00:04:57.560 I'm thankful to God I'm still alive here. 00:04:57.560 --> 00:04:59.242 I am 83 years old. 00:04:59.242 --> 00:05:02.629 Talking about what transpired and what happened back then. 00:05:04.839 --> 00:05:16.711 So that was back in 1968 and you founded the church in your living room with 12 people attending, and today your church now has 300 congregations in 22 countries. 00:05:16.711 --> 00:05:19.345 Tell me what you're feeling this month. 00:05:20.600 --> 00:05:22.968 I am feeling incredible this month. 00:05:22.968 --> 00:05:29.512 I'm very thankful that I've lived to be 83 years old. 00:05:29.512 --> 00:05:33.589 I'm thankful that good things are continuing still in my life. 00:05:33.589 --> 00:05:40.812 You know that I still have wonderful friends who I knew then and who are alive today. 00:05:40.812 --> 00:05:44.629 I was just talking to Lynn, one of my friends. 00:05:44.629 --> 00:05:46.985 Lynn was in the Air Force. 00:05:46.985 --> 00:05:48.464 I was in the Army. 00:05:48.464 --> 00:05:52.550 We were near each other's camps during Vietnam. 00:05:52.550 --> 00:05:54.487 We were both Vietnam era veterans. 00:05:54.487 --> 00:06:03.605 We met each other there and Lynn ended up back coming to America and I told him I'm going to be speaking there. 00:06:03.605 --> 00:06:04.964 I want you to come up and hear me. 00:06:04.964 --> 00:06:13.906 And Lynn came up and heard me and stayed in the church and he just celebrated his 53rd anniversary in MCC. 00:06:13.906 --> 00:06:16.245 But he's no longer than that. 00:06:16.245 --> 00:06:18.125 He knew me in the military. 00:06:18.125 --> 00:06:24.163 So here we are today, Thank God, good things happening every day. 00:06:25.807 --> 00:06:29.416 Well, you were still pretty small fry then, so he saw a lot happen. 00:06:30.067 --> 00:06:30.769 Yes, he did. 00:06:30.769 --> 00:06:32.649 He says that too. 00:06:32.649 --> 00:06:33.786 He loved going. 00:06:33.786 --> 00:06:51.036 The church in San Francisco had just started after our church, about nine months later, and they invited me to come up and preach at California Hall and, of course, san Francisco being San Francisco, always laugh. 00:06:51.036 --> 00:06:54.132 They could be negative or they could be positive. 00:06:54.132 --> 00:07:01.416 They chose to be negative and saying, well, they only had 800 people there. 00:07:01.757 --> 00:07:06.290 He didn't have Only had 800 for the first service, for the first service. 00:07:06.704 --> 00:07:16.115 They'd never had 800 people out in the open with their faces with no makeup on, ever in San Francisco until I spoke there. 00:07:16.115 --> 00:07:18.345 I think that's amazing. 00:07:18.345 --> 00:07:25.196 Oh yeah, no, it was amazing and they laughed in the press and they said that they were cutting up. 00:07:25.196 --> 00:07:28.682 They really meant that it was amazing that I could come into the city. 00:07:28.682 --> 00:07:30.670 But people were really curious about me. 00:07:31.185 --> 00:07:32.651 I spoke in New York City. 00:07:32.651 --> 00:07:34.504 It was very interesting. 00:07:34.504 --> 00:08:03.416 I was invited to speak there in about 1973 or four and I was there because we were going to have the first demonstration at the state capitol in Albany and GAA Gay Activist Alliance invited me to come into the city and to speak and I was to speak at a festival of unity at Columbia University. 00:08:03.416 --> 00:08:07.555 That night we had over 2,500 people who came. 00:08:07.555 --> 00:08:09.370 The auditorium was packed. 00:08:09.370 --> 00:08:11.329 So this wasn't a slow growth. 00:08:11.329 --> 00:08:20.218 This was not slow growth time with MCC or with the larger gay, lesbian, bi-transgender, queer community. 00:08:20.218 --> 00:08:22.293 It just wasn't that way. 00:08:22.293 --> 00:08:30.297 It was very fast at first, when I was time for me to speak at Columbia, I go, the place is packed. 00:08:30.297 --> 00:08:32.067 Oh my God. 00:08:32.067 --> 00:08:40.710 Female singer she was the singer before I spoke and she was a Broadway star. 00:08:40.710 --> 00:08:45.855 She was in the musical Gains in New York. 00:08:45.855 --> 00:08:49.668 Wonderful, wonderful musical and we invited her. 00:08:49.668 --> 00:09:03.513 Well, after she finished singing, this guy jumped up on the stage, started screaming that how dare we invite a heterosexual to sing at a gay event? 00:09:05.677 --> 00:09:06.638 Those people. 00:09:06.798 --> 00:09:12.235 Yeah, I was thrilled to have an ally willing to come and sing. 00:09:12.235 --> 00:09:14.610 I always have been. 00:09:14.610 --> 00:09:17.770 I'm one of those strange gay leaders. 00:09:17.770 --> 00:09:21.399 They always said that I was thrilled to death. 00:09:21.399 --> 00:09:27.888 My organization everyone calls it a gay organization, but there are heterosexuals who are members of MCC. 00:09:27.888 --> 00:09:30.749 Well, here this guy. 00:09:30.749 --> 00:09:34.875 Then the auditorium started booing him. 00:09:34.875 --> 00:09:46.215 Next thing I know this is the first time I've told this story, but the next thing I know he has pulled out his personal and shook it at the crowd. 00:09:46.215 --> 00:09:47.428 I couldn't believe it. 00:09:47.428 --> 00:09:51.033 And then the crowd really did get nasty. 00:09:51.033 --> 00:10:01.708 And when they did, all of once this lesbian in the crowd said Johnny, or whatever his name was. 00:10:01.708 --> 00:10:04.394 She used her voice to get his attention. 00:10:04.394 --> 00:10:15.091 Johnny, you're just like every other fucking man Using your dick as a weapon. 00:10:16.585 --> 00:10:17.126 The next thing. 00:10:17.126 --> 00:10:19.875 I know he's off the stage and here I am. 00:10:19.875 --> 00:10:24.253 That's my turn to speak, and that's a hard act to follow. 00:10:24.253 --> 00:10:28.326 This is a hard act to follow, but this is. 00:10:28.326 --> 00:10:32.048 If I'm going to get the hard acts early, that's good, let's take care of it. 00:10:32.048 --> 00:10:39.138 So I jumped right up, as always did, when I spoke and I talked about our rights. 00:10:39.138 --> 00:10:50.455 I did not talk about the young man who was on the stage or the young woman who had called him down off the stage, but I kept it on my subject, and that's we can win this battle. 00:10:50.455 --> 00:10:55.008 I don't care what's transpiring and happening, we can win. 00:10:55.008 --> 00:11:00.130 Whenever I was in the process of making a speech, I made this speech. 00:11:00.130 --> 00:11:12.154 I didn't let anybody cut me off, and once the woman had taken care of the young man and he moved off the stage, then I could really talk about what the issues were for us. 00:11:12.684 --> 00:11:16.794 And that's where we had battles to win and we could win them. 00:11:18.304 --> 00:11:36.897 I think it's important to say your hard work over the years has been dedicated to all people and not just Christians, and I love a quote that you have on your website and it says let me find out, I quote we believe we can change the world, so for me, my legacy, I hope, will be inside and outside of my community. 00:11:36.897 --> 00:11:39.672 He was faithful and he was fearless. 00:11:39.672 --> 00:11:42.469 I love that quote. 00:11:42.469 --> 00:11:57.374 Based on your history, I certainly can say you were bold and faithful and fearless and on behalf of myself and I'm going to be so bold as to speak for the LGBTQ people everywhere thank you for all you have done. 00:11:58.287 --> 00:11:59.873 Well, thank you, brad, so much. 00:11:59.873 --> 00:12:06.437 I do not believe Christianity is God's only voice on earth. 00:12:06.437 --> 00:12:09.251 I take up for every religion. 00:12:09.251 --> 00:12:15.395 I take up for the religious and I take up for those who are not religious. 00:12:15.395 --> 00:12:17.048 I don't care. 00:12:17.048 --> 00:12:22.488 I believe that we all have to be faithful to our call, and that's to make a difference in the world. 00:12:23.445 --> 00:12:32.933 Not destroy other people or always be right, but do the things that are right, I want to get to the story behind the church, but there is something I'd like to address. 00:12:32.933 --> 00:12:42.155 You experienced a lot of strife just being a minister of the MCC church and you also have been very much in the limelight as far as an activist goes. 00:12:42.155 --> 00:12:46.955 A lot of struggles that you went through and you made a lot of advances for everyone. 00:12:46.955 --> 00:12:59.533 We're now seeing things getting pushed back and a lot of people are disillusioned and what I want to find out from you is why, with everything that's going on, should I and everyone else care anymore or have any hope? 00:13:00.804 --> 00:13:01.748 You got to have hope. 00:13:01.748 --> 00:13:05.692 If you don't have hope, you just lost it. 00:13:05.692 --> 00:13:08.831 And whatever we do, we can't lose it. 00:13:08.831 --> 00:13:24.292 I'll use a military thing that if the first thing how the military loses is they lose hope and that's true with everybody If we lose hope, we just die and nobody else is going to fight our fights for us. 00:13:24.292 --> 00:13:27.753 If you think anybody else is going to fight for us, you're wrong. 00:13:27.753 --> 00:13:30.851 It takes us to have the fight. 00:13:30.851 --> 00:13:34.586 Then people would join with us, young people. 00:13:34.586 --> 00:13:35.788 I want you to know. 00:13:35.788 --> 00:13:38.456 You don't know what it was like once upon a time. 00:13:38.456 --> 00:13:39.950 This is nothing. 00:13:39.950 --> 00:13:42.770 We will win this battle. 00:13:42.770 --> 00:13:44.187 This is nothing. 00:13:44.187 --> 00:13:47.754 A building burns down, but thank God we're still alive. 00:13:47.754 --> 00:13:50.952 A church burns down, but we're still alive. 00:13:50.952 --> 00:13:54.813 They murder bar members, but we're still alive. 00:13:54.813 --> 00:13:59.756 You think those bar members who had gone in the bar would want us to stop? 00:13:59.756 --> 00:14:00.929 No, I go to bars. 00:14:00.929 --> 00:14:02.711 They wouldn't want us to stop. 00:14:02.711 --> 00:14:11.976 They would say to us continue this struggle and whatever we do, just when you think you can't win, that's when you'll win. 00:14:11.976 --> 00:14:14.792 So don't give up the fight and the struggle. 00:14:14.792 --> 00:14:18.450 It would be too easy and we're not going to do that. 00:14:18.450 --> 00:14:22.434 We're going to continue until we've won the battle. 00:14:23.565 --> 00:14:32.336 And I really love music and I love gospel music and I love especially African-Americans, the gospel music they sing. 00:14:32.336 --> 00:14:40.924 When I hear those gospel songs, they sing in the middle of segregation and yet they kept fighting. 00:14:40.924 --> 00:14:58.092 And today we have movies like Till that I hope everybody will look at and sing young man who has murdered his mother, going into a church, not letting them bomb the body, but seeing him exactly as he was. 00:14:58.092 --> 00:15:08.089 And thousands of people over 10,000 people showed up, 3,200 in the building walking by the coffin. 00:15:08.089 --> 00:15:16.778 Other people white people, black people, politicians all came and saw Emmett Till's body. 00:15:16.778 --> 00:15:19.392 Did it stop the fight? 00:15:19.392 --> 00:15:22.711 No, did it stop the persecution? 00:15:22.711 --> 00:15:29.972 No, we still won, because today we've won that case. 00:15:29.972 --> 00:15:35.456 70% of Americans believe we should have all of our rights. 00:15:35.456 --> 00:15:38.715 Now is not the time to stop. 00:15:41.081 --> 00:15:46.212 I'm an atheist, or at least an agnostic, and I am a Unitarian Universalist. 00:15:46.212 --> 00:15:48.163 As you know, you came and spoke at my church. 00:15:48.163 --> 00:16:01.149 It was nearly 15 years ago 15 to 20 years ago but I don't have to tell you many LGBTQ people have had negative or even horrific experiences within the church and that resentment is hard to shape. 00:16:01.149 --> 00:16:08.927 And I know some who don't understand how a person can be queer and Christian and they sometimes can be pretty antagonistic about it. 00:16:08.927 --> 00:16:15.246 I don't come from a religious background so it wasn't a thing for me, so I don't carry that baggage. 00:16:15.246 --> 00:16:21.826 I'm fascinated by religion and respect anyone's beliefs, so it saddens me when I see that happen. 00:16:21.826 --> 00:16:23.322 Will you address that? 00:16:24.340 --> 00:16:30.191 It saddens me too I won't just say number one that the church mistreated me. 00:16:30.191 --> 00:16:56.605 I like to tell people that I was a young person raised in the South in a very, very conservative Pentecostal group and I was a licensed preacher in the Southern Baptist Church and started preaching when I was 13 years old in the Pentecostal Church and was licensed to preach at age 16 in the Southern Baptist Church. 00:16:56.605 --> 00:17:06.786 They threw me out of the church at age 19 when they found out that I was gay and I believed all the lies that people tell you. 00:17:06.786 --> 00:17:11.488 Oh God can't love you, you're a gay man, oh God hates you. 00:17:11.488 --> 00:17:15.266 Don't you realize that God's not going to hear your prayers? 00:17:15.266 --> 00:17:18.968 People always talk that way to me. 00:17:18.968 --> 00:17:21.446 But things happen in my life. 00:17:21.446 --> 00:17:34.989 I'm always a believer in things just happen in your life and you're going to live a lot of experiences and that's exactly what happened to me and I did everything the church told me to do. 00:17:34.989 --> 00:17:39.954 They told me that if I would marry a good woman, that would take care of that problem. 00:17:39.954 --> 00:17:46.392 I married, they said, if I'd have children, that would take care of that problem, that gay problem. 00:17:46.392 --> 00:17:47.846 I had two sons. 00:17:47.846 --> 00:17:52.711 If you're a celbut, if you don't have sex with men that'll take care of the problem. 00:17:52.711 --> 00:17:54.744 No, it'll lead you alive. 00:17:54.744 --> 00:17:57.645 It was very interesting to me. 00:17:58.099 --> 00:18:02.171 I went into the military in 1965. 00:18:02.171 --> 00:18:10.846 Vietnam was just starting, had met gay people in Los Angeles. 00:18:10.846 --> 00:18:15.669 After my wife and I had separated, I moved into LA and I met gay people. 00:18:15.669 --> 00:18:25.589 And now I have gay people who are saying to me when I have tried to receive my draft notice, they said are you going to let them draft you into the military? 00:18:25.589 --> 00:18:28.627 Are you going to check the magic block? 00:18:28.627 --> 00:18:30.846 And I said what magic block? 00:18:30.846 --> 00:18:43.352 And they said right under tuberculosis and cancer is homosexual tendencies and if you check that block, that'll keep you out of the military. 00:18:43.352 --> 00:18:45.625 And I said what is the question? 00:18:45.625 --> 00:18:48.528 And they said homosexual tendencies. 00:18:48.528 --> 00:18:53.006 I said I don't have homosexual tendencies, I am a homosexual. 00:18:53.006 --> 00:18:56.729 And I went into the military. 00:18:56.769 --> 00:19:01.265 Brad, I looked out and didn't go to Vietnam, I went to Germany. 00:19:01.265 --> 00:19:10.191 I'm in Kaiser Schlot in Germany and, my God, I never met more gay people in my life than I did in the military. 00:19:10.191 --> 00:19:22.423 Had we all been put out of the military, had all of us been discharged, they couldn't have had an army, and they knew it During wartime. 00:19:22.423 --> 00:19:34.574 The US military has always taken us in Only later in the war is they're winding down to start looking for gay people and throw us out. 00:19:34.574 --> 00:19:40.090 So me, I came back and fell deeply, madly in love. 00:19:40.131 --> 00:19:41.983 For the first time I met a man. 00:19:41.983 --> 00:19:51.546 Larry was a school teacher from Montana and just my type and he and I. 00:19:51.546 --> 00:19:53.510 We didn't do well together. 00:19:53.510 --> 00:19:55.442 I always felt people. 00:19:55.442 --> 00:20:03.449 I had six of the best and worst months of my life and we decided he did, that he was going to leave me. 00:20:03.449 --> 00:20:16.290 Well, I dated Larry, we separated and then I cut both of my wrists, climbed into a bathtub, just hoped I would die. 00:20:16.290 --> 00:20:32.082 Thank God, as I tell people, my roommate, the person who lived with me, came in when he got in the door and he heard water running and came over the bathroom, knocked on the door and said hey, troy, are you okay? 00:20:32.082 --> 00:20:37.089 And when I didn't answer, he broke the door down and found me in the tub. 00:20:38.039 --> 00:20:44.387 Willie Smith rushed me to County General and when I arrived at County General, I'm sitting there. 00:20:44.387 --> 00:20:54.688 All at once I thought it was a nurse, looked like a nurse as uniform, but all at once this African American woman walked in and said I don't know why you've done this. 00:20:54.688 --> 00:20:57.827 But she said Can't you talk to somebody. 00:20:57.827 --> 00:20:59.364 Can't you look up? 00:20:59.364 --> 00:21:07.931 She pushed every religious button on me and then she left. 00:21:07.931 --> 00:21:14.969 And when she did, I broke down crying and I said God, I know you're not going to hear an answer to this prayer. 00:21:14.969 --> 00:21:16.943 God, I just don't know what to do. 00:21:16.943 --> 00:21:24.105 Here I am, I'm a gay person, and I don't know what to do. 00:21:24.105 --> 00:21:26.463 I'm miserable. 00:21:26.463 --> 00:21:31.088 I attempted and even though it didn't work, here I am. 00:21:32.559 --> 00:21:34.547 And about that time the doctor came in. 00:21:34.547 --> 00:21:38.388 Finally, when he finished, she said Now I want to know something. 00:21:38.388 --> 00:21:41.368 Are you going to be okay or do I need to keep you here? 00:21:41.368 --> 00:21:43.226 I said Well, what do you think? 00:21:43.226 --> 00:21:47.384 And he says it's not important what I think, it's what you think. 00:21:47.384 --> 00:21:50.208 You make this decision I don't. 00:21:50.208 --> 00:21:56.666 Now you tell me, will you be all right or do you want me to keep you for 72 hours? 00:21:58.160 --> 00:22:01.108 When I got home, I went to bed that night. 00:22:01.108 --> 00:22:08.428 Next morning woke up and Willie came into my room, woke me up and said Are you going to be okay or should I stay with you? 00:22:08.428 --> 00:22:09.805 And I said no, I'm going to be okay. 00:22:09.805 --> 00:22:14.851 And so Willie said Is there anything you need? 00:22:14.851 --> 00:22:20.248 I said no and he left, and even though he was gone, I really prayed. 00:22:20.248 --> 00:22:27.392 From the bed, the first thing I thought of was oh God, I've got to go buy some long sleeve shirts. 00:22:27.392 --> 00:22:32.730 If Sears knew about this, they would fire me. 00:22:32.730 --> 00:22:38.271 It's so funny how, after you try to kill yourself, the first thing you think about is your job. 00:22:38.271 --> 00:22:41.449 And you've lived through it. 00:22:41.449 --> 00:22:42.924 How am I going to do this? 00:22:43.868 --> 00:22:45.012 So I can't do this. 00:22:45.012 --> 00:22:45.855 I have a deadline. 00:22:46.618 --> 00:22:46.940 That's right. 00:22:46.940 --> 00:23:06.132 And so immediately after that happened, brad, here again I broke down crying and I said God, I know you're not going to hear this prayer, but I said I know the church has taught me that my church has taught me. 00:23:06.132 --> 00:23:13.403 You can't hear me, you don't care about me, and I always tell people. 00:23:13.403 --> 00:23:22.849 After I said that, god spoke to me in a still small voice and said to me Troy, don't tell me what I can and can't do. 00:23:22.849 --> 00:23:28.626 I love you, you're my son and I don't have stepson's and daughters. 00:23:28.626 --> 00:23:34.332 So with that I knew I could be a Christian and I could be a gay person. 00:23:34.332 --> 00:23:38.170 I knew without a shadow of a doubt that God loved me. 00:23:38.170 --> 00:23:48.147 I didn't have all the answers yet, but I knew without a shadow of a doubt I was going to get so many of them and I would get them all right up to the time that I died. 00:23:48.147 --> 00:23:54.549 And 83 years later here I'm still getting answers every day. 00:23:54.549 --> 00:24:07.006 And how thankful I am that after that, after God spoke to me and said God loved me, then I knew God had to love other people. 00:24:07.006 --> 00:24:18.929 And right after that I went on a date with a young man to a gay bar in Wimmington, the section of LA down in the dock area. 00:24:18.929 --> 00:24:32.371 While we were there to make a long story short, the police came in and arrested about 12 people for lewd and lascivious conduct. 00:24:32.371 --> 00:24:58.289 Well, I was watching the couple because it was my date and a friend of ours and I knew both of them had hilarious sense of humor and one of them, bill Hastings, reached up and slapped my date on the butt and he came back over to me and one of the cops followed him over to me and when he got there he pulled out of bed and said come outside with me. 00:24:58.289 --> 00:25:00.324 I said who are you talking to? 00:25:00.324 --> 00:25:02.046 He said not you him. 00:25:02.046 --> 00:25:08.359 Immediately he spoke up and said what are you charging me with? 00:25:08.359 --> 00:25:10.636 He said lute and lascivious conduct. 00:25:10.636 --> 00:25:19.477 They left and they owned the bar got up and said we are all going to the police station. 00:25:19.477 --> 00:25:22.117 I know there has to be a florist here. 00:25:22.117 --> 00:25:24.196 I want all the flowers you have. 00:25:24.196 --> 00:25:25.535 We're gonna take down flowers. 00:25:25.535 --> 00:25:29.809 And he said we're gonna get our sister's belt out of jail Now. 00:25:29.809 --> 00:25:44.056 This was my first demonstration, all right and like this, and I thought, oh my God, we're going down to the police station, but here we go and we got down there. 00:25:44.056 --> 00:25:45.573 And, sure enough, when we got there. 00:25:45.573 --> 00:25:56.461 When we walked in, lee walked over to it and some of us followed him right over there and he said I'm here to get my sister's belt out of jail. 00:25:56.461 --> 00:25:59.938 And this cop said watch your sisters his name. 00:25:59.938 --> 00:26:02.800 And he said ha ha, ha, ha, ha ha. 00:26:02.800 --> 00:26:10.617 And he said Bill Hastings and Tony Valdiv and with that he called for backup. 00:26:11.529 --> 00:26:16.655 And all these cops came to the front room and we would not leave. 00:26:16.655 --> 00:26:25.358 We continued to joke with the police officers, to talk to them, try to tell them about. 00:26:25.358 --> 00:26:33.715 Yeah, well, you know, there's lots of gay people, you're gonna see a lot of us just talking, you know what I mean, but not getting nasty. 00:26:33.715 --> 00:26:35.435 We said don't get nasty, just talk. 00:26:35.435 --> 00:26:42.577 And so we said we, you know, there, here's the 12 of us and the two in jail. 00:26:42.577 --> 00:26:49.857 And they kept missing them, kept losing them, kept, you know, there's been sent somewhere else. 00:26:49.857 --> 00:26:51.080 We would not leave. 00:26:51.080 --> 00:26:52.454 We said, well, we're waiting here. 00:26:52.454 --> 00:26:53.914 We know what the law is. 00:26:53.914 --> 00:26:56.959 You gotta bring them here for us to build them out of jail. 00:26:56.959 --> 00:27:03.538 And the bellows bondsman was working with them and all at once they said here they are. 00:27:03.538 --> 00:27:06.096 And we all applauded like mad. 00:27:06.410 --> 00:27:09.875 The police still didn't know what to do because we were not afraid of them. 00:27:09.875 --> 00:27:11.553 And we went. 00:27:11.553 --> 00:27:13.038 We got in our cars. 00:27:13.038 --> 00:27:15.497 I went back home with Tony. 00:27:15.497 --> 00:27:17.275 He broke down crying. 00:27:17.275 --> 00:27:21.180 I said they're gonna drop the charges. 00:27:21.180 --> 00:27:24.755 Just wait, that's what the guy said they're gonna drop the charges. 00:27:24.755 --> 00:27:28.797 And sure enough they dropped the charges on our two people that we got out. 00:27:30.152 --> 00:27:33.740 But I kept going back to praying. 00:27:33.740 --> 00:27:37.938 Okay, god, you said you love me, all right. 00:27:37.938 --> 00:27:40.336 You said when do you want that? 00:27:40.336 --> 00:27:43.775 You know, I've tried to go to church and I can't find anywhere to go. 00:27:43.775 --> 00:27:56.520 You tell me, where do you, if you want a church, started, not a gay church, but a Christian church that's open to everybody, and that means everybody. 00:27:56.520 --> 00:27:58.795 Just let me know when. 00:27:58.795 --> 00:28:07.615 And the still, the small voice said now, and with that took out a maddening advocate here at Reverend Troy Perry. 00:28:07.615 --> 00:28:14.615 The advocate was the large gay newspaper at that time, the only one, and I took it out of mad. 00:28:14.615 --> 00:28:18.257 Here at Reverend Troy Perry gave me a address in Huntington Park. 00:28:18.257 --> 00:28:23.976 12 people came two persons of color, a heterosexual couple. 00:28:23.976 --> 00:28:31.137 You know, I looked back at it and I think it was the view of things to come for a MCC. 00:28:31.137 --> 00:28:34.497 All those gay males that were there too. 00:28:34.497 --> 00:28:40.116 I am so thankful to God and the service was incredible. 00:28:40.849 --> 00:28:47.990 I called a funeral home and said well, you loan me 15 chairs for the first service of our church we're having. 00:28:47.990 --> 00:28:52.273 Oh, yes, we would be happy to, and they did. 00:28:52.273 --> 00:29:00.573 Then I had a pastor friend who owned me loaned me the 15 choir hymnals you know the hymns. 00:29:00.573 --> 00:29:30.304 The thing out of Then straight man at work who was a carpenter for the store, he made the cross and the top to go up behind my preaching area and in front of my preaching area was our coffee table, which served as our first communion, and an ash tray, and my boss, who was gay, at in his lover, gave me a cup that I used as a chalice for the first service. 00:29:30.304 --> 00:29:33.217 And it was very, very interesting. 00:29:33.670 --> 00:30:00.401 Four years ago the Smithsonian asked me for a collection that they wanted to put in their collection for gay folk and I was able to put together the collection of things like the Book of Common Prayer that I use in all my marriages and all my funerals and throughout MC's history. 00:30:00.401 --> 00:30:02.114 They got that. 00:30:02.114 --> 00:30:04.875 They got my vestments. 00:30:04.875 --> 00:30:08.378 They received a hymn book that went through the fire. 00:30:08.378 --> 00:30:13.700 We had another hymn book after that with inclusive language. 00:30:13.700 --> 00:30:38.593 I had other things that were given in the day as for a large collection and they received it I would have never thought, when I opened the doors of the church to those 12 people, that the Smithsonian, the Museum of American History, would call me one day and say the thing y'all did was historical and we want to make sure that we have them here in the museum. 00:30:39.509 --> 00:30:42.097 So I am very thankful when I look back. 00:30:42.097 --> 00:30:55.256 Most of the people in fact all of the people except me, as far as I know is not alive of the LA group, that where we started the church here first. 00:30:55.256 --> 00:30:57.342 They are deceased. 00:30:57.342 --> 00:31:03.855 But we went through everything together and today, how proud I am. 00:31:03.855 --> 00:31:05.432 I was just. 00:31:05.432 --> 00:31:25.298 I'd received an email from one of our churches in Brazil I don't read Portuguese, but thank God for translators anymore and they were sending us saying we're dedicating a room to you, reverend Perry, and that's where we feed people who are hungry. 00:31:25.298 --> 00:31:33.376 So it's the Troy Perry Food Pantry Memorial, and so I was very touched by that. 00:31:34.290 --> 00:31:37.691 And is there something surreal about that, though, there? 00:31:37.912 --> 00:31:41.038 is People, don't you know? 00:31:41.038 --> 00:31:44.256 You gotta go through it, I guess, till it's the way it is. 00:31:44.256 --> 00:31:45.814 But it is surreal. 00:31:45.814 --> 00:31:51.858 When I'm invited to the White House, I've been invited by three American presidents to the White. 00:31:51.878 --> 00:31:52.059 House. 00:31:52.059 --> 00:31:54.096 You've been there five times. 00:31:54.096 --> 00:31:55.512 Three presidents, that's correct. 00:31:56.471 --> 00:32:02.414 And I stop and I look at it and I just shake my head of when I leave. 00:32:02.414 --> 00:32:03.752 I'm very. 00:32:03.752 --> 00:32:08.029 What thrills me is they invited Philip the last time. 00:32:08.029 --> 00:32:16.821 The other two were before Philip, and Philip is my partner of 38 years, Philip de Blic. 00:32:16.821 --> 00:32:22.057 We talk, he and I both talk about it how unreal it seems some days. 00:32:22.490 --> 00:32:41.674 Today, we are members of the World Council of Churches and we go to the World Council of Churches every four years and we celebrate with them and we meet more people from other cultures that have heard about us and know about us. 00:32:41.674 --> 00:32:49.717 They you know, they have different historians who've interviewed me said Troy, you're one of those church groups. 00:32:49.717 --> 00:32:58.297 Everybody knows who you are Because quote you're the gay church and we have churches all over the world. 00:32:58.297 --> 00:33:11.576 We have doctors who go to places like Uganda and we pay to have children's medicine for children and shot for children, and we have our own doc. 00:33:11.576 --> 00:33:22.472 Go into those cultures and do clinics for children, for HIV, for coronavirus, you name it. 00:33:22.472 --> 00:33:23.115 We do it. 00:33:23.115 --> 00:33:28.881 We call it the metropolitan clinics. 00:33:28.881 --> 00:33:38.163 We've learned how to work in some countries and I continue to hope and pray that God can continue to use me. 00:33:38.609 --> 00:33:57.867 Now, this coming year, Philip and I are going to do some of this the last thing on my bucket list that I've wanted to do, and it's not churchy I've been to a general audience for this holiness to Pope, wrote them and asked them could I be in a general audience. 00:33:57.867 --> 00:34:00.513 They invited me and sent the invitations. 00:34:00.513 --> 00:34:09.333 I'm one of the only 100 Protestants who are invited to protest in with this holiness. 00:34:09.333 --> 00:34:21.994 In South Carolina, when Pope John Paul II was the Pope and his assistant became the next Pope of this book. 00:34:21.994 --> 00:34:28.608 So it was very interesting and I continue to do things. 00:34:28.608 --> 00:34:38.088 The thing I want to do is I just discovered that there is a cruise that Philip and I are going to take. 00:34:38.088 --> 00:34:52.635 We like the cruise for 54 days that takes us down the Pacific side of the Americas to Antarctica. 00:34:52.635 --> 00:35:03.175 I have been on every continent except Antarctica and this cruise will let me get to Antarctica. 00:35:06.603 --> 00:35:17.436 Then I'll come back up the other side of the Americas and end the cruise, leaving in LA, ending it in Port Lauderdale, Florida. 00:35:18.442 --> 00:35:19.706 That sounds like an incredible trip. 00:35:19.706 --> 00:35:21.822 I want to speak to something. 00:35:21.822 --> 00:35:31.550 In 1970, the year after Stonewall, you co-founded Christopher Street West and we know today as the first Pride Parade in Los Angeles. 00:35:31.550 --> 00:35:33.193 I'm used to parades as they are today. 00:35:33.193 --> 00:35:35.603 It's a carnival field. 00:35:35.603 --> 00:35:40.673 Back in 2008, I joined thousands and marched along the beach when Prop 8 passed. 00:35:40.673 --> 00:35:43.284 It was a much different feeling. 00:35:43.284 --> 00:35:48.114 We were angry, we were beyond angry, but it was so powerful. 00:35:48.114 --> 00:35:50.246 It was a sense of unity and belonging. 00:35:50.246 --> 00:35:53.463 I have not felt sense, can I tell you something. 00:35:54.043 --> 00:36:06.248 I really believe, brad, with all of my heart that young people have heard that we now have two wonderful Pride parades here in LA. 00:36:06.248 --> 00:36:10.135 I can tell you one of those parades are already changing. 00:36:10.135 --> 00:36:16.869 Oh, yes, they've got the floats in them, but they're shouting from the floats. 00:36:16.869 --> 00:36:20.853 They've got all kinds of people who are with us. 00:36:20.853 --> 00:36:36.773 I loved looking down and seeing the Assistic District Attorney of Los Angeles Association Good point, I love it, thank God, here I'm looking at this and they're straights and gays. 00:36:38.099 --> 00:36:53.782 A few years ago, phillip and I invited a heterosexual couple who's a friend of ours One was a police officer, she is an attorney or husband's a member of the Ventura Bottom Squad and they were pro-gay. 00:36:53.782 --> 00:36:56.829 I got to know the family really, really well. 00:36:56.829 --> 00:37:06.990 I was being honored by our Pride committee here and I invited them to go with me because I wanted to use them as props. 00:37:06.990 --> 00:37:16.954 To all the folks out there who say we can't win, I'm saying these are the people we want to win with. 00:37:16.954 --> 00:37:20.367 We want to meet heterosexual Next year. 00:37:20.367 --> 00:37:25.530 We want to invite our heterosexual friends and don't invite a homosexual. 00:37:25.530 --> 00:37:26.940 Invite your heterosexual friends. 00:37:28.405 --> 00:37:30.873 I've always been one of those believers. 00:37:30.873 --> 00:37:36.849 I said early on that if we all came out of the closet. 00:37:36.849 --> 00:37:41.063 If we'd all come out to our mothers and fathers, that's three right there. 00:37:41.063 --> 00:37:47.123 If you then came out to your brothers and sisters, for me that would be five more. 00:37:47.123 --> 00:37:54.626 And then when they start telling their friends which they're going to, how, everybody laughed. 00:37:54.626 --> 00:37:59.434 I said thousands of people are going to know very quickly that we're gay. 00:37:59.434 --> 00:38:02.244 And that's exactly what happened. 00:38:02.244 --> 00:38:08.987 I don't mean that I was the first person, maybe to say that, but that all kinds of people started joining in. 00:38:09.630 --> 00:38:19.556 The next thing for me was when I started having demonstrations and I said I had demonstrations before. 00:38:19.556 --> 00:38:21.981 We had Christopher Street, west pray. 00:38:21.981 --> 00:38:35.233 My first demonstration was based on a firing of a young man in San Francisco and they called me and said a young man has been fired here, the company headquarters in Los Angeles. 00:38:35.233 --> 00:38:39.733 Would you, as we demonstrate up here, would y'all demonstrate down there? 00:38:39.733 --> 00:38:48.400 And I may retalk to Morris Kite, others of our early little group and I said they wonder who to demonstrate. 00:38:48.400 --> 00:38:49.862 I'm going to, we all do it. 00:38:49.862 --> 00:39:02.309 And they said yeah, and so immediately we held a demonstration and at that demonstration we ended up three days. 00:39:02.309 --> 00:39:07.420 First day, people would come and stand and stare at us. 00:39:08.302 --> 00:39:15.293 I mean Brad there wasn't nobody applauding, Nobody was saying a word, it was just dead silence. 00:39:15.293 --> 00:39:21.791 The next day, we all at once started our you know shouts. 00:39:21.791 --> 00:39:26.769 If you're proud and you're gay, you know, say it. 00:39:26.769 --> 00:39:27.934 You know what I mean. 00:39:27.934 --> 00:39:33.827 If you're proud and you're gay, say it you know, and people would say right back to us, you know. 00:39:33.827 --> 00:39:45.682 Then the third day they started dropping bags of water out of the top of the building trying to wet us, and we never wore wet, but other business people wore it. 00:39:46.423 --> 00:39:47.487 Oh my God. 00:39:47.487 --> 00:39:53.063 But who went running the building became our allies very quickly After it happened. 00:39:53.063 --> 00:39:54.588 But we didn't go away. 00:39:54.588 --> 00:39:57.800 We waited for the next event After that. 00:39:57.800 --> 00:40:04.563 Now we're going to wait for the state theme ship company give them an opportunity to talk back to them up there. 00:40:04.563 --> 00:40:15.432 And so after that we were back again making sure that we said if they come for us or we need to go to them, we will go to them. 00:40:15.432 --> 00:40:16.938 We're not going to wait for them to come. 00:40:16.958 --> 00:40:38.594 This morning and I said today, this demonstration that we're having is one of the state, the California State Building, and we're going to ask that the California State move the law that's on the books that make us criminals, and we wanted the anti-ecidemy laws off the book. 00:40:38.594 --> 00:40:45.052