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Metropolitan Community Churches
To launch plans for Marriage Equality Week, MCC has launched a new section of its website specifically dedicated to the issue of same-sex marriage. The website includes a resource kit for use by local faith communities, ideas for local activists, a letter from MCC's founder Reverend Troy Perry, and links to other civil rights activist groups. Mid-October will be a time of national focus on the same-sex marriage debate. Jerry Falwell, Dr. James Dobson, the Southern Baptist Convention and American Family Association along with 18 other religious right groups have announced plans to hold a mid-October "Marriage Protection Week" to promote "traditional families" by denying the right to marry to gay and lesbian couples. "Metropolitan Community Churches' observance of Marriage Equality Week will provide a positive countervoice for all types of families, including gay and lesbian families," said Reverend Perry, a former delegate to the White House Conference on Hate Crimes and the first openly gay member of the Los Angeles Human Rights Commission. "During the same week that the Religious Right will work to deny a basic human right to gays and lesbians, hundreds to faith communities will take public stands in support of equality in the marriage laws for gay couples." "We are not seeking special treatment," Reverend Perry added. "We seek equality. We are asking that the marriage laws by applied equally to all couples, regardless of sexual orientation. That is the only gay agenda -- equality for everyone under the law." Reverend Perry wed his partner of 18 years, Phillip Ray DeBlieck, in Toronto earlier this year after Ontario's historic legalization of same-sex marriage in June. In July, Perry announced a Five-Step Plan to legalize same-sex marriage in the U.S. that includes Valentine's Day demonstrations, partnering with other gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender activist groups and eventually, a legal case with other human rights groups. At the present time, Reverend Perry's marriage and the marriages of hundreds of others who were legally married in Canada, are not recognized in the U.S. "These are weddings that are blessed in the sight of God, but still not recognized by most governments," Perry said. "To not recognize my marriage and the marriages of thousands of other same-sex couples, is discrimination -- and we will not stand for that any longer." |
Metropolitan Community Churches World Headquarters in West Hollywood