Today is a new day, according to Rev. Troy Perry, the founder of the Metropolitan Community Church and this year’s St. Pete Pride grand marshal. The steps the LGBT community has taken toward equality are substantial, and that’s thanks to grassroots organizations and our allies, he says.

Perry will appear in the St. Pete Pride Promenade at 9 a.m. on June 25 in the city’s Grand Central District.

“People taking up for us absolutely understand the injustice of one group not having rights,” Perry says from his California home. “In 40 years I expect we’ll see full marriage. I’m in my 70s, so I’m not sure if I’ll live to see the country embrace it, but full marriage equality is coming.”

Perry—who is a Florida native—has never served as a grand marshal in the Sunshine State until now. He’s attended LGBT Pride events here, but is excited to take on the role of grand marshal, which he takes seriously.

During his weekend in St. Petersburg, Perry plans to speak at the King of Peace MCC Church and also make himself available to the press to explain why Pride is important. He sees his role as a symbol or the LGBT community.

“I should let reporters and the community know what we believe and what we’re fighting for,” Perry says. “Even in the state of Florida—it will change. I want to use my role as grand marshal to say that equality will happen in Florida. It may go to the Supreme Court, but all of that discrimination will hit the dust.”

And Perry has seen a lot of discrimination “hit the dust” since he entered the LGBT equality boxing ring in the 1960s.

Humble beginnings
When Perry started the Metropolitan Community Church in his living room back in 1968, he hoped to provide temporary sanctuary to LGBT Christians who were uncomfortable in their home churches of worship.

More than 40 years later, 300-plus MCCs have sprung to life in 46 states and on six continents. The need for the denomination is still prevalent, even though some other Christian denominations have become more accepting of LGBTs.

“When I first started MCC, people just couldn’t get it through their heads,” Perry laughs. “People would say that this just had to be a gay person playing church, and they thought it couldn’t really be a church. I think they expected orgies on the altar. I thought, ‘Oh my God, these people are going to be sadly disappointed.’”

The early days of MCC were very modest. Twelve people attended the first church service in Perry’s Huntington Park, Calif., home. The congregation bounced between five locations its first year. It wasn’t until 1971 that Perry and his congregation found the church’s first permanent location.

“We moved for several different reasons, and the congregation was afraid we’d get raided by police,” Perry recalls. “I welcomed the police to MCC. But when they went into our restrooms and staked them out, I told one of our ushers to get them out of there.”

One argument Perry always encountered from fundamentalists about MCC was that it was only a tool for gay men to cruise other gay men.

“I was so confused by that statement, because I had been taught all my life that it should be my goal to meet someone to spend the rest of my life with in church,” Perry said. “I met my partner in church, and here we are 26 years later.”

A passion for Pride
Besides founding the MCC denomination, Perry is also a founder of Christopher Street West, Los Angeles’ LGBT Pride celebration. Throughout his career, Perry has appeared in, spoken at, and simply attended different LGBT events around the globe in an effort to continue promoting equality. Each one has special memories for him—and he fondly recalls the National Equality March on Washington in 2009.

“It sounds funny now, but at that march I met someone who had an entourage,” Perry says. “When I met the person I didn’t know if this was a woman or a drag queen. I told my partner that I had just met someone who seemed sweet but I didn’t know if the person was male or female.
All I knew is that she went by Lady Gaga.

“Phillip is younger than me and just said, ‘Oh my God!’ but it was too late. I had made my speech and we were leaving the event. So he didn’t get to meet her.”

Perry says its experiences like his chance encounter with Lady Gaga that give him hope for the future. Younger generations—Lady Gaga is only in her 20s—are quick to come out of the closet or offer support for equality measures.

“Who would have thought we’d have Gay-Straight Alliances in schools?” Perry asks. “The last Pride parade I was in I rode on top of a bus and I saw all of these young kids—it was a GSA—led by the Fairfax Marching Band. It was the first time I had seen a high school band in one of our Pride Parades. It was amazing.”

The ‘Bs’ and the ‘Ts’
The new millennium has been a boon for not only gay men and lesbians, but for bisexuals and members of the transgender community as well, Perry believes. While gays and lesbians are seeking marriage equality and immigration rights, bisexuals and transgender individuals are seeing closet doors knocked down throughout the country.

“It is an incredible day for bisexuals,” Perry says. “There seems to be more and more young people coming out as bisexual and I’m meeting young couples in my own church telling me they are a bisexual couple. That’s just amazing to me today to see how comfortable people are becoming with themselves.”

Admittedly, more work is needed to bring equality to the transgender community, Perry says, but the foundation is there to begin serious work to turn things around.

“The transgender community is coming to the full front as never before and I thank God for that and what we all continue to do to recognize them,” Perry says. “We have to make sure we have politicians available in all cities so transgender people can talk with lawmakers as we all do.”

Perry says he is disappointed that too many gays and lesbians feel comfortable with “leaving behind” the transgender community when it comes to getting human rights ordinances passed.

“I was disappointed when the transgender community was not added in discrimination laws,” Perry says. “Even our own politicians like Barney Frank said that by leaving behind our transgender people we’d get a ‘win’ for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. But I’m not going to support ENDA without the transgender community.”

The battle for marriage
In 2003, Perry married his long-time partner Phillip Ray De Blieck in Canada. Today their marriage is recognized by their home state of California, even though Proposition 8 is still enforced as it winds through the court system.

“Prop 8 is old-fashioned bigotry,” Perry said of the 2008 voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage. “I’m embarrassed that as Californians—as Americans—that we even thought of it. I believe the Supreme Court will take this on and I believe we will win. It will be a narrow win and they could make it effective for just California, but I don’t see how they could do that without it affecting all the other states.”

Arguments that Judge Vaughn Walker, who ruled Prop 8 unconstitutional last year, should not have ruled on the case because he is gay doesn’t make any sense to Perry.

“The judge argument is the stupidest thing,” he laughs. “That’s like saying women shouldn’t handle women’s issues and that’s just stupid. We’ve won this battle and we’ve won the larger battle and I want to make sure it’s on paper.”

Despite the legal limbo of same-sex relationships in the country, Perry knows the formula to create a successful relationship. He and De Blieck celebrate 26 years together this summer. Perry credits God’s guidance and patience.

“I tell people that in our community we pray to God to meet Mr. or Ms. Right but we settle for Mr. or Ms. Right Away,” he laughs. “We know that doesn’t work.”

When Perry first met De Blieck, there was an instant connection, but Perry wouldn’t let his new love interest move in right away. He wanted to wait six months before he made such a big commitment to his boyfriend—but after three months of dating, Perry knew it was real and the two moved in together.

“We’ve always communicated with each other and we can talk about anything,” he says. “We never go to bed mad and if we are upset we do our best to talk it out.”

Another key to the success of their relationship boils down to friendships, Perry explains. They have friends they share—but they also have exclusive friends, which he admits can be tricky water to navigate.

“You have to trust one another,” Perry explains. “He has friends, I have friends and we have friends, so there are three different groups at work and that’s the way it should be. It’s important that you don’t try to change your partner. You fell in love with him or her for a reason—why would you want to change that?”

A new day, a better future
By just spending a few minutes with Perry, it’s obvious he’s an optimist. Every word seems to be delivered with a smile and his views are always upbeat. That’s what motivates him to continue working closely with the LGBT community, even though he retired as moderator of the MCC denomination four years ago.

“Yes, I’m a total optimist,” he says. “Things are changing in our community. Look at the bar scene for instance.”

Perry recalls a speech by Democratic Senator Alan Cranston—one of the first elected officials to openly hire gay people—highlighting what LGBTs could and couldn’t do in bars or out in public. To shine a light on the lunacy of anti-LGBT laws, Cranston spoke about a Kansas law prohibiting gay people from driving cabs.

“I say to kids today, we’ve got straight allies and that is fantastic,” he says. “We didn’t have a lot of those in the early days.”
With technology, the fight is even amped up more and will help secure equality in the near future, Perry believes.

“Bullying is getting the spotlight and there is no reason to hear the word ‘fag’ or other derogatory words in schools anymore,” he says. “That’s changing as people are becoming more accepting.”

Does that mean we’ll soon live in a perfect world?

“There will always be those who disagree with us and who will say awful things,” Perry admits. “But I think fairness is in the minds of our community and the American community as whole.”