By Karen Ocamb

At the heart of the New Testament is the message that God sent his son down from heaven to assume and experience our human nature and teach love. Believing in and imitating Jesus Christ, these Christians say, leads to joy on earth and spiritual salvation.

But for Rev. Troy Perry, like Jesus, belief alone is insufficient in a world where inhumanity and intolerance reign. Belief mandates action, whether it is raging at racial, economic, and anti-gay injustice, or submitting to arrest as part of non-violent disobedience, or defying death threats and arson to bring the power of Christian love, laughter, and acceptance to outcast LGBT people around the world through his Metropolitan Community Church (MCC). For 37 years, Perry's mission has been to spread one simple message: "Be afraid no more, for God loves you and so do I."

On Oct. 9, in his final farewell before starting on his official retirement, Perry preached at his beloved MCC/Los Angeles on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, and that afternoon accepted the gratitude and respect of secular and religious leaders present for the unveiling of a plaque on the newly named Rev. Troy Perry Square outside the church. Last June 28, Perry was honored by the city of Los Angeles with a plaque on Hollywood Boulevard and McCadden Place, where 35 years earlier he, Morris Kight, and Rev. Bob Humphries launched the first Christopher Street West Pride Parade.

Perry had come a long way since he placed an ad in The Advocate with his picture, name, home address, phone number, and an invitation to come hear him speak. Twelve people showed up at that first service on Oct. 6, 1968, forming the core of what would become a worldwide, Pentecostal-style church.

"No one knew what to expect. Everyone was as scared as I was," Perry says in the new tribute book, Troy Perry: Pastor and Prophet. "I said the church was organized to serve the religious, spiritual, and social needs of the homosexual community of greater Los Angeles, but I expected it to grow up to reach homosexuals wherever they might be. I made it clear that we were not a gay church -- we were a Christian church, and I said that in my first sermon. I told our gathering what Metropolitan Community Church was going to be, and I told them I would preach what God had told me to preach, a three-pronged Gospel: Salvation, Community, Christian Social Action."

Perry kept his word and led by example, performing the first same-sex wedding ceremony in the United States in 1969, followed by the first lawsuit petitioning for legal recognition of gay marriage. And, faith in hand, Perry often put his body on the line for LGBT equal rights, leading marches in hostile times and going on several hunger strikes. "When you've had a gun put up against your head, nobody can scare you that much anymore," Perry told IN, reflecting on his hero, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Having been born in Tallahassee, Fla., in 1940 and intensely cognizant of racism in the deep South from age 8 when African-American men were lynched 30 miles from his home, Perry decided to model himself after King. "I saw what he could do. And I thought, in our community we could do this too," Perry recalled. "It was not so simple and easy. Our first demonstration in Los Angeles, there was tremendous fear. I said, 'What's the worst anybody could do to us?' And someone said, 'They could murder us.' But I reminded them that we're Christians and when we are absent from here, we'll be present with the Lord. So it's no big deal. My faith tells me that. I believe that."

Perry's second fast at the Federal Building in downtown L.A. during the heyday of anti-gay orange juice shill Anita Bryant in 1977 lasted 16 days. "I fasted until we received $100,000 to fight the anti-gay Briggs Initiative [to ban gay teachers]. We used that money to fund the first poll in the state to see what voters thought. The poll said that 66 percent of voters would vote for the Briggs Initiative. I read the poll differently and said we'd win -- which we did with 58.6 percent of the vote," Perry said. "We won over a lot of people," including the teachers' union, Gov. Jerry Brown, former Gov. Ronald Reagan and President Jimmy Carter.

Perry stopped for several beats when asked what the top three most important achievements were in his long, significant career. He quickly named several, each with its own historic story: founding MCC; "coming out of the closet to be a gay activist and plan all four marches on Washington; involvement in the AIDS crisis during which 5,000-6,000 church members died. "It was one of the most horrific things I've ever been through. People don't understand how bad it was."

Perry has been on the frontlines of the same-sex marriage battle since performing the first gay marriage in January 1969 and suing the state of California the next year. In 2003, Perry and his longtime partner Phillip De Blieck were legally married in Canada. Upon their return, they sued California to recognize their marriage. They sued again with activist Robin Tyler and her partner during the Valentine's Day marriage flurry in 2004. Both lawsuits are still winding through the courts. "We will keep coming back until we can marry in every country on earth," he said.

Perry is also proud of his fight for human rights on a global level, including helping LGBT people in Romania hold their first Pride parade. South African Bishop Desmond Tutu also became a close personal friend during this ongoing struggle.

"It's been amazing," Perry said of his life and times. "Our community has all kinds of leaders. I'm just one. But thank God, the work is being done."

To keep track of Rev. Troy Perry or to purchase the tribute book, visit www.MCCchurch.org.