Subject: ACLU Award Presented To Gay Clergyperson
From: UfmccHq <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 18:04:33 EST

N E W S   R E L E A S E

GAY CLERGYMAN PRESENTED
ACLU NATIONAL CIVIL LIBERTIES AWARD

ATLANTA, GEORGIA -- On Saturday, Dec. 6, 1997, the Rev. Dr. Mel White,
Minister of Justice and Reconciliation for the Universal Fellowship of
Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC), was presented the ACLU's National
Civil Liberties Award for his efforts to apply the 'soul force' principles of
Gandhi and King to the struggle for justice for sexual minorities.  

White, an openly gay clergyperson, is the former ghostwriter for Jerry Falwell
and Pat Robertson. Since his coming out, White has renounced his former
Religious Right ties and become active in international human rights and gay
rights causes.

At the ACLU presentation, Dr. White handed his award to a very surprised Lynn
Cothren, the local gay activist who founded Atlanta’s Queer Nation chapter and
headed the successful campaign to reform the Cracker Barrel Restaurant chain.
In handing on the award to Cothren, who is also Coretta Scott King’s executive
assistant, Dr. White asked his friend, Lynn, to keep it temporarily, "At least
until I’ve earned it."  

It was Lynn Cothren who encouraged Dr. White to base his UFMCC justice
ministry on the Satyagraha or ‘soul force’ principles of Gandhi and Martin
Luther King, Jr.  During the past five years, White and his partner, Gary
Nixon, have traveled across the country, speaking on university campuses,
teaching principles of militant nonviolence to injustice of any kind,
organizing people of faith to do justice locally, and confronting religious
leaders whose anti-gay rhetoric White believes, "leads to the suffering and
death of God’s lesbian and gay children."

On Sunday, Dec. 14, White flew to Delhi, India, to begin study tours with Arun
Gandhi, the Mahatma's grandson, and professor Joseph Elder, a PFLAG parent and
a leading Gandhi scholar from the University of Wisconsin.  White will be
meeting with gay activists and with leaders of the nonviolent justice
movement. He will visit the historic sites of India's struggle for
independence, Gandhi ashrams, archives, and study centers. 

Dr. White and his partner, Gary Nixon, have just released their new Soulforce
video, HOW CAN I BE SURE THAT GOD LOVES ME, TOO?  Taped live, Mel uses the
life and teachings of Jesus "to confront those who misuse the Bible to make
God's lesbian and gay children feel like outcasts."  Videos can be ordered by
sending a check made out to Video 2 for $10 each (to cover the costs of
duplicating, packaging, and mailing) to Soulforce Videos, P.O. Box 4467,
Laguna Beach, CA. 92652.

For more contact Gary Nixon
Fax: 714 494 4079   Phone: 714 494 0960   
E-mail: [email-masked]
Website: http://www.melwhite.org 

PRESS BACKGROUNDER
On February 15, 1995, the Rev. Dr. Mel White was arrested for "trespassing" at
Pat Robertson's CBN Broadcast Center.  The story of his arrest, the 22 day
prison fast, and the ‘little victory’ that followed, made news across the
nation.  For 30 years, Dr. White had served the evangelical Christian
community  as a pastor, seminary professor, best-selling author, prize-winning
filmmaker, and ghost writer to its most famous and powerful leaders.   His
ghost-writing clients included Billy Graham,  Jerry Falwell, D. James Kennedy,
Ollie North, and Pat Robertson.
                                                              
Then, on Pride Sunday, June 27, 1993,  Mel White was installed Dean of the
Cathedral of Hope Metropolitan Community Church in Dallas, Texas, with 14,000
congregants, the nation's largest gay-lesbian congre-ga-tion.   After almost 3
decades of counseling and "anti-gay" therapy including prayer, fasting,
exorcism, and electric shock, Mel White was able to  reconcile his Christian
theology and his sexual orientation.  At his installation, Mel proclaimed his
own, heart-felt statement of faith:  "I am gay.  I am proud.  And God loves me
without reservation."

In April, 1994, Simon&Schuster released Dr. White's Stranger at the Gate: To
be Gay and Christian in America.  In this moving, best-selling  autobiogra-
phy, Mel comes out of the closet to give hope to other gay and lesbian
Christians, to confront the misleading anti-gay religious rhetoric, and to
launch his own fight for justice and understanding for God's gay and lesbian
children.
  
On January 1, 1995, Dr. White was appointed national Minister of Justice (an
unsalaried position) for the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community
Churches, the only Christian denomination with a primary outreach to gays and
lesbians. The Reverend Elder Troy Perry, founder of the U.F.M.C.C., asked Dr.
White to represent the denomination's 300 churches in the current nationwide
struggle on behalf of justice for all who suffer, gay and non-gay alike.
White and Nixon reside in Laguna Beach, California.

On September 1, 1996, the activist partners began a two week Fast for Justice
on the steps of the United States Senate, inviting people of faith across
America to join in this prayer vigil that God would change the minds and
hearts of Senators about to pass the so-called ‘Defense of Marriage Act."
Passing DOMA would be the first time in U.S. history that the entire lesbian-
gay community would be singled out for second-class-citizenship, denied by law
the 1,047 rights and protections of marriage. When the Senate passed DOMA
(85-14), White moved his Fast for Justice to the White House steps where he,
his partner, Gary, and 7 others were arrested while praying on the White House
sidewalk. 

After a four year study of his nonviolent resistance heroes - Gandhi, King,
Bonhoeffer, and Aquino - Dr. White is writing Storming The Gate, his sequel to
Stranger at the Gate.  "Across this country," Mel explains, "our gay brothers
and lesbian sisters are the victims of a tidal wave of intolerance,
discrimination, and violent crime flowing directly out of the anti-gay
religious rhetoric. We Christians, gay and straight alike, must take our stand
to end the suffering."

After Dr. White's 22 day fast in the Virginia Beach City Jail,  Pat Robertson
visited him in jail, heard White's plea and went on the air to say clearly
that he "abhorred the growing violence against gay and lesbian people."   "Pat
Robertson is not our enemy,' White said later.  "He is a victim of
misinformation like we all have been.  In the spirit of Jesus, Gandhi and
Martin Luther King, Jr. we must go on believing that Pat and the others can
change."   Dr. White has dedicated his life to a ministry of change.  "Until
this nation accepts God's gay and lesbian children as full members of the
human family," White explains, "we must go on telling that truth in love,
whatever it might cost us."

For more contact Mel White/Gary Nixon:  
Fax: 714 494 4079    Phone: 714 494 0960 
P.O. Box 4467, Laguna Beach, CA. 92652  
[email-masked]      
Website:  http://www.melwhite.org