Release Date:   March 2, 1995
Contact:        Dawn Rankin-Phelps
                (804)543-2460

Jailed Homosexual Minister Responds to Comments of Pat Robertson's
Spokesperson

The Rev. Dr. James Melville "Mel" White is the former ghostwriter for Pat
Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Billy Graham, Ollie North and other leaders of the
so-called religious right.  Dr. White now serves as the Minister of Justice
of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches.  He is
currently in solitary confinement at the Virginia Beach City Jail, Virginia
Beach, Virginia, and entered day seventeen of a fast today, having been
arrested for trespassing at the CBN compound. In response to the comments of
Gene Kapp, spokesperson for Pat Robertson, printed in today's
Virginian-Pilot, White states, "Pat Robertson is questioning my motives.  I
never questioned his.  Pat refuses to deal with the truth that his rhetoric
leads to the suffering and death of gay and lesbian people.  Why can't he
deal with this issue instead of trying to discredit me?  He had 20 months to
meet with me privately off-the-record.  I asked as a brother in the name of
Jesus, but he refused.  This is not a publicity campaign.  This is one more
attempt to get the truth to a man who refuses to spend even 30 minutes to
hear it".