Release Date:   March 3, 1995
Contact:        Dawn Rankin-Phelps
                (804)543-2460

Vigil for Jailed Homosexual Minister to be Held

Bearing Witness will hold a Truth Vigil at the Unitarian Church of Norfolk on
Sunday, March 5, 1995, from 4 to 6 p.m., ending with a candlelit time of
meditation in support of Dr. White.  Marvin Liebman, author of 'Coming out
Conservative', Letha Dawson Scanzoni, author of 'Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?',and Lt. Wray Boswell of the Virginia Beach Police Department, brother of Gay Historian and author John Boswell and White's arresting officer, and Rev. Arlene Ackerman, Distri
ct Coordinator of the Mid Atlantic District of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, will be among the speakers at this Vigil.  Churches from around the nation have called and said that they will be holding similar vigils at the sam
e time in their own cities.

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 eighteen of a fast today.  On Tuesday,
February 14, White attempted to set an appointment with Pat Robertson,
founder and CEO of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN).  On Wednesday,
February 15, White was arrested for trespassing at the CBN compound.

Each afternoon since Dr. White was arrested seventeen days ago, a group of
delegates from Bearing Witness have attempted to arrange a meeting for White
with Robertson.  Bearing Witness is a coalition of religious leaders and
community organizations who support White's belief that gays and lesbians are
being physically, emotionally and spiritually damaged by some religious
rhetoric and untruth.  Bearing Witness is supporting White's efforts to get
Pat Robertson to do two things: to acknowledge that anti-gay rhetoric, such
as used on the 700 Club, results in violence against the gay community and to
denounce those acts of violence.  

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