Singapore Bans Speech by MCC's Rev. Troy Perry
"There's a saying that when a door closes, God opens a window. That's also true of LGBT activists," says Perry, who found creative ways to share the message of LGBT rights in Singapore.
During 40 years of human rights activism, Rev. Dr. Troy D. Perry, founder of Metropolitan Community Churches, has been picketed, taunted by extremists, and arrested for civil disobedience. Perry knows what it is to be the target of hate mail campaigns and the recipient of death threats. Occasionally, a church or organization has canceled a speaking engagement by the outspoken human rights leader.
But recent actions by Singapore marked the first time an entire country had banned Perry from public speaking engagements.
Rev. Perry was part of a recent six-member delegation to Southeast Asia from Metropolitan Community Churches. The delegation, led by Rev. Pat Bumgardner, chair of the Moderator's Global Justice Team of MCC, was scheduled to conduct speaking engagements, workshops, and worship services in Malaysia and Singapore, and to meet with LGBT rights groups.
Gay male homosexual sex is illegal in Singapore, though lesbian sex in private is not criminalized. Penalties for male homosexual acts, while seldom enforced, are severe.
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