L.A. Group Renews Efforts to Establish a Gay Military Chaplaincy

Buoyed by President Clinton’s moves to end the ban on homosexuals in the military, a denomination with a mostly homosexual membership has renewed efforts to establish a military chaplaincy.

The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, a 27,000-member denomination based in Los Angeles, had been rebuffed by the Defense Department in October, when the Armed Forces Chaplains Board cited military policy barring homosexuals from service.

In a statement, the Rev. Troy Perry, moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches, said the church had renewed its request to the Pentagon to allow its ministers to serve as chaplains.

“I hold today as a great victory,” Perry said. “I thank God the day is coming when openly gay and lesbian chaplains are available to meet the spiritual needs of America’s soldiers.”

Perry, who served in the Army as a cryptographer during the Vietnam years, said: “Having gay and lesbian chaplains in the military would have made all the difference in the world for myself as well as for other GIs.”

When the Armed Forces Chaplains Board turned back the church’s request for a chaplain’s spot last year, the board stipulated that it could not consider the request until a candidate qualified to serve--that is, a heterosexual candidate--was presented.

At that time the church had submitted the name of the Rev. Dusty Pruitt, a lesbian who was thrown out of the Army Reserves in 1983 and sued the Army. Despite a ruling favorable to Pruitt from an appellate court, the case is tied up in the courts.

Perry said Monday that Pruitt’s name has been resubmitted as the church’s candidate.

Clinton told the military’s top brass Monday that he intended to open the armed services to homosexuals. Later, meeting with opposition not only from military leaders but powerful members of his own party, Clinton decided to withhold a formal executive order lifting the ban for at least six months. However, he indicated that he would order the military to halt new prosecutions of homosexual members of the armed services.

If the Pentagon approves a sexually active homosexual as chaplain, it would be taking a step beyond what most of the nation’s major churches will permit. With few exceptions, most denominations reject homosexual candidates for the ministry who are sexually active.