Perry retired last year, but he will speak next week at Delaware County's Imago Dei Metropolitan Community Church, where the Rev. Karla Fleshman is trying to build a congregation in suburbs where there is very little gay visibility. Perry will also deliver a civil rights lecture at West Chester University.

City Paper: You retired from the church but you obviously still have your spiritual vocation.

The Rev. Troy Perry: When I founded MCC, I was one of the first gay people in America who used my real name. I've seen it all. I've had death threats. But we have never been discouraged. I performed my first same-sex marriage ceremony in 1969 and in 1970 I sued California on that issue. They laughed us out of court, but they're not laughing anymore.

CP: Do you think there has been a falling-off of AIDS activism in the gay community?

TP: AIDS is still with us. In the '80s, over 5,000 members died of HIV/AIDS in our church. I've been to the White House to advise President Clinton on AIDS and I've been arrested protesting outside. It's not about sin, it's about health. Wonderful sex is safe sex. It works and it's still hot.

CP: Is it still important to be out to everybody?

TP: I was a secret NATO cryptographer in Vietnam and I had to swear I wouldn't talk about it for 32 years. Later, when I was stationed in Germany, every GI there knew I was gay, but they didn't believe me because I knew all of the female prostitutes who used to hang out at the gay bars. It was so cute. I used to tell them, "Yeah, I can introduce you … if you have any brothers."

CP: Will there be acceptance for gays in "straight" churches?

TP: I believe the day will come that all denominations will accept gays in church. For the moment, GLBT people find they are welcome at MCC and it's been an incredible exodus."

For information about the March 23 West Chester event, call 610-436-2226; details of Perry's weekend visit to Imago Dei is available at www.imagodeimcc.org or 610-358-1716.