Lgbtq friendly churches chicago

ORGANIZATION | Inducted 2011

Good Shepherd Parish Metropolitan Society Church served Chicago’s lgbtq+ community for 37 years before congregants gathered for final services on July 8, 2007. As the first church for LGBT community in the Midwest, Good Shepherd Parish helped to pave the way for other gay churches and for the many gay-friendly churches Chicago now enjoys. In addition, the church’s early ministries and outreach programs assisted many local service organizations, including the Open Hand sustenance pantry and the Illinois Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

When Los Angeles same-sex attracted activist Troy Perry announced in 1968 that he was starting a same-sex attracted denomination (the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches), gay Christians in Chicago were eager to participate. Perry, an ex-Pentecostal minister who was defrocked because of his sexual orientation, gave his blessing to a start-up church in Chicago, making Good Shepherd the fourth congregation in the new denomination.

What began as a handful of gay men who deified in a living room on Lake Shore Operate soon became a formidable and active church, providing one of Chicago’s fir

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