Kan. Minister Gets Death Threats for Performing Same-Sex Weddings

A Metropolitan Community Church minister in Kansas has reportedly received a slew of threatening phone calls since the state legalized same-sex marriage.

Rev. Jackie Carter of First Metropolitan Community Church in Wichita told The Wichita Eagle that phone calls threatening violence — including threats on her life — have been a daily occurence since last month, when she officiated a ceremony for 15 couples who wed at the Sedgwick County courthouse.

“Honestly, I’m beginning to get more scared every day that this goes on. I’ve kind of talked myself into trying to be more calm about it and realizing that there are more people out there that are supporting us than threatening harm to us,” Carter told the Eagle. The calls have been reported to law enforcement, but because they’ve all been made anonymously, the source of the threats is unknown.

Founded in the Los Angeles  area by Rev. Troy Perry, the Metropolitan Community Church was conceived as a Christian denomination for LGBT people.

Carter isn’t the first minister to face vitriol amid the spread of marriage equality. A Unitarian Universalist church in Arkansas recently received a threatening note after a minister from the congregation had a pro-LGBT letter to the editor published in an area newspaper.