The National Sex Forum (NSF) also began officially in 1968. (In some resources, it is referred to as the National Sex and Drug Forum.) It was a part of the Glide Urban Center and was "to study what helping professionals needed to know about human sexuality, develop educational methodologies, and design innovative training materials." By the end of its first year, the NSF discovered three things: a significant lack of training about human sexuality among the helping professionals (counselors, therapists, pastors, social workers, doctors, and others), a lack of educational materials, and a lack of organization of the information that did exist (IASHS, 1995; McIlvenna, 1997, p. 9). McIlvenna says,

I had learned during those first years of study that there were countless people who claimed to be sex experts because of their expertise in other fields, but very few who really knew what they were talking about. Most sex education and counseling consisted of misinformation, advice-giving and facts concerning reproductive biology. Not only were the people who claimed expertise in the sex field ill-prepared, but the materials available for sex education and counseling inadequate. We had to create our own sex education materials, which focused on what people actually do and how they feel about what they do. (1977, p. 9)

The UMC appointed McIlvenna to develop a sexuality education program (and the materials) for people in the helping professions (McIlvenna, 1977, p. 9). He returned to Glide UMC, San Francisco, and the National Sex Forum to create those materials. The UM Board of Christian Social Concerns gave McIlvenna $1100 for sexuality educational materials (McIlvenna, personal communication, August 28, 2002).

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, McIlvenna conducted sexuality education and training workshops for United Methodists in Nashville. Participants included members of the Boards of Evangelism and Education and the Chaplaincy Corps (McIlvenna, personal communication, August 28, 2002).

Upon request, McIlvenna also placed sexuality education materials in the Nashville offices of the UMC, in 144 Universities and colleges, and in 73 other UM institutions (McIlvenna, personal communication, August 28, 2002). Sexuality education materials from the National Sex Forum, including a "Glide Foundation film," were used by the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries in their US-2 training program (Jeanne Audrey Powers, personal communication, August 30, 2002). (The US-2 Program is a two-year program in which young adults (ages 20-30) are provided opportunities for developing leadership through participation in diverse ministries [GBGM]. See the Glossary for a broader definition of the US-2 Program.)

Jeanne Audrey Powers, Associate General Secretary of the UMC’s General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns from 1972-1996, worked with Ted McIlvenna and others and participated in workshops using sexuality education materials created by McIlvenna’s National Sex Forum (Powers, personal communication, August 30, 2002).

Other significant happenings with regard to the growing homosexuality/religion issue occurred in 1968-1969. The Rev. Troy Perry, a gay Pentecostal minister, conducted the first service for what was later to become the United Fellowship of the Metropolitan Community Churches, a nondenominational church for the gay community. Two years later, MCC had over five hundred members (GLINN). One of the first position statements of a major denomination was adopted by The Church of Christ's Council on Christian Social Action in 1969. Their statement called for decriminalization of homosexual activities between consenting adults (GLINN). And in San Diego, a newly established discussion group for gay and lesbian Catholics became the nation’s first denominational religious organization for homosexuals. In 1970, this group moved to Los Angeles and "became the first chapter of Dignity" (GLINN).

The final report of the Task Force on Homosexuality, appointed in 1967 by the director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), was made in 1969. The report recommended that a Center for the Study of Sexual Behavior be established for research, training, education, prevention, and treatment. It also questioned social policy regarding sexual behavior, noted that research was needed in this area, and recommended that the NIMH include research of public/social policy regarding homosexuality in their work (Task Force, 1969).

In 1969, Stonewall, the confrontation between New York police and lesbians/gays, marked a major turning point in the struggle of lesbians and gays for legal and civil rights (Moore, 2000a; GLINN).

The First National Conference on Religion and the Homosexual, a two-day meeting, was held at the Interchurch Center in New York (Comstock, 1996, p. 247; Lyon and Maurer, 1971, p. 15). Eleven denominations participated, and the secular media covered the conference (Comstock, p. 247). (Lyon and Maurer, 1971, say there were eight to ten major denominations and do not call it a national conference.)

And motive, a Methodist magazine founded in 1941 by the Methodist Student Movement under the auspices of the denomination’s Division of Higher Education of the Board of Education, ceased publication in July, 1971 (orientation, n.d.; Eddey and Ferri, 1972). Until then, according to an editorial in one of the last two motive magazines, the UMC had tolerated "radical dissension within limits, but the church fathers really squirmed when the special issue on women appeared in March-April 1969" (Furies, 1972, p. 1). Following this controversy, the UMC decreased its funding.

In spite of recognizing that they could no longer operate under the auspices of the church and that they could not survive without the church’s monetary support, the staff and editorial board of motive decided to publish one last issue of the magazine and to make that last issue a gay issue. Reorganized as MOTIVE, Inc., the Furies (a lesbian collective in Washington, DC that included one member of the old motive editorial board) (1972) took on the task of publishing the final issue of motive. That issue, in the end, was published as two separate magazines, one featuring (and for and by) gay men and the other featuring, for, and by lesbians. The final two magazines were printed by Sojourner Truth Printing Collective in Atlanta, GA (Furies, 1972; RCP, 2000c, p. 16).

 

Next: GC 1972 (Atlanta): Issue