They also had more serious talks about homosexuality. Crutchfield enjoyed talking to him about his official events and about his life in the gay world. I said to him, `Finis, how can you afford to be in here?` '' Crutchfield just shrugged off the question.Ĭrutchfield became close friends with a young gay minister he had encountered at the Brazos River Bottom bar, although the two were never lovers. I told him I had been in a raid a few years before. The executive recalled: ''I started to see him in a few bookstores-you know the kind I`m talking about. While cruising Montrose, Crutchfield ran into an old acquaintance: the young man from the Tulsa savings and loan association, now a Houston executive. He`d sit with the person he brought in they`d kiss and hold hands.'' ''He always came in with young men in their 20s he didn`t pick people up. Jim Dondson, owner of the Venture N, remembers him well. Crutchfield was a steady customer for 10 years, often coming in three or four times a week. The Venture N on Main Street was one of his favorites. The Texas Conference during his tenure increased its membership from 243,000 to 270,000, becoming one of the fastest-growing in the country.Ĭrutchfield was a frequent patron at many of the gay bars in Montrose. That year he transferred to the Texas Conference, an area that stretches from Galveston to Texarkana and includes most of East Texas.
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He had two terms left before he reached mandatory retirement age. In 1976 Crutchfield, then 59, finished his first four-year term as bishop. ''I heard him tell the story hundreds of times,'' said a longtime gay friend. But privately he was proud of his role in the memorial service. When homosexual issues later came up at Methodist conferences, Crutchfield vehemently opposed any softening of church prohibitions. (The family had issued a statement after Crutchfield`s death denying that the bishop was a homosexual and, it was widely thought, suggesting that he contracted the disease from casual contact with gays in the course of his ministry.) He decided that he had to speak because of the damage that could be done by a false story of how the bishop contracted AIDS. Continuing to care for people with AIDS is more important than the question of the bishop`s lifestyle.'' Monroe knows that telling the story of his encounter with Bishop Crutchfield will put his job in jeopardy and cause pain to the bishop`s family, but he said: ''I think the truth is more important than the deception. He then escorted Monroe to the lobby, engaging in pleasant small talk as they went. When Crutchfield returned a few minutes later, he explained that he had to leave on business. I`m not going to get into this.` He said, `Oh, I think you are.` '' Then, much to Monroe`s relief, the telephone rang.Ĭrutchfield took the call in another room. With Crutchfield standing over him, Monroe tried to defuse the situation. ''He was aggressive, very intentional, and he didn`t waste any time,'' Then Crutchfield exposed himself and invited Monroe to do the same. He came back with the drinks and put them down on a table near Monroe. Once there Crutchfield offered Monroe a soft drink and walked across the room to get it.
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Monroe and Crutchfield met in the hotel lobby, and the bishop invited Monroe up to his room. Rudolph, better known for targeting the 1996 Summer Olympics, said he was striking back at a "morally corrupt government" that allows abortion and homosexuality.He found out that Crutchfield had a simpler agenda. The lounge was crowded with about 150 people when the device went off on a rear patio. 21, 1997 – Eric Rudolph sets off a nail-laden explosive device at the Otherside Lounge, a nightclub in Atlanta with a mostly gay and lesbian clientele. And his fifth ex-wife had a same-sex relationship before their marriage. Gay told authorities it was his mission to make all gays move to San Francisco, which he thought would end AIDS. Several of his sons had changed their last name. Gay told police he didn't like being teased about his last name. Sept. 22, 2000 – Ronald Gay opened fire in a gay bar in Roanoke, Va., killing 43-year-old Danny Overstreet and injuring six others.One of the victims, Marc Bosaw, required 12 staples in his head. Ma– Brothers Lawrence Henry Lewis and Lawrneil Henry Lewis and their cousin Alejandro Sam Gray hurled chunks of concrete at patrons of a gay bar in Galveston, Texas.View Gallery: Mass shooting at Orlando nightclub