Frank Schaefer lost his job but not his voice.
Defrocked by the United Methodist Church six months ago for officiating his son’s same-sex wedding, Schaefer has gained a following among reformers who want the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination to loosen its policies on homosexuality.
He’s told his story dozens of times to largely sympathetic audiences around the country: How his son came out to him as a teenager who had contemplated suicide. How he hid the 2007 wedding from his conservative Pennsylvania congregation, fearing it would sow division. How he finally decided - in the midst of his high-profile church trial last fall - to become an outspoken advocate for gay rights at a time when his denomination is bitterly divided over the issue.
After his trial and conviction, "I thought I had lost everything," recalled Schaefer, 52. "There was a moment of pain and depression and the next thing I knew, I was catapulted . I have more opportunities now than I ever did."
Except the right to call himself a Methodist minister.
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