Dead Celebrity Alert

William Silver, who unsuccessfully sought to be ordained by the Presbyterian Church in 1975, died at 59 of AIDS complications on May 26, the New York Times reported. He graduated from the Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan in 1969 and came out in 1973. When he applied to work as an assistant pastor at the Central Presbyterian Church on Park Avenue, “he shocked committee members interviewing him by saying he was gay,” the newspaper reported. They sought guidance from the national Church and in 1978 its general assembly banned “unrepentant” gays from ministry. … Read full obituary

Filed under LGBT, Religion