Jay Barry Neely, Sr.

Jay Neely, Pioneering Atlanta Gay-Rights Activist and MCC Church Leader, Dies
Jay Barry Neely, Sr., the first openly gay man to serve as liaison between Atlanta’s gay community and city government and the first “bishop” of the Southeast’s Metropolitan Community Church, passed away in his home in Hapeville on October 5th after an extended illness. He was 83.
The son of Gladys Fadley Neely, radio personality and vaudeville actress on the Chatauqua circuit, and Thomas Neely, a Vice-President of RCA and creator of the RCA-NBC TV exhibit at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York, Jay Neely spent his early years navigating the performing arts and broadcasting. After graduating from the New York High School For The Performing Arts and studying briefly at Adelphi University in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Neely was inducted into the Seventh Army during the Korean conflict and sent to Germany to act, direct, and produce dramatic productions with Armed Forces Entertainment, the newly formed official defense agency responsible for providing entertainment to U.S. military personnel stationed overseas.
Toward the end of his enlistment, Jay Neely transferred to Okanawa, Japan, and upon returning to civilian life there, began his career as a radio newscaster and talk-show host with subsequent positions in New York, Indiana, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania. In Baltimore, Neely gained experience in television, which led to further opportunities and local notoriety as an on-air personality in Philadelphia.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Neely’s discovery of and interest in the mission of the newly formed Metropolitan Community Church led him to explore a vocation in ministry to the gay community, which was almost universally rejected by most Christian denominations. After rising to become pastor of the MCC-Philadelphia congregation, Neely realized that the risks to his broadcasting career were significant; a public “outing” would end his job in TV before he was ready to fully undertake his new vocation in ministry.
In 1974, Jay Neely left TV and Philadelphia to relocate to Atlanta to assume a radio job at WLTA now WWWQ, a position that afforded adequate privacy for ministry and engagement in the gay community. Ever the bridge-builder, Neely felt a keen awareness and urgent need to form church-home communities for gay people across the Southeast AL, MS, GA, NC, SC, TN who had suffered ostracisism, rejection, disenfranchisement, and prejudice from their families of origin and faith traditions; over the years, this work culminated in Neely’s elevation to the position of District Coodinator for the Gulf & Lower Atlantic District of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, which he held until his retirement in 2003.
In 1990, with Joan Garner now Fulton County Commissioner for District 6, Jay Neely was invited by Mayor Maynard Jackson to serve as a Senior Advisor And Liaison between Atlanta’s gay community and city government. For the next four years, Neely was the voice of gay Atlanta at City Hall on issues of public safety, non-discrimmination, domestic partnerships, and many other concerns of the GLBT community. For many years thereafter, Neely served on the board of directors for Atlanta Gay Pride and supported efforts to build up social, health, and human-services initiatives for GLTB people.
In 1978, Jay Neely met George Rogan, his life partner and husband since 2013. Other survivors include their daughter Lisa Smith Joshua, and Seth, Harley, Joshua, Isabel, and Deborah, their grandchildren. Neely is preceded in death by his parents, his sister Patricia, and his daughter Lisa Neely-Brown.
A memorial service for Jay Neely will be held on Saturday, October 24, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 3480 E. Main St., College Park, GA 404.761.8402 | www.stjohnscollegepark.com . In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to St. John’s Episcopal Church.