campbell, a former president of the university of michigan young democrats and a member of the cleveland mattachine society, was active in gay politics and was on the board of the national gay task force. at one point while encountering troy perry, founder of the metropolitan community church, perry was said to have told him "we have a hundred churches and a total of 30,000 members." campbell replied, "well, although we only have thirty churches, we have 300,000 members."