Meet the self-described 'lesbian provocateur' whose activism is grounded in faith

Looking at Barbara Metzger, now using a wheelchair and living in a small apartment in Little Canada, you might not know the outsized role she played helping safeguard the rights of gay and lesbian Minnesotans.

But Metzger, whose father was a minister who marched to Montgomery, Ala., during the civil rights movement, was at the center of the fight to enshrine human rights in the capital city and statewide.

Eye On St. Paul recently visited with Metzger to talk about her first book, on which she's working with the Minnesota History Center, and how she developed her activist chops as a high schooler in Roseville.

This interview was edited for length.

Q: You said your father, Paul Metzger, was minister of Hamline Church United Methodist and was involved in the civil rights movement in the early '60s. What effect did that have on you?

A: It made me a political activist. And that is what I have done with my entire life. At one point, people called me the mother of the gay community in St. Paul.

Q: When did you come out?

Q: Who outed you?

A: Well, I was an officer of the student council at Alexander Ramsey High School. And the student council had an office that had a wall with a little space above it. Somebody moved the printer — probably the Xerox machine — and climbed up on a table and looked over that wall and saw me kissing my girlfriend. Instantly, the whole school knew.

Q: What did that do to you?

A: It actually didn't do much. It got me elected one of the five homecoming princesses — [laughs] as a protest entry.

Q: What causes have you supported?

Q: Are you still involved at Hamline Church?

A: I am again now. I had a partner; we were together 19 years. We raised a child. She was in college and gone and my partner started to feel uncomfortable there. [They left the church for a while as a result.] So I've been involved with Hamline several times.

Q: What do you do?

A: Well, I'm just a worshiper and a person now. I'm going to be a barker at the [Hamline Church Dining Hall at the Minnesota State Fair]. My first actual work that I did in life was at the dining hall, where I was a waitress when I was 13.

Q: You've written a book?

And I was like, "Oh, my story is so big and convoluted and kind of amazing."

Q: So there in a pew of Hamline Church is a woman who was one of the first open lesbians in the DFL Party, whose dad was involved in the civil rights movement, who's been an activist most of her life?

A: Yes, yes. It is my walk with Jesus.

Q: Is that the name of the book?

A: Well, walk with Jesus books are all of a genre. And they're all kind of the same. They're people who thought maybe they should be a minister, then did all these other things. Then they were called to go back and maybe go to seminary. It's very sweet and syrupy and blah.

A: Mine is not that. MY walk with Jesus has been over a really bumpy road [laughs]. The title of the book is the "Autobiography of B.J. Metzger, Lesbian Provocateur."

Q: Did you self-publish, or do you have a publisher?

A: The History Center asked me to finish it. All those boxes in the corner [points to stacked boxes], those are the rest of the gay and lesbian 20^th century. Those have to go back.

So I've finished my [first book], and the second one is short stories about being a lesbian activist, stories that aren't big stories, but little stories. Like the time I was having a meeting with gay activists in my living room and the police were staking out the crime family down the block. Unmarked cars had back seats filled with electronics.

People would come in and go, "Did you know there's all these electronics listening in on people?"

Q: You say you've survived six cancers. Tell me about that.

A: The first one was in '94 and the second one was in '95. My family has a certain chromosome which predisposes us to certain cancers, and they're environmentally triggered. Everybody in my family has had cancer.

Q: Which cancers have you had?

A: The first one was bladder polyps. The second one was uterine. The third one was melanoma. The fourth one was colon cancer, it was awful. The fifth one was another skin cancer. And the sixth one was a bladder cancer that metastasized to bone before it was caught. I'm still being treated, with these immunotherapy drugs, and I'm still alive. And except for not being able to walk, I'm me.

Q: Are you an activist today?

Q: So you're getting inspired to get active?