RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina Council of Churches, a social justice advocacy group that unites denominations and congregations, has become the first organization of its kind in the South to elect an openly gay person as its president.

Stan Kimer, a retired IBM executive who lives in Raleigh, was elected this month to lead the organization. The council lobbies the General Assembly on topics like immigration and the environment and tries to find common ground on social issues among Christian groups that might disagree on key theological issues.

Kimer, a lay leader in the Metropolitan Community Churches, which ministers to gays, says the vote is more a referendum on him as an individual rather than a desire to make a political point.

"Especially in the religious community, people are increasingly able to look beyond someone being GLBT," he said, using the common abbreviation for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. "People are looking more at the merits of a person as an individual, which is something we need more of in this country."

Although the election is groundbreaking in a Southern state where the religious landscape is dominated by theologically and socially conservative churches, it's not a particular surprise, said the Rev. George Reed, executive director of the state council of churches.

"From the council of churches standpoint, the big deal was almost 20 years ago" when the body voted to include the gay-friendly MCC in its membership, Reed said.

Denominations and congregations applying for membership essentially have to show that they believe in Jesus Christ and that they want to work with other churches, Reed said, and the decision to admit the MCC was a milestone.

"The council then essentially said, we don't reject you, we don't reject that you believe in Jesus," Reed said. "In terms of relevance, that was the important decision."

The election also doesn't necessarily reflect a major change in Christian thinking in North Carolina. Most of the council's members are mainline Protestant groups whose national denominations have been moving in recent years to accept expanded roles for gays and lesbians. The state branch of the Southern Baptist Convention, arguably the most prominent Christian group in North Carolina, is not a member of the council of churches.

Both Roman Catholic dioceses in North Carolina are members of the council, and Reed said Kimer's election was more about his personal qualities and the role of the council as an organizing body for activism than about theological changes in the member churches.

"Most of our members are still having internal conversations, dialogue and debate about this issue, at varying degrees of intensity," he said.

Calls to spokesmen for the dioceses of Raleigh and Charlotte were not immediately returned Monday.

Kimer, 55, began moving toward the presidency about six years ago after being elected the council's third vice president. Presidential terms are for one year, but presidents traditionally are elected to a second term, Reed said.

The new president wants to devote some of his term to getting younger people interested in inter-church activism, a significant goal for mainline churches in particular, where membership in the pews is aging without much of a new generation coming in to replace older churchgoers.

As much as he wants his tenure to be devoted to the issues raised by the council, though, Kimer said he's aware he'll be looked at as a representative of gays in general.

"I know there will be a lot of focus on me, and I want to be a good representative of the GLBT community," he said.