HEAVEN SENT Merrill
The atheist cousin of Merrill Lynch's founder—and openly gay widower of Johnson & Johnson heir Evangeline (Casey's great aunt)—has become a First Amendment freedom fighter.

Charles Merrill has been loudly defending his civil rights since the New York Times-owned North Carolina paper the Hendersonville Times News suspended his message board account because of his screen name, Anti Christ. It started when Merrill began commenting on the paper's message boards using the handle Charles 6. "They started calling me Charles 666 because of my atheist and gay views," Merrill tells Radar. "Since I had that mark of the beast, I just thought I'd give them the whole enchilada and call myself Anti Christ. About two or three days later, my account was suspended," a move he says amounts to taking away his First Amendment rights.

The account, suspended on Jan. 17, "violated our posting policy against antisocial acts. It was a form of trolling, intentionally constructed to disrupt the message boards," says Hendersonville Times online editor Matt Rehm. "He's welcome to join under another handle."

Merrill, a 72-year-old member and donor to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, came out as gay a year after his wife's death in 1990 and was living with his life partner, Kevin Boyle, in Hendersonville for 20 years. But, he says, the town has turned against him.

"They wanted to start an anti-gay resolution saying they didn't want the 'gay lifestyle' in that county. We got a rabbit with its feet cut off in our mailbox, and guys in pickup trucks would ride by and shoot their shotguns off. We were under siege." He finally sold the farm last year and is currently living in Palm Springs: "It's one-third gay out here."

This isn't the first time Merrill has spoken out in defense of his rights. Since 2004 he has been withholding taxes from the IRS in protest of the government's stance on gay marriage, winning the praise of Out magazine in 2006 for his position. The government garnishes his income by 28 percent now, but Merrill is undaunted, he says. "It's all just 'fuck you' money."

At his personal blog he details his views and also gives some nifty accounts of the progress of his Weight Watchers diet. Indignation must be good for the metabolism—he's dropped to 249 pounds from a hefty 313.