I've blogged about John Smid and his remarkable story a few times in the past — here and here. As these postings note, Smid previously headed a faith-based "ex-gay" program in Memphis called Love in Action. He and the program came on the radar screen of many folks in 2005 when Zach Stark, a young teen, was sent to the program by his parents against his will, and cried out for help online.
Down the road, Smid admitted that he was a still-gay ex-gay man whom conversion therapy had failed to convert: like, well, virtually every other ex-gay man who claims to have been converted by conversion therapy. And he apologized for his years of having harmed others by promoting bogus claims about ex-gay conversion therapy.
And now there's this: this past Sunday, John Smid and his partner Larry McQueen drove from their home in Texas (still no marriage for gay folks) to Oklahoma (marriage for gay folks) to be married. And all I can say in response is,
Wow. Talk about ex-gay conversion therapy not working.
(I don't mean that in any snarky way. I wish Smid and McQueen the very best. What I mean, of course, is that it's long since past time for people to stop pretending about these issues. And to stop hurting people in the name of phony religion that has nothing to do with the gospels.)
The photo of John Smid and Larry McQueen, which is the header for David Badash's New Civil Rights Movement report I've linked above, is from Facebook, according to Badash.
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