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John J. Smid is the former director of the Memphis, Tennessee ex-gay ministry Love in Action, a group that claims to convert lesbians and gay men to heterosexuality.[1]
John J. Smid | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Ex-Minister |
| Known for | Love In Action |
| Spouse | Larry McQueen |
During his time directing Love in Action, Smid faced controversy over the organization's treatment of gay teens in their youth program "Refuge".[2] Smid subsequently resigned his position in 2008,[3] and in 2010 apologized for any harm he had caused, noting that his teen program "further wounded teens that were already in a very delicate place in life".[4]
In 2011, three years after leaving Love In Action and stepping down from its leadership, Smid announced he was still homosexual and stated he had "never met a man who experienced a change from homosexual to heterosexual."[5]
In 2012, Smid wrote and self-published the memoir Ex'd Out: How I Fired the Shame Committee.[6]
In the 2018 film Boy Erased, based on the book of the same name, the character Victor Sykes, portrayed by Joel Edgerton, is based on Smid.
A November 2018 Radiolab podcast titled UnErased: Smid[7] features Smid's life story.
Before claiming he had changed from homosexuality to heterosexuality, Smid lived for years married to a woman and fathering children. It was during this marriage that he said he was gay, divorcing his first wife in 1980. Four years following his divorce, Smid became a Christian and sought conversion from homosexuality to heterosexuality.[2] He married a second time, but by 2011 said, “I would consider myself homosexual and yet in a marriage with a woman.”[8] By November 2014, Smid had divorced his second wife and married Larry McQueen. The couple live in Texas.[9]
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