John Smid
Encyclopedia
John J. Smid is the former director of the Memphis, Tennessee
ex-gay
ministry Love In Action
, a position in which he was a leading spokesman for converting homosexuals into heterosexuals. His homosexuality had driven him to leave his wife and children in 1980, but four years after leaving his family, he turned toward the church and to conversion of sexuality, to live life as a heterosexual. In 2011, years after having left his Love In Action post, he stated that he was homosexual, and that he had "never met a man who experienced a change from homosexual to heterosexual."
During his time directing Love In Action, Smid faced controversy, including over the organization's treatment of gay teens in their youth program Refuge. He resigned that position in 2008, 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".
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
ex-gay
Ex-gay
The ex-gay movement consists of people and organizations that seek to get people to refrain from entering or pursuing same-sex relationships, to eliminate homosexual desires, to develop heterosexual desires, or to enter into a heterosexual relationship...
ministry Love In Action
Love In Action
Love In Action is an ex-gay, Christian ministry founded in 1973 by Frank Worthen, John Evans, and Kent Philpott. The program was originally founded in Marin County, California, just north of San Francisco.-History:...
, a position in which he was a leading spokesman for converting homosexuals into heterosexuals. His homosexuality had driven him to leave his wife and children in 1980, but four years after leaving his family, he turned toward the church and to conversion of sexuality, to live life as a heterosexual. In 2011, years after having left his Love In Action post, he stated that he was homosexual, and that he had "never met a man who experienced a change from homosexual to heterosexual."
During his time directing Love In Action, Smid faced controversy, including over the organization's treatment of gay teens in their youth program Refuge. He resigned that position in 2008, 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".