John Smid: From Leading an Ex-Gay Ministry to Marrying His Husband
John Smid spent more than two decades as the director of Love In Action, a Memphis-based ex-gay ministry that promoted the belief that gay people could change their sexual orientation through faith and counseling. As one of the most recognizable leaders in the ex-gay movement, Smid became closely associated with conversion therapy and ministries that claimed homosexuality could be overcome.
His leadership reached its most controversial point in 2005 with Love In Action’s Refuge program for teenagers. The program became the center of national attention after a 16-year-old publicly described being sent there against his will.
His account sparked protests outside the ministry and led to widespread media coverage, including a New York Times investigation that brought intense scrutiny to Love In Action and the broader ex-gay movement.
While defending the ministry publicly, Smid later revealed that he was privately questioning the beliefs and practices he had spent years promoting. At the time, he was still married to his wife, but he said the growing conflict between his public role and his private identity became impossible to ignore.
John Smid resigned from Love In Action in 2008 and divorced in 2011. He later came out as gay, acknowledging that he could no longer live as someone he was not. His public reversal made him one of the most well-known former leaders of the ex-gay movement to reject conversion therapy and openly embrace his sexual orientation.
On November 16, just one month after same-sex marriage became legal in Oklahoma, John Smid married his longtime partner, Larry McQueen. Reflecting on their relationship, Smid said it was the first time he felt fully accepted for who he was, describing it as “the first mirror in my life that reflected my strengths instead of my failures.” Their marriage marked the conclusion of a deeply personal journey from leading an ex-gay ministry to living openly as a gay man.
