National
‘Ex-gay’ leader confesses to having gay sex in ‘multiple falls’
‘Stop conning people into believing that they can pray away the gay’
Jeffrey McCall, founder of the “ex-gay” group Freedom March, which organizes rallies across the country to promote religious oriented conversion therapy to change someone’s sexual orientation from gay to straight, posted a message on Facebook last month admitting to “multiple falls” last year in which he had sex with men.
“Every time I fell I would truly repent and turn away again,” he stated in his Facebook message, which first appeared on Nov. 6. “I would feel God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness sometime before I could even finish the prayer,” he said.
“I never want to be someone who can’t share about my own struggles,” McCall wrote. “In 2020, I met someone that I was trying to help…which [led] to me being unfaithful to Jesus and giving my heart away,” he stated in his posting. “After denying what I wanted with him I then went on to fall sexually with a man when I felt wounded and lonely. This led to multiple falls with men over time.”
McCall’s Facebook and Instagram posting, which was little noticed at first, was discovered earlier this month by Wayne Besen, executive director of the LGBTQ advocacy group Truth Wins Out, which since 2006 has waged public awareness campaigns opposing the “ex-gay” movement. Besen immediately sent a statement with the text of McCall’s Facebook posting to Truth Wins Out’s contacts.
“Truth Wins Out condemned Freedom March founder Jeffrey McCall today as a hypocritical fraud after he admitted online to multiple hookups and romantic attachments with men, even as he continues to shamelessly lead ‘Freedom March’ parades of so-called ‘ex-gays,’” Besen said in a Dec. 15 statement.
“Given the tawdry revelations, Truth Wins Out calls on the Freedom March to permanently shut down and stop conning people into believing that they can ‘pray away the gay,’” Besen said.
Truth Wins Out has joined other LGBTQ advocacy groups in pointing out that all the nation’s major medical and mental health professional organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association, strongly oppose so-called conversion or “reparative” therapy on grounds that it is harmful to those who undergo such therapy.
McCall couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. The Freedom March Facebook page says the organization held its most recent march and rally in late October and early November in West Palm Beach, Fla. The group held a rally on the grounds of the Washington Monument in D.C. in June.
An announcement on the Freedom March Facebook page says McCall has just released a personal memoir that he wrote in the form of a paperback book called “For Such A Time.” The announcement says the book “discusses his involvement in homosexuality, illegal drugs, alcohol, prescription pills, partying, and his transgendered life as Scarlet.”
“Jeffrey McCall is a self-serving con artist who runs a fraudulent organization that preys on vulnerable and desperate LGBTQ people who grow up in religions homes,” Besen said in his statement. “If McCall had an ounce of integrity, he’d apologize for his rank hypocrisy and shut down his odious Freedom March racket before it ruins more lives,” Besen said.
State Department
US withdraws from OAS LGBTI Core Group
Decision ‘in line with the president’s recent executive orders’
A State Department spokesperson on Tuesday confirmed the U.S. has withdrawn from the Organization of American States’ LGBTI Core Group.
The U.S., along with Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Uruguay, co-founded the Core Group in 2016 during that year’s OAS General Assembly that took place in the Dominican Republic.
“We look forward to deepening our collaboration at the OAS on issues impacting LGBTI persons so as to enhance dialogue, cooperation, and the sharing of best practices at regional and multilateral levels, recognizing also the various efforts and developments undertaken by and in member states,” reads a joint statement the countries issued on June 15, 2016. “Furthermore, we encourage and welcome the participation of other interested OAS member states in the membership and activities of the Core Group.”
“We also look forward to collaborating with civil society organizations and other social actors as we seek to further shared goals,” it adds. “Our commitment in these areas is firm and will remain so.”
President Donald Trump since he took office on Jan. 20 has signed a number of executive orders that have specifically targeted the LGBTQ and intersex community. These include the “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” directive that, among other things, bans the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers.
A directive that Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued bans embassies and other U.S. diplomatic institutions from flying the Pride flag. (Former Joe Biden in March 2024 signed a government spending bill with a provision that banned Pride flags from flying over U.S. embassies.)
“In line with the president’s recent executive orders, we have withdrawn from the OAS LGBTI Core Group,” the State Department spokesperson told the Washington Blade.
The U.S. last month withdrew from the U.N. LGBTI Core Group, a group of U.N. member states that have pledged to support LGBTQ and intersex rights.
State Department
Rubio: 83 percent of USAID contracts have been cancelled
State Department will administer remaining programs
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday said 83 percent of U.S. Agency for International Development contracts have been cancelled.
“The 5,200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States,” said Rubio on X.
Rubio added “the remaining 18 percent of programs we are keeping (approximately 1,000)” will “now be administered more effectively under the State Department.”
Rubio on Jan. 24 directed State Department personnel to stop nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending for 90 days in response to an executive order that President Donald Trump signed after his inauguration. The Washington Blade has previously reported programs in Kenya and other countries the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief funds have been forced to suspend services and even shut down because of a lack of U.S. funding, even though Rubio issued a waiver that allowed PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during the freeze.
The Trump-Vance administration also moved to dismantle USAID.
A statement the White House issued on Feb. 3 said the organization “has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous — and, in many cases, malicious — pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight.” The statement also contains examples of what it described as “waste and abuse” that included $2 million for “sex changes and ‘LGBT activism'” in Guatemala, $1.5 million to “advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities,” and $47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia.”
LGBTQ+ Victory Institute Executive Director Elliot Imse told the Blade last month his organization has lost around $600,000, which is two-thirds of its entire global program budget. Imse said the global LGBTQ rights movement is set to lose more than $50 million because of the suspension of U.S. aid.
Texas
Texas lawmaker introduces bill to criminalize identifying as transgender
Republican’s proposal unlikely to pass
Republican Texas state Rep. Tom Oliverson introduced a bill last week that would prohibit Texans from identifying themselves as transgender on official documents.
The legislation would classify as a state felony the act of “knowingly [making] a false or misleading verbal or written statement” by identifying one’s birth sex incorrectly to a governmental entity or to an employer.
While the bill, according to the Houston Chronicle, does not yet have any cosponsors and is considered unlikely to pass, the effort underscores conservative lawmakers’ turn toward increasingly extreme measures targeting the trans community, particularly in Texas.
For example, Republican state Rep. Brent Money introduced a bill last month that would have expanded the 2023 law barring gender affirming health treatments for minors by also prohibiting providers from offering puberty-suppressing medication, hormone therapy or surgeries to adults if the purpose is to affirm their gender identity.
Equality Texas reports that the state legislature has seen more than 170 bills targeting the LGBTQ community so far this year.
Oliverson in 2024 unsuccessfully challenged the chamber’s Republican speaker, Dade Phelan.
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