• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
WRAP

WRAP

Western Regional Advocacy Project

  • Donate Now
  • Get Email Updates
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • About
    • 40 Years of Fighting
    • History
    • Mission
    • Strategy
    • Members
    • Board / Staff
  • Campaigns
    • Business Improvement Districts
    • House Keys Not Sweeps
    • Legal Defense Clinics Project
    • Homeless Bill of Rights
    • Oregon Right To Rest
    • Without Housing
    • Street Outreach
  • Organizing Tools
    • Without Housing Organizing Toolkit
    • Homeless Bill of Rights Campaign Manual
    • WRAP Organizers Manual
    • WRAP Artwork
  • Resources
    • Pipe Dreams and Picket Fences Report
    • Art in Action Power Point Slide Show
    • Hobos to Street People
    • House Keys Book
    • Political Education
    • Legal Research
  • Media
    • Newsletters
    • Blog
    • Hobos to Street People Art Show
    • Street Newspapers
    • Sweeps Gallery Videos
    • Videos
  • Support Us
    • Donate
    • Become a Monthly Sustainer
    • Volunteer
    • Support WRAP
    • WRAP Newsletters & Updates Sign Up

Medford, OR. New Report Links Rogue Retreat to Bigotry and Conversion Therapy, Raising Concerns about the Nonprofit’s Public Funding

June 9, 2022 by Jonathan Leave a Comment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 9, 2022

CONTACT: Maig Tinnin
sorisingtide@gmail.com, 360-849-9666


New Report Links Rogue Retreat to Bigotry and Conversion Therapy, Raising Concerns about the Nonprofit’s Public Funding

[Medford, OR] – June is Pride month, and this year LGBTQ advocates are sounding the alarm about bigotry and discrimination in Jackson and Josephine counties. This morning, local groups Siskiyou Abolition Project and Siskiyou Rising Tide released a 26 page report revealing disturbing connections between Chad McComas – the executive director of Rogue Retreat – and conversion therapy.

The report points to a conversion therapy pamphlet entitled “Same Sex Attraction: The Problem and Solution for Men,” which was distributed by Set Free Church in Medford as recently as 2018, as part of their Celebrate Recovery ministry. The pamphlet describes same sex attraction as a sin. Chad McComas of Rogue Retreat also runs Set Free Ministries.

“How are gay and trans folks going to be treated by a nonprofit whose director believes their identity is a sin and a ‘choice’?” asks Trinity Shaw-Stewart, a young adult who experienced homelessness in Medford growing up. 

The report, entitled Praying Away the Gay in Southwestern Oregon: Conversion Therapy, Pastor Chad McComas, and Rogue Retreat, brings together voices of the unhoused, LGBTQ people, and housing advocates to demonstrate the harmfulness of infusing conversion therapy with homeless and recovery services.

“Recovery from substance use has been a key part of bringing me closer to who I am,” says an anonymous transgender woman living in Jackson county in the report. “Preying on people who are at rock bottom, and telling them that who they are is wrong, or that they should be fixed is an act of violence I can’t explain well in words. Programs like [this] lead my community to drink again.”

Rogue Retreat receives millions of dollars to fund their homeless services and shelters in Jackson and Josephine counties. “The implications of publicly funding Rogue Retreat…creates a significant threat to unhoused and LGBTQ people in our communities.” the report states.

There are more than 13,000 LGBTQ people living in Jackson and Josephine counties, according to the report, and up to 17% of these individuals have experienced homelessness in their lifetimes. Community members worry that linking programs like Rogue Retreat to conversion therapy creates unnecessary barriers and promotes discrimination against unhoused and LGBTQ people. “It seems there is no separation between his religious activities and the services Rogue Retreat provides, at least not in Pastor Chad’s mind,” says housing advocate Maig Tinnin.

Praying Away the Gay in Southwestern Oregon: Conversion Therapy, Pastor Chad McComas, and Rogue Retreat is available online at https://tinyurl.com/PastorChadRR. A two-page fact sheet with key findings from the report is also available (attached).

Siskiyou Abolition Project and Siskiyou Rising Tide will distribute free copies of Praying Away the Gay in Southwestern Oregon at Medford Pride, this Saturday June 11, 2022 12pm-6pm at Pear Blossom Park in downtown Medford (312 4th Street).
—

SORT is Siskiyou Rising Tide
working for climate justice and liberation
subscribe to newsletter and read more at www.sorisingtide.org

LGBTQ advocates confront Rogue Retreat director on ties to conversion therapy program

JACKSON Co., Ore. — Grassroots organizers and LGBTQ advocates confronted Chad McComas, director of Rogue Retreat–the only non-profit providing low-barrier shelters in the valley–at a housing summit today over his connection to a pamphlet promoting “recovery” from “same-sex attraction.”

McComas, a pastor at Set Free Church in Medford, admits that the pamphlet was distributed by his church as part of a service they offered in affiliation with Celebrate Recovery, a California-based group that defines itself as “a Christ-centered recovery group.”

Confrontation at Housing Summit

Filed Under: Discrimination, Medford, Oregon, Press Releases, Report

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Footer

Instagram Feed

Does the litany of laws forbidding camping, loiter Does the litany of laws forbidding camping, loitering, trespassing, blocking the sidewalk and panhandling make society safer? https://conta.cc/3ZrNvk5
https://conta.cc/48wWLr8
Welcome to the WRAP-UP! Boise, ID. Video Shows Fam Welcome to the WRAP-UP!	Boise, ID. Video Shows Family Violently Arrested and Severely Injured for Living in Park, and more news from our members.  https://conta.cc/3R8Efzl
https://conta.cc/3r3rHhU
Washington D.C. PRESS RELEASE: Congresswoman Bush Washington D.C. PRESS RELEASE: Congresswoman Bush Re-Introduces Unhoused Bill of Rights https://wraphome.org/
After nearly 30 years of continuous publication, w After nearly 30 years of continuous publication, we have lost our funding. Street Spirit ceased publication on July 1, but we will not give up! Our newspaper is an invaluable source of East Bay news, and a vital resource for the people who sell it. Come party with us to support our effort to relaunch. https://conta.cc/3rifOod
WRAP is Hiring - Member Organizer WRAP was founde WRAP is Hiring - Member Organizer 
WRAP was founded in 2005 by local social justice organizations across the West to bring about real systemic change. We are building a multi-issue, multi-racial and social justice-based coalition which brings organizations together across the local–national divide, thus giving us the strength and experience to make ending poverty and homelessness a national priority. https://conta.cc/3XD5QK9
Celebrating Resistance Relationships June 30, 202 Celebrating Resistance Relationships 
June 30, 2023 * 6:00 - 8:00 pm 
320 West 37th Street, New York, NY 10018
State of the “Sweeps” The politics of encampme State of the “Sweeps”
The politics of encampments and displacement in the “post” pandemic order
Public panel discussion, June 14, 4-5:30pm Communications 120
University of Washington, Seattle
Undercommons Archives Art Show Thursday June 15th Undercommons Archives Art Show
Thursday June 15th 7-10pm 
Adobe Books 3130 24th St. SF
Instagram post 17863401230948820 Instagram post 17863401230948820
San Francisco, CA. Mayor’s Plan to Expand Shelte San Francisco, CA. Mayor’s Plan to Expand Shelter GUTS HOUSING FOR HOMELESS FAMILIES AND YOUTH 
https://wraphome.org/2023/05/31/mayors-plan-to-expand-shelter-guts-housing-for-homeless-families-and-youth/
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Facebook Icon

Facebook Feed

Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons
Link thumbnail

Does the litany of laws forbidding camping, loitering, trespassing, blocking the sidewalk and panhandling make society safer?

web-extract.constantcontact.com

The Legal Defense Clinics (LDC) Project aims to strengthen and support the growing movement to decriminalize homelessness by reimagining the...
11 hours ago
View on Facebook
· Share
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
View Comments
  • Likes: 1
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 0

Twitter Icon

Twitter Feed

Twitter feed is not available at the moment.

YouTube icon

Youtube Code

Our Channel

Copyright © 2023 Western Regional Advocacy Project WRAP · Log in