Gay Man Says He Was Held Hostage and Beaten by Church Members

A gay man has said he and his partner were lured to a church service that started off normally but ended in congregants circling them, attempting to “pray the gay away,” and physically attacking him when he tried to leave.

Sean Cormie came out this spring, and since then his family had been trying to convince him to attend their church, First Assembly of God in Blackwell, Oklahoma, which he had done a number of times in the past, and to bring along his boyfriend, Gary Gardner.

Cormie decided to go to the service on September 8, telling KFOR he “wanted to make my mom proud and make her happy.”



According to Cormie, about 12 to 15 congregants circled he and his boyfriend, praying over them, their prayers growing louder, while the pastor spoke out against being gay.

“‘It’s a sin, it’s an abomination, you need to realize, wake up, and see it for a sin,’” Cormie recounted him saying. He said both he and Gardner, who has backed up the account, felt humiliated and got up to leave. Gardner was led out of the church alone while Cormie was allegedly kept behind.

Gardner told News9 Cormie was body slammed to the ground by his stepfather.

Cormie said the congregants began to pray in tongues over him, and that when he struggled to get up he was held down and even punched in the eye by one church member.

“I was just crying, ’Mercy, mercy,'” he recalled.

“I couldn’t believe it, a church of all places would show hate and not love,” he added. He reported what he said happened to him to police shortly after being allowed to leave the church, following his sister’s intervention. They are investigating the incident.

He said he is now being asked by both strangers and family members alike to let the incident go.

The church released a statement calling what happened “a family matter that escalated,” and that it would “never condone restraint of any person unless they were engaged in violent activity.”

“We want the church shut down,” Gardner said. “If they’re going to treat people like that, they don’t need to be open.”

Cormie has shared on Facebook that he is getting a lawyer.