Source: Raymond Boyd / Getty
A Black man who went viral nearly a decade ago for denouncing his homosexual lifestyle by claiming in a church that he was “deliveredt” from being attracted to men has announced his candidacy for public office in St. Louis.
Andrew Caldwell made his run for Committeeman in St. Louis official on Tuesday with an Instagram post about his bid for election.
“I’ve always been about people and business…Today I took a step out on faith to handle the business of the people,” Caldwell wrote in an Instagram post before adding: “I announce that I am an OFFICIAL CANDIDATE for Committeeman of the 9th Ward in the City of St.Louis!!!!”
According to the City of St. Louis’s website, a Committeeman or Committeewoman has “no defined set of duties.” Citing a local statute, the city also said “that each party committee is selected ‘for the purpose of representing and acting for the party in the interim between party conventions.’”
There was no mention in the announcement of how Caldwell rose to infamy in 2014.
That was when Caldwell flamboyantly denounced his homosexuality at the 107th Holy Convocation of the Church of God In Christ in St. Louis.
“I’m not gay no more,” said Caldwell, who was decked out in a paisley jacket, purple shirt and bow tie in a video that went viral before spawning jokes, songs and other mocking caricatures. “I am deliverdt! I don’t like mens no more! I said I like women…women, women, women, women, women!”
After briefly apparently speaking in tongues, Caldwell continued: “I say women! I’m not gay! I will not date a man! I will not carry a purse! I will not put on make-up! I will! I will…love…a woman!”
Watch below.
Caldwell’s election is scheduled to be held on August 6.
While it’s unclear how exactly Caldwell was “delivered” from being gay, it’s worth noting that President Barack Obama while in office condemned the practice of the so-called conversion therapy that was billed as a treatment for homosexuality.
“Tonight, somewhere in America, a young person, let’s say a young man, will struggle to fall to sleep, wrestling alone with a secret he’s held as long as he can remember. Soon, perhaps, he will decide it’s time to let that secret out,” Obama said in a statement in 2015 — one year after Caldwell claimed he was “delivered” from being gay. “What happens next depends on him, his family, as well as his friends and his teachers and his community. But it also depends on us — on the kind of society we engender, the kind of future we build.”
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