David Arthur Kendall
This content was last updated Nov. 15, 2023, 8:29 p.m. UTC
David Arthur Kendall is an anti-LGBTQ+ activist and convicted sex offender in Hancock, Maine. As an activist, Kendall’s life story of hardship and struggles with gender identity and his subsequent conversion to Christianity. His story has been used to attack access to gender-affirming care and push for local school boards to restrict access to educational materials on transgender-adjacent topics.
They don’t have to physically touch your child. They are raping their mind every time they’re put on that little yellow school bus to hell.
Early Life
Kendall’s self-reported accounts of his life detail his struggles with gender identity, sexuality, and encounters with sexual assault at a very young age. His timeline of events varies depending on when he has spoken about his life, but his most notable claim is having contracted HIV/AIDS at the age of 14, which he claims he survived with until being miraculously healed by God after his conversion to Christianity in 2009.
In 1995, Kendall was charged with indecent acts with or in front of a minor under Florida’s statute 800.04. His recounting of the incident has varied over time.
Parents’ Rights Maine
Prior to May of 2023, Kendall was quoted in the Epoch Times as the director of advocacy for Parents’ Rights Maine, an advocacy group that claims social workers are being trained to discriminate against parents with right-leaning political views. A screenshot posted on Twitter seems to show that Kendall at one point appeared on the website for Parents’ Rights Maine in that role, however the group no longer lists him as a member of their team.
Writing Career and Appearances
Kendall has written several books about his life, with the most prominent being Refined: Life Through Homosexuality, Transgenderism, and Beyond.
Kendall appeared at a 2022 school board meeting in Presque Isle, Maine, to speak about the “gender identity movement,” which he claimed can “force sexual identity on children and lead to gender confusion.” His testimony lines up with his shift from ex-gay to ex-trans advocacy, which coincides with the rise of anti-trans activism on the right.
Kendall was a featured speaker for the documentary No Way Back, originally titled Affirmation Generation, which focused on the stories of those who have struggled with their gender identity throughout their lives. The producers of the film have announced on Twitter that Kendall's history as a sex offender was not known at the time of filming. His contributions were removed shortly before the film was retitled.
Legislative Hearings and Support
Kendall submitted a portion of an amicus curiae brief for R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v EEOC & Aimee Stephens, a Supreme Court case regarding the firing of a transgender woman over her gender identity. In the brief, Kendall (as David Arthur) argued in favor of Stephens’ firing, claiming “Using myself as an illustration, as a former homosexual, and former transgender person, with decades of experience in that world, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that homosexuality (including transgenderism) is absolutely mutable and curable!” The court eventually found in Stephens’ favor.
Kendall also spoke during hearings for New Hampshire’s House Bill 10, a bill that would require educators to out their students as LGBTQ+ if questioned directly by parents, among other measures, under the guise of establishing parental rights. During his statement, he claimed “with very graphic, sexualized books making their way into schools and classrooms, you cannot tell me there’s not an agenda.” The bill narrowly failed to pass.
Kendall spoke in front of Maine’s Education and Cultural Affairs Committee regarding proposed changes to the state’s Chapter 117 rule, which covers the duties and expectations for social workers in Maine’s schools. In his testimony against gender-affirming care, Kendall claimed “had I not been groomed by this cult, I would not have destroyed myself, my body, and soul.”