The Challenge‘s Davis Mallory, who identified as a “gay Christian” during his time on the show, shared a video on Instagram in which he said he was “pulled out of that lifestyle” a year ago and no longer identifies as gay.
In the clip, filmed at Arise House of Prayer and Worship in Hawaii, MTV’s The Real World alum delivers a testimony in front of a congregation. He captioned the post, “Thank you for letting me sing ‘Baptized’ and share my testimony last night in Hawaii.”
“I lived the gay lifestyle for about 20 years. I was on a television show, The Real World, and I came out on the show as a gay Christian, but God really pulled me out of that lifestyle a year ago. Praise God.”
He then went into detail about car-related nightmares he experienced due to the times he would “return to sin.”
“He started speaking to me in my dreams and showing me the spiritual warfare that I was going through. Every time I returned to sin, I would have a nightmare that my car was being broken into. I had a nightmare that I gave my title to someone else, as I was giving my identity to someone else, or my car was sliding backwards,” said Mallory. “He was just showing me these strong visual images of what sin was doing in my life.”
Earlier that week, he wrote another post on Instagram in which he stated, “Sinning in anyway is not his plan for us and is not us honoring his design for how he made us. He did not design us to sin, and when we live a life of sin, we are not just dishonoring God, but we are doing a disservice to ourselves and our character.”
To this post, followers posed questions regarding his change of heart. “Do you still consider yourself gay?,” wrote one user.
Mallory responded: “What does it mean to be gay?
This prompted a back and forth between the two, where the follower wrote back, “Are you attracted to men? Do you sleep with men?”
Mallory responded, “Do I find men beautiful? Yes of course. Do I find women beautiful? Yes of course. We are created in God’s image and in His likeness. The beauty of creation gives glory to the Creator. I’ll ask you this. What do you believe the design of sex is for? What do you believe is sexually immoral behavior?”
The user then said, “You’re dodging my question lol. I asked two very specific questions after you asked me a very specific question. Are you sexually attracted to men? And do you have sex with men?”
Mallory then wrote: “To answer your question directly, then NO & NO”
The user then answered, “Interesting. I watched you on The Real World when I was 21 and followed to a degree afterwards. Am I correct in assuming you participated in a conversion therapy of sorts?”
Mallory: “Not really. But God started giving me vivid dreams and healed me from trauma and showed me the spiritual warfare I was under.”
The user concluded the conversation with, “I see.”
Mallory starred on Season 18 of The Real World, which took place in Denver, and competed on three seasons of The Challenge, including Inferno 3 (Season 14), The Duel II (Season 17), and Rivals (Season 21). While on The Real World, his coming out journey was a major storyline on the show, as he navigated his conservative family’s response to his identity.
His time on The Real World is not without its issues as during a fight with his costar Tyrie Ballard, he used a racist slur during a phone call to his family. He apologized to Ballard.
In 2013, Mallory gave a TEDx talk where he opened up about coming out as gay. “2005 is when I came out to my peers,” he shared. “I had a great warm welcome from my friends from college; my family…not the same,” he told an audience. “I started going to Christian therapy, and I tried to change that about me,” he admitted.
In 2018, he penned his coming out story for Out magazine, in which he wrote: “As a gay singer/songwriter, I now hold a new responsibility of telling authentic stories of what it is to be a gay man, just like my role on The Real World. I aim to represent gay artists the way I want to be seen.”