SACRAMENTO, California, (LifeSiteNews) — Brave former gay, lesbian and transgendered individuals took to a podium outside the California statehouse on Thursday to oppose a proposed law banning counseling and therapy aimed at helping those who seek freedom from LGBTQ+ identities and lifestyles.
“Each of these precious people here have an incredible story of how they navigated (dealing with LGBT impulses) and what they needed in order to navigate with conscience, with their faith convictions,” explained Ken Williams, co-founder of Changed, a burgeoning movement composed of folks who once identified as LGBTQ+ and who now “celebrate the love of Jesus and His freedom and comfort in our lives.”
“Seven years ago, we found ourselves on these steps, because a bill, AB 2943, was threatening our ability to get the resources that we have needed, and that we want to be able to extend to others,” recounted Williams, who as a young man struggled with unwanted same-sex attraction.
“Please don’t take away our freedom of conscience, our freedom to follow our faith, our freedom of speech,” Williams pleaded to the legislators in the statehouse behind him. “We just need space to be able to follow our own convictions.”
The forces behind California’s push to ban therapy “look at what we do as something they rather sinisterly call ‘conversion therapy,’” said Joe Dallas, a Biblical counselor in southern California who as a young man dealt with inner conflict between same-sex attraction and his Christian faith.
“They would say that is a destructive thing to practice because if someone is lesbian or gay, they must’ve been born that way. Therefore, to attempt to change is damaging,” Dallas said. “Therefore, anyone who advocates for change must be silenced, even if the individual is wanting change.”
“Today, we oppose a pernicious lie that people can’t change,” said Dean Reynolds, a constitutional attorney who serves as president and chief counsel of the National Center for Law and Policy, as he introduced the group of former LGBT individuals.
“Today, we’re here to tell legislators to stop ignoring our former LGBTQ citizens and pretending that they don’t exist by passing overreaching bills restricting change-allowing therapy,” Reynolds said. “Today, we demand our representatives rescind the evil ban on change-allowing therapy for minors in California.”
No one is born gay
“The science is very clear: No one is born gay,” declared Jennifer Roback Morse, founder and president of the Ruth Institute.
“There was a massive study of the human genome that proved there’s no ‘gay gene,’” said Morse, noting that studies of identical twins have also shown that a gay gene does not exist.
“The claim that we ought to ban therapy is based on a radical claim about the person which is that you’re born gay and you cannot change,” Morse asserted, yet “a single counterexample is enough to prove the radical claim that no one can change.”
“We have many counter-examples standing here,” said Morse, pointing to the crowd of Changed Movement members standing behind her. “There are many counter-examples all over the world, (so) there’s plenty of evidence that people can change.”
The “‘born gay’ as a theory is dead,” she proclaimed. “It needs to be dead and buried.”
‘I’m no longer LGBT. I’m a new creation in Jesus Christ.’
Several Changed Movement members, all of whom have experienced the transforming love of Jesus Christ, told their stories of walking away from homosexuality and transgenderism, and finding new life in Christ.
“I am so happy that I grabbed onto the faith and not the ‘identity,’” said Jessica Rose, a woman who formerly identified as male.
“Had this bill been passed in 2018, I would’ve never made it,” she said. “And now I stand before you, three-and-a-half years off of testosterone, the ability to have kids and breastfeed, even after surgeries, even after pain.”
“I made a choice to leave behind the identity I had built for myself and walked towards healing,” said Jason Maxwell, who had previously been in a relationship with a man for more than a decade. “It was the hardest thing I had ever done, but it was the most rewarding.”
Today, Maxwell has been married to his wife for 14 years and has three children.
Kim Zember said that when she went to a Christian counselor at age 19 to find help dealing with her unwanted same-sex attraction, the counselor instead sought to affirm that she was gay.
The counselor “had great compassion for me,” Zember said. “But when you separate compassion from truth, you are not truly being compassionate.”
“When you separate love from truth, you have separated the very fiber of who God is.”
“This is not an easy journey, but life is not easy,” Zember said. “The easy route is not the way of the cross.”
Daniel Mingo, 73, was sexually abused by a male stranger at age 13, sending him on “a trajectory toward sexual confusion” and “sexual identity confusion.”
Yet after a “born again” experience in his late teens, he resolved that one day he would find a wife and raise a family. He married his wife at age 30. For the last 22 years, Mingo has ministered to men who are dealing with homosexuality.
“Let my people go!” Mingo shouted.
“I wanted to give Jesus certain areas of my life, but when it came to my sexuality, it felt too costly,” M.J. Nixon said, “until I truly encountered (Jesus Christ).”
“Twenty-nine years ago, I surrendered a gay identity and a gay relationship,” Drew Berryessa said. “I knew that as I was pursuing that relationship, deep down, that the Lord had better.”
“I stand here today, the husband of Suzanne.” The Berryessas have been married for 21 years and have three daughters.
Wayne Blakely lived within the LGBT+ community for 40 years. “I left God and the Church, but God didn’t abandon me. He waited for me,” he said.
“I’m no longer LGBT,” Blakely said, “I’m a new creation in Jesus Christ.”
Blakely said that if sexuality is truly fluid, “should we not allow people to choose to leave the LGBT community rather than holding them hostage?”
Ivan Santos said that he began having sexual experiences with other boys at age 5 and “came out of the closet” during his junior year in high school. In his 20s, his life deteriorated and he began “escorting” and using crystal meth.
After having a personal encounter with God, “as I followed him, the things that felt concrete, the things that I thought would never change, began to shift.”
“I found complete transformation, and I now live a life overflowing with joy and peace. I will never go back,” he proclaimed. “Only forward.”
