- I am a former lesbian.

And I'm very passionate about this topic,

because I really embraced that life.

I won't talk about how or whyI went into that lifestyle,

but I fully embraced it andI was confident in who I was,

and I sought it out, and Iwas a champion for the LGBT

and I really even liked to justbe out there and promote it.

So I had fully believed inthis lie that gets perpetuated

that people don't change,they can't change,

and if you try to change them,

it's detrimental to their health.

And I just wanna say that's a lie.

I almost missed out on some of the best

and most precious moments of my life.

I wasn't gonna get to get married.

I wasn't gonna meet my husband.

I wasn't gonna get tohave my own children.

This is not something thatmy mind was even open to.

I didn't know that itwas a possibility for me.

And I stand before younow a changed woman.

(people murmuring)I don't struggle

with same-sex attraction.

It's almost like it never was, for me.

And so I would like for thatlie to stop being perpetuated!

It's just simply not true.

People can and do change, if they want!

And we need to beallowed as free Americans

to seek that out.

Nobody has the right to tell you

you can't be what you want to be.

And I did want change, andthrough the power of God,

the creator of heaven and Earth,

this was able to happen.- Amen.

- These days were ableto happen, these moments.

And I'm a happy woman; Idon't suffer depression.

I don't suffer with anxiety.

I don't drink myself (chuckles)

into stupors like I used to have to.

- For a long time, I wasvery broken and hurt.

I found out that I was HIV-positive

because I was promiscuous;my generation would say,

a ho.(people laughing)

And (chuckles) while I was searching

for men and sleeping around a lot,

I didn't realize that therewas a man lookin' for me.

His name is Jesus.

I was able to find achurch where they loved me.

And they taught me that myidentity was not by behavior,

my identity was not who I thought it was,

but it was a child of God.(people murmuring)

So I stand here to say thatI was a former homosexual,

a former ho, (laughs) andnow I am a child of God.

- Well, I'm a former transsexualdrag queen and prostitute.

I lived a life of much gender confusion,

much abuse, verbally, physically,

sexually, by my father.

Over the years, I had hadprobably 50,000 sexual partners,

because I was a sexworker, and I hated myself.

I hated the fact that I was a man.

I never knew how to acceptmyself or truly love myself.

And then about six years ago,

someone invited me to church.

And God began to change mylife, began to change my heart,

and began to change my sexual identity,

my gender confusion,

and I began to heal fromall of those things!

Change is possible.- Amen.

- Because if God can change me,

He can change anybody.- Yes.

- Hallelujah.- Amen.

- My name is Angel Colon.

I am a former homosexual.

I am a survivor of thePulse nightclub shooting

on June 12th, 2016.

I was shot six times,sustained a shattered femur,

and suffered nerve damage.

A day I will never forget, abig turning point in my life.

Even in the midst of chaos,

I prayed and prophesied over my life

that I would survive and live free,

and here I am today.- Amen.

- Standing with no cane,here in the capital

with my CHANGED family.(people murmuring)

Many think I've made my decision to leave

the LGBT community lifestylebecause of the shooting,

but I was desiring changeway before June 12th, 2016.

Going through this horrible tragedy

made me make the biggestdecision in my life,

which I'm very happy with.

I've made this decision a year

after Pulse nightclub shooting.

Finding what was the mostimportant thing in my life,

which was finding my true identity,

which was in Christ.- Amen.

- And today I stand here in the capital,

sharing to the worldthat change is possible.

Yes, I am known as a Pulse survivor,

but I really want to beknown as living proof

that God does transform lives.

- [Several People] Amen!

- My name is KathyGrace Duncan,I'm from Portland, Oregon,

and I'm a former transman,former transgender.

Before I went to kindergarten,

at a very early age like three or four,

I believed that I should've been a man.

I felt that I should've been a man.

Dysfunctional family situations,

my dad was very emotionallyand verbally abusive to my mom,

which told me that women were hated,

women were weak, and they were vulnerable.

I was then molested by a family member,

which went on for two years,

also confirming that women wereweak, vulnerable, and hated.

At the age of 19, I finally surrendered

and went into the lifestyle,

took hormones, and changed my name.

From there, I began to live as a man.

Two weeks later, I got saved.

However, because I didn'thear from the Lord,

I thought He was okay with my lifestyle.

Four years later, I wasconfronted by the church

and they asked me, "Who areyou, who are you really?"

And at that point I toldthe truth and I said,

I'm a woman living as a man,

and the Holy Spirit blew into me.

And I realized at thatpoint, I needed to go back

to being the woman thatHe created me to be.

The next day, I started that journey out.

Five years later, it took five years

for the hormone effectsto really wear off,

and at that point I crossed over

and began to live fully as a woman.

That was 26 years ago.(people murmuring)

And I have to say, I'm changed,

I'm free, I no longer strugglewith the attraction to women.

- I was often suicidal or out of control.

I came out during myearly 20s and found solace

and comfort in the LGBTQcommunity; they were my family.

I was pursuing the pathof an ordained pastor

in the LGBT-affirming church movement

when I began questioning my faith.

That long journey led me ultimately

to question my sexuality as a lesbian.

Over time, as my faith broughtdeeper emotional health,

I also experienced an unexpected

change in my sexual desires.

Today, I've been married to my husband

for 14 years.- Amen.

- I no longer experience same-sex desires

and I no longer havesymptoms of bipolar disorder.

I've seen the restoration I have

in countless lives of other Christians.

Our faith compels us toshare what we have received.

We simply want to offer vision to those

who feel conflict intheir sexual orientation,

but also to ask that America recognize

there are multiple options forpeople who experience LGBTQ.

People deserve the rightto choose their own path,

and follow their religious convictions,

especially in matters of their sexuality.

- I was born to a motherwho had me at 15 years old.

My home was very dysfunctional.

It was abusive and dysfunctional.

I actually seen my fatherput his hands on my mom,

and it left mental scarsand emotional scars in me.

It got to the point where mydad ended up abandoning us,

and that left me really, really sad.

As a young child, I can only remember

wanting to have arelationship with my father,

and continually, him notshowing up and being there.

It was very tragic to me, soI grew up with a single mom,

and she was one of my only influence,

and I was the guy who was not into sports,

I was not gonna get dirty, I was like,

(people laughing)"That's not for me.

"I wanna dance, I wanna sing,and I wanna be an actor!"

And I never had thedesire to be a homosexual,

but it wasn't until peoplestarted calling me homosexual,

it wasn't until theystarted planting these seeds

and saying, "Hey, you like hair,

"you like to dance, you over there

"with the cheerleaders insteadof with the football players.

"You're a homosexual."

And so that began to create a curiosity.

I already suffered emotional wounds

from my dad not beingthere, that abandonment,

and I was looking for male affirmation.

For most of my teen years, I was abused

by a close family member,physically abused,

which led to more pain and more hurt.

And so I dove into the lifestyle.

I really gave myself over to promiscuity,

and by the time I was 18, I was stripping,

I was living the nightlife,drinking every night,

partying from Sunday to Sunday.

I knew there had to be more,

and then I encountered the love of God.

And He came in andradically changed my life.

The person you see here today

is not the person I used to be.

I am changed, I am fulfilled,I'm living my best life,

I'm smiling and I'mdancing and loving life,

and I wanna tell thegovernment that you cannot

make decisions that willblock people who were like me,

who needed to change,and who wanted change,

to find freedom!(people murmuring)

- I am a person who formerlyhad same-sexual attraction.

When I was very young in New York City,

my father, who is a pastor, raped me,

and when I got to kindergarten,my mother and my father,

they decided to take me out of school,

and I was taken out of schoolfor a total of eight years,

and during that time, Iwas tortured by my mother.

My mother was very hurtby men, and so any sign

of masculinity was atrigger and a threat to her.

I can remember her beatingme with a wire hanger

until I was bloody and puttingalcohol all over my body

as I stood in front of a mirror.

And I learned at that momentthat I could not be masculine.

I learned a had to be effeminate,

I had to emulate my sistersto avoid triggering her,

and so that I could survive.

By the time I was 18 I had beenliving in Alaska for a year,

I had been through foster care.

That was a time where thethings that I had suppressed

began to manifest themselvesthrough pornography addiction.

By that point, I had a restraining order,

I was in anger management, Iwas in counseling for PTSD,

and I had a measure of gender dysphoria.

And it was also that yearthat a friend who was 18

decided to force me to go to church,

and I wanted nothing to do with church.

But when I went to thatchurch, I saw something

in those people's eyes thatI had never seen before.

I saw a God that my parentsdid not tell me about.

And those people in that church,

they didn't hate me oranything, they loved me!

I saw life inside of them and I wanted

that freedom and that life.

The love that I saw insideof their eyes convicted me

of the error of my ways, and I remember,

for three weeks justtelling God how sorry I was

for all the wrong that I had done,

and He said, "Christopher, I love you."

- I grew up in adysfunctional American family,

like most everyone else.(people chuckling)

But my father was emotionally,

physically, verbally abusive.

I'm the oldest of four children,

and he took his venom out on me, his rage.

I was eight years oldand my dad was working,

it was a autumn day kinda like this,

my dad was working onthe car in the driveway,

and he was about to explodeand I knew I was gonna be

the target of his venom,and I just looked at him,

I said, "You hate me, don't you?"

He looked back at me as hetook the Lord's name in vain

and laughed, "Yes, I hate you."

That wasn't a revelation; Iwas like, "Yeah, I knew that."

Then at 10 years old,the neighborhood boys

found their dads' Playboys.

You see, Hugh Hefnerwas my first molester.

I was introduced to porn, andI became instantly addicted.

At 10 years old, I was sexually active

with boys in the neighborhood.

My father, on his deathbed,

the night before he wentinto a coma, said to me...

I said, "Bye, Dad, I'll see you tomorrow."

He says, "Bye, Greg, I love you, Greg!"

I felt like I was in "The Twilight Zone."

The very man who told me he hated me

now told me he loved me.

From that point on, that was my journey.

When I finally forgave my father,

that's when the same-sexattraction started to wane.

That's when it started to leave.

There are so many peopletrapped in homosexuality

that want out, thathave stories so similar

to everything you've heard here.

And standing right hereon this stage is proof

that homosexuality doesn'thave to last a lifetime.

Ex-gays, formers, ex-trans,prove that change is possible!

- I was in the lifestyle for five years,

and I was so desperateto love and be loved,

I didn't care my partner was HIV-positive

and hepatitis C-positive.

Thankfully, I wasprotected and I didn't get

any of those terminal illnesses.

Yet June 8th 2002, an incredibleexperience happened to me.

Jesus transformed me.

I chose to go the route of Christ.

I chose to change my sexual identity.

I needed help to do that.

I chose to follow my faith,my belief in the Bible,

professional counseling,psychiatrists and psychologists,

as well as pastoral counseling I received.

And bills like HR5,

HR3570, and Senate 2008

would not have allowed me toget the help that I needed,

or anyone on this stage oranyone who wanted to change

their sexual attraction or behaviors.

I've dealt with same-sexattraction since the seventh grade.

No one ever forced me to change.

No therapist, my parentsdid not, my pastor did not.

My heart, my mind, I chose to change!

- Our rights are beingthreatened in America.

Governors think that they know better

how I should identify sexually than I do.

Apparently, we're inappropriate.

It's okay for everyone else tochoose their sexual identity,

but not with us because we aren't

going with the narrative.(people murmuring)

How disrespectful of us not to go

with the narrative.- That's good, Ken.

Well, with all due respect,what gives you the right

to decide what I'd like topursue with my sexuality?

- Yes.- Yes, that's right.

- Why in the world would youor someone sitting with a gavel

or someone that's been toan elected office decide

what therapy I should orshould not be able to get?

- This morning, I wanna tell the U.S.

that the CHANGED Movementloves gay people.

We just want our rights, as well.

- We have chosen a differentroute for our lives,

and in following that path,

either through professional counseling

or faith-based discipleship,

we've attained levels ofwholeness and fulfillment

that most assume is impossible.

We've all experienced life-altering change

that has impacted our sexuality.

Many of us are in healthy marriages

to our opposite-sex spouses.

Some even would say theyno longer experience

any same-sex attraction.- Amen!

- Several of us have detransitioned.

We no longer identify as LGBTQ.

And many, many people, uponhearing our testimonies

of fulfillment, are seeking what we have.

- All of us up here, we love,

we absolutely love the LGBTQ community!

We understand you, we know what it's like,

we lived there, we've walked it,

we've been from gay bars and back.

We know the journey, we know the pain.

And we're not telling thatany of you have to change,

but if you've ever thought or needed help

or desired to change, wewould love to talk to you!