Leading Gay Rights Activist Comes Out of Homosexuality, Tells His Story
Young Gay America Magazine is on hiatus. Its founding editor has left the magazine and gay activism and has now publicly announced that he's been "healed."
Michael Glatze, who had become a leading activist in the homosexual community, made the shocking announcement on Tuesday in a World Net Daily column entitled "How A 'Gay Rights' Leader Became Straight."
"It became clear to me, as I really thought about it – and really prayed about it – that homosexuality prevents us from finding our true self within. We cannot see the truth when we're blinded by homosexuality," he wrote.
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Glatze grew up with a Christian mom and a father who was possibly agnostic or atheist. His father died when Glatze was only 13, followed by his mother when he was 19.
The mixed religious messages already confused him of who he was.
When he entered college, Glatze described the campus environment as hostile to Christianity and more supportive of the homosexual community.
Glatze came out as gay at age 20 and when he did, "instantly you gain a sense of community," he said in an interview with Concerned Women for America.
"You gain also a sense that you're doing something important, that you're fighting prejudice and you're raising awareness, and I felt invigorated by that and I felt emboldened to want to fight for that," he said.
For Glatze, coming out was about "opening the doors" and "breaking down barriers" as is the standard gay activist mantra, he noted.
After starting Young Gay America, Glatze gained popularity and prominence and was a frequent media go-to person on homosexuality issues.
At the same time, however, he started feeling "strange" about something.
"I felt maybe that I hadn't thought about everything 100 percent," he said in the interview.
When he came out of what he called a near-death experience with intestinal cramps and stomach pains, he found himself turning to and thanking God.
"I realized at that point in time that it was actually God that was the actual thing that I had always been relying on, the core, the center of truth that I had always been turning to, writing on and living my entire life for," Glatze said.
He opened up the Bible and realized the Word of God was not only "good," but also "intelligent, earth-shattering, topical" and "so true."
Today, he wants to share his story and says it's his duty to tell people the truth. He equates homosexuality with death – death to one's soul; that those struggling with same-sex desires are wanting a part of them that they do not have; and that basically, they are not completely whole.
In a society where gay tolerance is increasing and more than half of Americans say they do not believe homosexuality is changeable, according to a recent CNN poll, Glatze posed, "If there had not been homosexuality condoned in the culture, would I have developed the notion that I had such an identity because we know the nature of that identity is suspect?"
The culture tells him he should be proud of his gay identity, he said, but such a culture prevents him from "fully growing."
"In my experience, 'coming out' from under the influence of the homosexual mindset was the most liberating, beautiful and astonishing thing I've ever experienced in my entire life," Glatze wrote in his column.
Glatze has always believed in trying to fight for the truth. As he read the Bible more, he said he tried to "actually open my mind."
"People often call themselves open-minded when they would absolutely never listen to certain aspects of the literature that's out there," he noted.
"I believe that all people, intrinsically, know the truth. I believe that is why Christianity scares people so much. It reminds them of their conscience, which we all possess."
In an earlier interview with Time magazine in 2005, when he was still a rising gay activist, he had stated, "I don't think the gay movement understands the extent to which the next generation just wants to be normal kids. The people who are getting that are the Christian right."
Earlier this year, Glatze was baptized into the Mormon church, according to Dr. Warren Throckmorton, a noted expert in sexuality counseling whose interview with Glatze on Wednesday is featured on his blog. And he now calls the Bible the "number one self-help book" that teaches you how to be yourself – genuine and true," although Mormons have been criticized by most Christians for also following the Book of Mormon. [Read a recent debate on Mormonism]
Glatze's testimony comes months after a prominent black lesbian activist also came out of the closet as an ex-homosexual. Charlene E. Cothran, 48, also ran a pro-homosexual magazine (Venus) and was at the forefront in gay pride movements and lobbying efforts for homosexual persons. She too abandoned the homosexual lifestyle and the belief that one can be a homosexual and a Christian through the teachings of Jesus Christ.
"When you know the truth, you don't want to see it," she said. "I didn't go to church, I didn't read the Bible."
When Glatze pondered about remaining a homosexual and being a born-again Christian at the same time, he said realized he couldn't be both.
"Truth resonated so much that ... I realized you can't actually have it both ways," he said.
Glatze left what he said some homosexuals considered an ideal gay relationship. He now realizes that "when you see another guy, you can lust. But you can also recognize that that lust is nothing more than a craving need and a grasping desire that holds you in its grip."
His "coming out" testimony is not an attempt to hurt anybody, Glatze explained. But he just wants people to "think about" what he's saying and to ask themselves "what if…?"
