I believed the slogan “LGBTQ lives hurt no one.” My friend, a biological male who lived as a woman and was chemically castrated after years of estrogen, gave me a box of books on Christian theology. He had left the church for transgenderism, and I seemed to be interested in Christianity. So, he dropped off some books on my porch one day while I was at work. I opened the first book in the box, and out fell a card, a family Christmas card. A man, standing as tall as a tree, gently held a slim brunette by the waist in his right hand. Clinging to his left leg were two little girls smiling at the camera. It took my brain a few minutes to register what I was seeing: the man I only knew as “Jill” was really someone else.

Truth

In 1997, I was a lesbian activist professor of English from Syracuse University dining in the home of Ken Smith, the pastor of the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church. I had just penned an article published in the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Promise Keepers’ Message Is a Threat to Democracy.” One of the elders in the church slapped the article on Ken’s desk and asked Ken what the church should do with a problem like Rosaria. Ken said, “How about if Floy and I invite her to dinner?” Ken wrote me a letter and invited me to dinner. I was working on a book on the religious right and their politics of hatred against people like me, so when Ken invited me to dinner, I immediately accepted. Surely this would be good for my research, I thought.

At dinner, Ken told me he could accept me as a lesbian, but he didn’t approve. Then he asked, “Do you know the biggest difference between us?” Of course I do, I thought. You think I’m going to hell. But instead of fire and brimstone, Ken waxed philosophical. He said, “The big difference between us is worldview. I believe that what is true (and the Bible is true) determines what is ethical. You believe that what is ethical (according to a gay rights perspective) determines what is true.” I was fascinated by how accurate this was, but pushed back and said, “I’m a postmodernist. I believe in my truth, and you believe in your truth, but there is no such thing as THE truth.” Ken asked if I was willing to explore this idea more deeply, but explained that it involves reading the Bible because, in his estimation, the Bible was the true truth. What better way to prove the point of my new book, I thought, than to expose the error of circular reasoning from a bona fide evangelical? Confident that this would be a slam dunk, I agreed and with the concept of truth firmly placed at the center of our examination, I started reading the Bible.

Two years later, instead of persuading Ken Smith to my side, the Lord Jesus Christ called me to become His. Conversion changed me–and sanctification is still conforming me to the image of my Savior.

Lies

I have been walking with the Lord for 27 years now. I am married to a faithful Christian man, and I am a mother and grandmother.

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