I was with Laura recently when she joined Pastor Geoff Kirkland of Christ Fellowship Bible Church, others, and me as we proclaimed the good news of Jesus Christ at Pridefest, St. Louis, an event advocating homosexuality. I asked her at dinner one night if she ever has any desire to go back to her former lifestyle, and she emphatically said, “No. Not at all.” The Lord Jesus has delivered her from her former bondage to sin. 

I met Laura Perry last February when I spoke at the God’s Voice Conference in Oklahoma City. She spoke that Saturday morning with her mother as they gave testimony to God’s great and simultaneous work in both of them. Laura’s mother, by her own admission, grew up in a very legalistic, Christian home and placed herself on the treadmill of performance to gain her father’s and God’s favor. This carried over in the rearing of her children, especially Laura, who from an early age felt rejected by her mother. Laura says that she had a very good relationship with her father but was very jealous of her brother who seemed to have her mother’s favor. Over several years she grew to dislike all women because she felt rejected by them. In saying, this however, Laura is not blaming her mother for what followed in her lifestyle. Contrary to many “victims” today, Laura entirely owns her sin and rebellion against God.

When Laura was nine years old she was molested by an older boy and this aroused sexual feelings in her, even at that early age. By the time she was in middle school and all the way through high school, she was very engaged in sexual promiscuity and later with pornography. This continued and became even worse in college. She also was deeply involved with Satanism. In her twisted mind she came to believe that she was really a male in a female’s body. She discovered on the internet a whole new and exciting world (or it seemed at the time) of transgenderism. She found that she could take massive doses of testosterone and grow facial and chest hair and develop a man’s voice. She cut her hair, legally changed her name to Jake, wore men’s clothing, and embarked on nine years as a transgender.

There is so much more in her story, especially how she, in due time, came to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Laura has written a book, Transgender to Transformed, on the story of her life’s journey to new life in Jesus Christ. I recently read it and was deeply moved by her powerful testimony of how she moved into transgenderism and how God delivered her from it. I urge you to purchase a copy at <transgendertotransformed.com> and read it. If you have friends or loved ones who are in this lifestyle or who are contemplating it, then you will find this book immensely encouraging and informative.

I was with Laura recently when she joined Pastor Geoff Kirkland of Christ Fellowship Bible Church, others, and me as we proclaimed the good news of Jesus Christ at Pridefest, St. Louis, an event advocating homosexuality. I asked her at dinner one night if she ever has any desire to go back to her former lifestyle, and she emphatically said, “No. Not at all.” The Lord Jesus has delivered her from her former bondage to sin.

Here’s what is missing, my friends, in the debate currently raging in the evangelical church-the doctrine of regeneration. When we hear homosexual pastors like Greg Johnson of Memorial Presbyterian Church, St. Louis say that he does not know anyone who has overcome same-sex attraction then I must say that he is not looking very far or wide. I know countless people who have lived for years in the homosexual or transgender lifestyle and who now are gloriously saved and walking in the holiness of their new lives in Christ. Indeed, they have been transformed. They are new creations in Christ. I know that I seem to be beating the same drum but the issue is regeneration. Jesus said to religious Nicodemus, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” (John 3:3). Paul writes to Titus of the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind in that He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus 3:4-6). In speaking of the daunting truth that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God, which includes fornicators, idolaters, and homosexuals, Paul then says, “And such were some of you; but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God,” (1 Corinthians 6:11). This is the same washing of regeneration which Paul states in Titus 3:5. We see in both Titus 3:4-6 and I Corinthians 6:11 the three vital necessities in every gospel proclamation-regeneration, justification, and sanctification. See Ezekiel 36:25-27.

Laura had been in church for years. She had made many promises to obey God, to make things right with her mother, to give up fornication and pornography, but she always circled back to her sin. She was rebellious. She was guilty before the only true God who is holy and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. And she had a toxic life (James 3:14-18). She left destruction and misery in the wake of her life’s unfettered rebellion. The moment, however, that she was saved, born again, she began to read the Bible voraciously and hate her life of Satanism, pornography, and transgenderism. New life in Christ gave her a remarkable and long lasting love for the word of God and a desire and ability to obey it. The same is true with her mother. Laura says that her mother was always trying “to fix her.” Her mother, however, came to understand the grace of God in salvation. She was able to get off the treadmill of performance and trust God to work in Laura and her own life as well.

As we read or hear the various testimonies of people today who say that they are Christians, but still claim to be homosexual in their orientation, I have noticed an omission of specific language which is vital to the issue. I hear them speak of being “washed in the blood of Jesus,” or of them leaving a liberal or Roman Catholic Church and discovering the Reformed faith, but I hear little talk of regeneration, repentance, conviction of sin, shame (not merely the shame from others who made fun of their homosexuality, but shame over offending a holy God who is a consuming fire and who will by no means leave the guilty unpunished), or hatred of their former life in sin.

By God’s grace alone, Laura has experienced the love of God and reconciliation. You will want to read Transgender to Transformed. See how God’s mercy has come, not only on Laura, but also hopefully on all who read this book.

Dr. Al Baker is a Minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is an Evangelistic and Revival Preacher with Reformed Evangelistic Fellowship.