The following program discusses sensitive issues. 00:00:01.36\00:00:03.23 Parents are cautioned that some material 00:00:03.26\00:00:05.23 may be too candid for younger children. 00:00:05.27\00:00:10.67 Stay tuned to meet two men who are delivered from 00:00:10.71\00:00:14.48 gender identity confusion. 00:00:14.51\00:00:16.24 My name is Yvonne Lewis 00:00:16.28\00:00:17.98 and you're watching Urban Report. 00:00:18.01\00:00:20.02 Hello and welcome to Urban Report. 00:00:43.04\00:00:45.07 My guests today are Mike Carducci from 00:00:45.11\00:00:47.71 'Coming Out' Ministries 00:00:47.74\00:00:49.08 and Walt Heyer, Lecturer and Author. 00:00:49.11\00:00:51.41 I had a chance to talk with them 00:00:51.45\00:00:53.92 when they came here to be on our Dare to Dream Program 00:00:53.95\00:00:56.48 Pure Choices, 00:00:56.52\00:00:57.85 you won't believe the powerful way 00:00:57.89\00:01:00.36 God has worked in their lives. Take a look. 00:01:00.39\00:01:05.16 What a joy it is for me to be on the Set of Pure Choices 00:01:05.19\00:01:10.83 interviewing and talking to two amazing men of God. 00:01:10.87\00:01:17.54 Mike Carducci of 'Coming Out' Ministries 00:01:17.61\00:01:21.34 and Walt Heyer... Walt Heyer is a Lecturer 00:01:21.38\00:01:25.05 and Author and both of you have amazing experiences 00:01:25.08\00:01:29.95 and I asked Mike... who was here 00:01:29.98\00:01:32.99 with the rest of 'Coming Out' Ministries 00:01:33.05\00:01:35.19 to do this series... 00:01:35.22\00:01:36.96 they came to do this whole series on Pure Choices, 00:01:36.99\00:01:40.96 and when I heard Walt's testimony, 00:01:41.00\00:01:44.07 I knew that you had to hear this. 00:01:44.10\00:01:46.94 So, I got Mike to come join me 00:01:46.97\00:01:49.77 and Mike, I want you to just... kind of just... you know, 00:01:49.80\00:01:52.21 ask any questions that you might have 00:01:52.24\00:01:54.01 from Walt as we have Walt here, 00:01:54.04\00:01:55.64 and I knew that we only had Walt for 00:01:55.68\00:01:57.65 a little bit of time so we grabbed you up 00:01:57.68\00:02:00.22 and you to do this and so thank you so much 00:02:00.25\00:02:02.75 both of you for being with us. 00:02:02.78\00:02:04.19 Walt: Yeah, my pleasure. 00:02:04.22\00:02:05.55 So, let's get in... Walt, your story to me 00:02:05.59\00:02:09.39 it's just so profound because what I see in Media 00:02:09.42\00:02:14.23 is this thrust... this push to accept the whole transgender 00:02:14.26\00:02:22.64 movement, not only to accept it 00:02:22.67\00:02:24.77 but to promote it and so I'd like for our Viewers 00:02:24.81\00:02:29.21 to hear about your journey and then 00:02:29.24\00:02:31.11 we're just going to kind of ask you questions as we go along. 00:02:31.18\00:02:33.38 Walt: Sure. 00:02:33.42\00:02:34.75 Tell us about your journey, how did this whole thing start? 00:02:34.78\00:02:38.39 Yeah, that's great, 00:02:38.42\00:02:39.75 I'm so happy to be able to do this because 00:02:39.79\00:02:42.26 people do need to get a better understanding 00:02:42.29\00:02:44.49 of how this all gets started, in my case, 00:02:44.53\00:02:46.70 I was four-years old and whether it was my idea 00:02:46.76\00:02:50.77 or my grandmother's, I don't know 00:02:50.83\00:02:52.87 but she started crossdressing me 00:02:52.90\00:02:54.87 and she really enjoyed crossdressing me 00:02:54.90\00:02:58.24 but we did it in secret, 00:02:58.27\00:02:59.61 it was "grandma's secret" with me 00:02:59.64\00:03:01.84 and over a period of time, she began to increase this 00:03:01.88\00:03:07.25 to the point... she was a Seamstress 00:03:07.28\00:03:08.82 so she made this purple, chiffon evening dress, 00:03:08.85\00:03:12.52 this long, flowing evening dress 00:03:12.55\00:03:14.36 that she just took a lot of pride in 00:03:14.42\00:03:15.89 now keep in mind, I'm four-years old 00:03:15.92\00:03:18.46 and so, here she is... dressing me up 00:03:18.49\00:03:20.93 and she's fawning over me, she's making a big fuss over me 00:03:20.96\00:03:24.90 about being a girl and obviously, to me, 00:03:24.93\00:03:27.30 she liked me much better as a girl than she did as a boy 00:03:27.34\00:03:31.54 which... I always say plants a seed in my mind that 00:03:31.57\00:03:35.11 "Gee, there must be something wrong with me 00:03:35.14\00:03:37.05 if she's liking me better as a girl than as a boy... " 00:03:37.08\00:03:40.55 that becomes a conflict within myself 00:03:40.58\00:03:42.92 about who I am and... 00:03:42.95\00:03:45.42 so this went on for a couple of years... 00:03:45.45\00:03:47.92 every time she had the opportunity to babysit me 00:03:47.96\00:03:50.33 which was almost every weekend. 00:03:50.36\00:03:52.03 Yvonne: Were you an only child? 00:03:52.06\00:03:53.70 No, I had a brother and my brother got to go 00:03:53.73\00:03:56.63 to my other grandma's house. 00:03:56.67\00:03:58.00 Neither one of them wanted us both 00:03:58.03\00:03:59.37 so I got this grandma, 00:03:59.40\00:04:01.40 so I got this grandma... 00:04:01.44\00:04:03.34 I always teasingly say, 00:04:03.37\00:04:05.04 "Well, he got the good grandma 00:04:05.07\00:04:06.41 and I'm not sure I got the good one" but... 00:04:06.44\00:04:07.94 so this grandma... 00:04:07.98\00:04:09.81 it was in the LA area and it was behind a junkyard 00:04:09.84\00:04:13.55 in a small house and grandpa was a tow truck driver 00:04:13.62\00:04:17.05 and he was gone most of the time so when he was gone, 00:04:17.09\00:04:20.52 this is what grandma and I were doing. 00:04:20.56\00:04:22.46 And so, eventually, after a couple of years, 00:04:22.49\00:04:27.30 I really started kind of enjoying 00:04:27.33\00:04:30.10 the love and the affirmation and the encouragement 00:04:30.13\00:04:33.13 that I was getting... because she seemed to be very happy. 00:04:33.17\00:04:35.87 So it was making me happy that she was happy. 00:04:35.90\00:04:38.54 Now, do you know if she ever did this to anybody else? 00:04:38.57\00:04:42.91 To my knowledge, no. 00:04:42.94\00:04:44.31 Was she your maternal or paternal? 00:04:44.35\00:04:46.08 It was my mother's mother. 00:04:46.11\00:04:47.45 Okay, so she was dressing your mom up 00:04:47.48\00:04:50.42 in just regular "girl" clothes but there were no other siblings 00:04:50.45\00:04:54.36 that you had that she was doing this with, just you? 00:04:54.39\00:04:57.33 No, just me... yeah, and like I said, 00:04:57.39\00:04:59.89 she seemed to enjoy it a great deal 00:04:59.93\00:05:02.36 which made me enjoy it and so eventually, I decided, 00:05:02.43\00:05:07.30 "Gee, I want to wear this dress when I get home 00:05:07.34\00:05:09.47 but I'd have to... " I knew because it was a secret 00:05:09.50\00:05:11.61 I'd have to do it in secret 00:05:11.64\00:05:12.97 but I took the dress and put it in a brown bag 00:05:13.01\00:05:15.68 one time when dad was coming to pick me up 00:05:15.71\00:05:18.41 and take me back home, I got it home 00:05:18.48\00:05:20.68 and I stuffed it in the bottom drawer of my dresser 00:05:20.72\00:05:23.59 and a few days later, my mother found the dress 00:05:23.62\00:05:26.65 well then... there was a big explosion in the house, 00:05:26.69\00:05:29.69 "What are you doing with the dress?" 00:05:29.72\00:05:31.06 "How did this come about?" 00:05:31.09\00:05:32.43 So there was this big explanation 00:05:32.46\00:05:34.46 and when they found out 00:05:34.53\00:05:35.90 that grandma had been crossdressing me 00:05:35.93\00:05:37.73 for two-and-a-half years, 00:05:37.77\00:05:39.10 it was a tough place to live for a while 00:05:39.13\00:05:41.70 I mean... because they were in conflict, 00:05:41.74\00:05:44.41 I couldn't go to grandma's anymore 00:05:44.44\00:05:46.34 then I felt like it was my fault, 00:05:46.37\00:05:47.88 that I had done something wrong 00:05:47.91\00:05:49.38 so I was bad... 00:05:49.41\00:05:50.75 and then Dad, who was a police officer, 00:05:50.78\00:05:53.31 auxiliary police officer at that time 00:05:53.35\00:05:56.58 decided that the way to "man" me up 00:05:56.62\00:05:59.75 was to use some heavy discipline like hardwood floor planks 00:05:59.79\00:06:03.29 and things like that to discipline me 00:06:03.32\00:06:06.19 probably today it would be considered very harsh 00:06:06.23\00:06:09.96 and so, that was... I really believed though 00:06:10.03\00:06:13.87 within him, he was struggling with trying to... 00:06:13.90\00:06:17.34 he didn't know what to do, like most parents don't. 00:06:17.37\00:06:20.48 I mean, what do you do? 00:06:20.51\00:06:21.84 Here you have this situation 00:06:21.88\00:06:23.28 and it's a dynamic... in the family, 00:06:23.31\00:06:25.71 it's very difficult, you get a wife, 00:06:25.75\00:06:28.08 it's her mother, you get, you know, in-law... 00:06:28.12\00:06:30.75 the whole thing is just a whole wicked dynamic. 00:06:30.79\00:06:33.46 And my brother is kind of sitting back 00:06:33.49\00:06:35.02 watching this whole thing 00:06:35.09\00:06:36.42 and not knowing what to do himself. 00:06:36.46\00:06:37.79 How did your brother relate to you during this time 00:06:37.83\00:06:41.46 as all of this attention was on you, 00:06:41.50\00:06:43.90 how your brother react? 00:06:43.93\00:06:45.27 He kind of dove into silence and got into reading books 00:06:45.30\00:06:49.14 he just kind of disconnected and he became an avid reader 00:06:49.17\00:06:54.11 and he just read all the time book after book after book 00:06:54.14\00:06:59.05 and he was a year-and-a- half older than I was 00:06:59.08\00:07:02.58 and so that was his way of dealing with it, 00:07:02.62\00:07:06.12 he was kind of a... I would say, 00:07:06.15\00:07:07.66 "a strong, quiet intellect" in the family. 00:07:07.69\00:07:10.73 Hmmm... hmmm... 00:07:10.79\00:07:12.13 Can I bring up a thought, 00:07:12.16\00:07:13.73 one of the things that we have in common 00:07:13.76\00:07:15.53 is that we had very aggressive, masculine fathers 00:07:15.56\00:07:18.77 and because of my rejection of that masculinity 00:07:18.80\00:07:21.94 is why I ended up going towards my mother. 00:07:22.00\00:07:24.11 Do you think that your father's over-masculine influence 00:07:24.14\00:07:28.64 had some reaction as well? 00:07:28.68\00:07:31.48 Because he became abusive and overbearing, 00:07:31.51\00:07:34.45 is it possible that along with the crossdressing 00:07:34.48\00:07:37.95 with your grandmother, that had an influence as well? 00:07:37.99\00:07:40.49 Well, sure, I think anytime you get 00:07:40.52\00:07:43.09 any kind of heavy discipline like that... it's going to bound 00:07:43.12\00:07:46.49 it's bound to have some negative influence on you 00:07:46.53\00:07:49.43 that... you know... all of a sudden, 00:07:49.46\00:07:50.80 you're now bad with grandma 00:07:50.83\00:07:52.17 and bad with dad, I mean, 00:07:52.20\00:07:53.54 the things you're just not... 00:07:53.57\00:07:54.90 it's hard to know what to do 00:07:54.94\00:07:56.27 when you're six- or seven-years old. 00:07:56.30\00:07:57.97 How do you work through all these ailments? 00:07:58.01\00:08:00.58 So yeah, I think, definitely the discipline played a part in it. 00:08:00.64\00:08:04.95 Well, my thought would be that if your father was loving 00:08:04.98\00:08:08.55 and nurturing, then, 00:08:08.58\00:08:10.09 because you already had this identification 00:08:10.12\00:08:12.25 with the feminine side, imagine how that could have 00:08:12.29\00:08:15.26 drawn you into a masculine identity 00:08:15.29\00:08:17.69 if you had a father that was understanding 00:08:17.73\00:08:19.79 and receptive and nurturing. 00:08:19.83\00:08:21.36 Well, you know, it's funny, my dad was actually 00:08:21.40\00:08:24.00 kind of two-sided that way because part of him 00:08:24.03\00:08:26.60 wanted... he wanted to be with me 00:08:26.63\00:08:28.97 because I think he wanted to have that influence 00:08:29.00\00:08:31.74 so he spent time with me but I think he was always troubled 00:08:31.77\00:08:35.41 by what he knew grandma was doing 00:08:35.44\00:08:37.18 and I could almost see the pain in him... 00:08:37.21\00:08:39.91 in his own way, trying to deal with me. 00:08:39.95\00:08:42.28 He bought me a little shovel one time... 00:08:42.32\00:08:44.62 a little red-handled shovel and I'd go out in the yard 00:08:44.65\00:08:47.79 and start to dig along... beside him, 00:08:47.82\00:08:49.32 that was kind of... one of the things he did 00:08:49.36\00:08:51.59 but he would have these periods where he was fine 00:08:51.63\00:08:54.76 and loving and caring 00:08:54.80\00:08:56.53 but he'd have times where it just... he was so frustrated 00:08:56.56\00:09:00.64 that... then his discipline just got out of hand, yeah. 00:09:00.67\00:09:04.37 I wanted to ask you about your grandma for a minute 00:09:04.41\00:09:08.11 because it's really interesting to me, 00:09:08.14\00:09:10.21 how young children get victimized and groomed 00:09:10.25\00:09:14.18 and it seems as though your grandma was... 00:09:14.22\00:09:18.15 she told you, "This is a secret" 00:09:18.19\00:09:20.26 and that's what "groomers" do, is it not? 00:09:20.29\00:09:23.43 Right. 00:09:23.49\00:09:24.83 They make sure that the children who are the victims 00:09:24.86\00:09:27.46 don't tell a soul, "Do not tell... " 00:09:27.50\00:09:30.77 Did she threaten you or was it a joyful little secret 00:09:30.80\00:09:34.57 like... our playful little secret? 00:09:34.60\00:09:36.20 Yeah, it was a playful... that's the way I'd describe it, 00:09:36.24\00:09:37.94 a playful secret but isn't it interesting 00:09:37.97\00:09:40.68 that, you know, a secret is always kind of... 00:09:40.71\00:09:43.35 I didn't know at the age of four or five... 00:09:43.38\00:09:44.85 but there's always an indication there's something wrong. 00:09:44.88\00:09:47.25 Hmmm... 00:09:47.28\00:09:48.62 Right, a secret means somebody's doing something wrong. 00:09:48.65\00:09:50.62 Hmmm... 00:09:50.65\00:09:51.99 And what troubles me today 00:09:52.02\00:09:54.26 is the same thing that I know today from 00:09:54.32\00:09:57.53 looking back at my life is that 00:09:57.59\00:09:58.93 when you crossdress a young boy... as a girl, 00:09:58.96\00:10:02.46 you're actually emotionally and psychologically 00:10:02.50\00:10:06.00 committing abuse on that child. 00:10:06.03\00:10:07.57 Unpack that... unpack that for us... 00:10:07.64\00:10:11.17 Anytime you are beginning to dis-assemble 00:10:11.21\00:10:15.78 by virtue of crossdressing and disassemble their identity, 00:10:15.84\00:10:20.05 what's happening? 00:10:20.08\00:10:21.42 You're impacting who they think they are 00:10:21.45\00:10:23.99 and it becomes very confusing, 00:10:24.02\00:10:25.35 it's no wonder they end up with "gender dysphoria. " 00:10:25.39\00:10:27.72 So, when you crossdress them, you're saying... 00:10:27.76\00:10:31.19 many things... you're signaled without the words. 00:10:31.23\00:10:34.63 One, there's something wrong with you... 00:10:34.66\00:10:36.13 one, you're better as a girl... one, I like you better as a girl 00:10:36.16\00:10:39.50 I prefer you... all these different things 00:10:39.53\00:10:42.20 are messages that... they don't have to speak 00:10:42.24\00:10:44.77 but you're saying them by the fact 00:10:44.81\00:10:46.64 that you're actually putting him in a dress 00:10:46.68\00:10:49.74 and then talking to them as though they're a young girl 00:10:49.78\00:10:52.85 and presenting them that way. 00:10:52.88\00:10:54.32 So, what do you say to that parent that says, 00:10:54.35\00:10:57.82 "Little Johnny likes dresses, 00:10:57.85\00:11:00.16 little Johnny wants to comb hair and play with hair 00:11:00.19\00:11:04.53 and do all of this 00:11:04.56\00:11:05.89 so I'm just letting little Johnny be who he is. 00:11:05.93\00:11:08.43 Well, you know, that is a troubling issue 00:11:08.46\00:11:10.77 for parents, no doubt, 00:11:10.80\00:11:12.13 if I were raising a child, 00:11:12.17\00:11:14.44 I think all kids are curious about their gender. 00:11:14.47\00:11:18.44 I also think it's a parent's responsibility 00:11:18.47\00:11:21.68 to teach them about who they are 00:11:21.71\00:11:23.65 and I don't think it's healthy if a kid asks a question 00:11:23.68\00:11:28.05 about girly things, 00:11:28.08\00:11:30.39 I think they still need to encourage them 00:11:30.45\00:11:32.65 and influence them in the same way 00:11:32.69\00:11:35.52 they were trained to do as a female... 00:11:35.56\00:11:37.03 they encourage him as a male, 00:11:37.06\00:11:38.39 take him out and buy him boy's clothes 00:11:38.43\00:11:40.63 and encourage them as a boy, 00:11:40.66\00:11:42.03 encourage them in ways that are not going to 00:11:42.06\00:11:44.80 offend their ideas 00:11:44.83\00:11:47.24 or suggestions that they might like a "girl" thing. 00:11:47.27\00:11:50.64 Find the creative way of getting them engaged 00:11:50.67\00:11:54.14 in doing "boy" things. 00:11:54.18\00:11:55.51 I think you can do that very easily 00:11:55.54\00:11:58.88 if you just sit back and not think, 00:11:58.91\00:12:01.62 "Oh, I have a transgender kid" 00:12:01.65\00:12:03.25 because that's what happens with the parents today 00:12:03.28\00:12:05.35 is... there's sort of this automatic idea 00:12:05.39\00:12:08.82 because a kid says, 00:12:08.86\00:12:10.19 "I like this dress or I like that. " 00:12:10.23\00:12:11.93 "Oh, I've got a transgender kid" 00:12:11.96\00:12:13.60 it's almost... like we're manufacturing 00:12:13.63\00:12:15.70 transgender kids today 00:12:15.73\00:12:17.87 faster than anything I've ever seen. 00:12:17.90\00:12:21.07 So, what I find interesting is that I think 00:12:21.10\00:12:23.67 the Scriptures really support that kind of idea 00:12:23.71\00:12:26.21 because... when it talks about how 00:12:26.24\00:12:27.98 men should not wear women's clothing 00:12:28.01\00:12:29.74 and women should not wear men's clothing 00:12:29.78\00:12:31.91 every time that I was playing "dress up" 00:12:31.98\00:12:34.08 every time that my aunt would tease my hair 00:12:34.12\00:12:36.45 and fix it to look like a girl, it was confirming 00:12:36.48\00:12:39.92 this gender dysphoria for me 00:12:39.95\00:12:41.86 because God said in Genesis, "I made the male and female" 00:12:41.89\00:12:45.19 and one of the things that He had to tell me even recently 00:12:45.23\00:12:48.50 is that, "No, I didn't make a mistake... I made you a male" 00:12:48.53\00:12:51.47 and even in Psalm 139 it talks about how 00:12:51.50\00:12:55.57 I knit together your very inward parts, you know 00:12:55.60\00:12:58.87 the intimate parts of you, He knew who I was 00:12:58.94\00:13:02.18 and who I was... supposed to be 00:13:02.21\00:13:03.65 so every time that you are dressed up in that dress, 00:13:03.68\00:13:06.01 every time that I was dressing up in my mother's clothes, 00:13:06.05\00:13:09.12 I was affirming my dissatisfaction 00:13:09.15\00:13:11.19 for the sex that I was born with. 00:13:11.25\00:13:13.39 And so, not only do you find that... 00:13:13.42\00:13:15.49 that the Scriptures, I think, support that, 00:13:15.52\00:13:17.89 but now there was something else 00:13:17.93\00:13:19.56 that you were bringing out about behavior... versus identity 00:13:19.59\00:13:23.13 which to me was shocking. 00:13:23.16\00:13:24.67 Yeah, I think it's so interesting, 00:13:24.70\00:13:26.67 I've come to the conclusion after all these years 00:13:26.74\00:13:28.67 that a transgender is a "behavior" 00:13:28.70\00:13:32.24 it's not an "identity. " 00:13:32.27\00:13:33.61 See... that... this... this is as eye-opening a concept 00:13:33.64\00:13:40.18 to me as the whole idea 00:13:40.22\00:13:43.08 of LGBT being a civil rights issue. 00:13:43.12\00:13:47.06 Because once you frame it a certain way, 00:13:47.12\00:13:50.53 and once you frame it a certain way, 00:13:50.56\00:13:53.90 then there are certain suppositions that follow 00:13:53.93\00:13:57.00 and so, what you're saying is that 00:13:57.07\00:14:00.14 this is not a "gender" issue so much 00:14:00.17\00:14:03.17 as a "behavior... " a set of behaviors... 00:14:03.20\00:14:06.37 Walt: That's right. 00:14:06.41\00:14:07.74 Yvonne: Unpack that some more for us. 00:14:07.78\00:14:09.11 Yeah, well, any time... we look at the word "behavior" 00:14:09.14\00:14:11.85 and if you look at the LGBT like... you're talking about, 00:14:11.88\00:14:14.72 you have "a behavior," their whole thing collapses 00:14:14.78\00:14:18.05 because they're basing everything 00:14:18.12\00:14:19.62 on the fact that they are "born that way," 00:14:19.65\00:14:20.99 that it's genetic 00:14:21.02\00:14:22.36 and what I'm saying is it's not genetic, 00:14:22.39\00:14:24.96 I haven't seen any evidence of it... that it's genetic 00:14:24.99\00:14:27.96 the only thing I've seen is that 00:14:28.00\00:14:30.10 we have pain in a child's life, 00:14:30.13\00:14:32.17 we have events where they're being crossdressed 00:14:32.20\00:14:34.60 which I think, crossdressing in of itself... 00:14:34.64\00:14:36.71 is abuse. 00:14:36.74\00:14:38.14 Hmmm... 00:14:38.17\00:14:39.51 And so, when you look at... some parent will tell me, 00:14:39.54\00:14:42.41 "Well, he's never had any trauma or anything in his life" 00:14:42.44\00:14:45.31 I said, "Were you crossdressing him?" 00:14:45.35\00:14:46.78 That's trauma, it's abusive 00:14:46.82\00:14:49.82 and today, we've come to this place where 00:14:49.85\00:14:53.59 we're accepting the idea of dressing boys as girls 00:14:53.62\00:14:57.33 and thinking that they're surviving this whole ideology 00:14:57.36\00:15:01.30 and they're not... and the best example of that 00:15:01.33\00:15:04.43 was a show that I saw in Network TV 00:15:04.47\00:15:07.04 where the young boy... the mother's being interviewed 00:15:07.07\00:15:09.84 and it's a long show where they're showing the kid 00:15:09.87\00:15:12.57 going to school and he'd been going to school 00:15:12.61\00:15:14.74 as a girl for some... three or four years 00:15:14.78\00:15:16.88 and in this one particular shot 00:15:16.91\00:15:19.28 the interviewer is talking to the mother, 00:15:19.31\00:15:21.72 the mother has the boy sitting at the dining table 00:15:21.75\00:15:24.25 and mom's combing the hair and she's talking about how 00:15:24.29\00:15:26.76 they're getting hormone blockers 00:15:26.82\00:15:29.02 and they're doing all these different things 00:15:29.06\00:15:31.49 and she's like... what reflected on me was 00:15:31.53\00:15:33.90 the fact that she was acting much like my grandmother did 00:15:33.93\00:15:36.73 so I really connected with this 00:15:36.77\00:15:38.20 and so she's combing the child's hair 00:15:38.23\00:15:40.64 and the interviewer is interviewing mom 00:15:40.67\00:15:42.97 and in this one amazing moment, the child turns his head back 00:15:43.00\00:15:48.71 and looks at mom and said, 00:15:48.74\00:15:50.81 "Would you love me if I was a boy?" 00:15:50.85\00:15:53.25 Wow! 00:15:53.28\00:15:56.58 so the child is actually saying, 00:15:56.62\00:16:00.59 "I sense that you want this for me. " 00:16:00.66\00:16:03.49 Exactly, exactly and then it began this process 00:16:03.53\00:16:09.50 with the camera rolling 00:16:09.53\00:16:11.27 where mom kind of stepped back, was a little shocked 00:16:11.30\00:16:13.77 and the boy says, 00:16:13.80\00:16:15.14 "Well, I'm not sure that I want to be a girl" 00:16:15.17\00:16:17.07 and mom says, 00:16:17.11\00:16:18.97 "Well, I've never heard this before" 00:16:19.01\00:16:20.81 but I think what's happening in this particular scene was 00:16:20.84\00:16:24.41 that mom was sort of pushing this agenda so hard 00:16:24.45\00:16:28.15 and she was wearing it almost like a badge of honor 00:16:28.18\00:16:31.39 that she has a transgender kid and she's on television 00:16:31.42\00:16:34.59 showing what she's doing 00:16:34.62\00:16:35.96 not realizing or not having anyone there 00:16:35.99\00:16:39.09 to suggest that this may be abusive and not healthy... 00:16:39.13\00:16:42.43 psychologically... for this kid, 00:16:42.46\00:16:44.07 and then the kid turns around and said, 00:16:44.10\00:16:46.40 "Would you love me if I was a boy?" 00:16:46.43\00:16:48.70 I mean... I wept... and I just couldn't believe 00:16:48.74\00:16:53.31 that mom was so forceful in this in pushing... 00:16:53.34\00:16:57.88 obviously pushing... 00:16:57.91\00:16:59.25 because they show... during the show 00:16:59.28\00:17:00.65 taking the boy to get hormone blockers... 00:17:00.72\00:17:03.62 it looked like it was her agenda and not the boy's. 00:17:03.65\00:17:06.69 That's what it sounds like 00:17:06.72\00:17:08.06 so, tell us some more about what happened with you. 00:17:08.09\00:17:10.26 How did you... from the time you were four, 00:17:10.29\00:17:13.73 how did you then deal with life? 00:17:13.76\00:17:18.03 After that seed had been planted what did you do? 00:17:18.10\00:17:21.20 Yeah, once that seed was planted... 00:17:21.24\00:17:23.51 and then... the two-and-a-half years expired 00:17:23.54\00:17:25.97 and I couldn't go to grandma's anymore, 00:17:26.01\00:17:29.44 I remember, sometime after that time 00:17:29.48\00:17:31.85 when I couldn't go to grandma's, 00:17:31.88\00:17:34.18 I woke up in the morning just weeping... crying... 00:17:34.22\00:17:38.02 I'm only seven years old and I'm crying 00:17:38.05\00:17:40.62 and everybody is upset, "Why are you crying?" 00:17:40.66\00:17:43.16 And I couldn't even explain why I was crying 00:17:43.19\00:17:46.56 but something was deeply broken within me 00:17:46.59\00:17:49.96 and I believe today as I look back, 00:17:50.00\00:17:52.80 my identity had been broken, I couldn't figure out who I was 00:17:52.83\00:17:56.00 and in the midst of this struggle... 00:17:56.04\00:17:59.71 I literally cried from morning until night, 00:17:59.74\00:18:03.21 here I was... seven years old... 00:18:03.24\00:18:04.85 my parents got fed up with me and left the house 00:18:04.91\00:18:07.98 and just said, "You stay here, 00:18:08.02\00:18:09.68 we don't even want to deal with you anymore. " 00:18:09.75\00:18:11.22 They didn't want to deal with the pain that I was feeling 00:18:11.25\00:18:14.69 and I couldn't explain where the pain was coming from 00:18:14.72\00:18:17.96 and I think when we see transgender children today 00:18:17.99\00:18:21.23 who identify in this behavior, 00:18:21.26\00:18:23.97 is that they can't explain where the pain is coming from, 00:18:24.00\00:18:27.00 they don't have the whole equipment, 00:18:27.04\00:18:29.30 tools and psychological ability to know the consequences 00:18:29.34\00:18:33.51 of what's going to happen down the road. 00:18:33.58\00:18:35.14 So, we're really doing a great disservice to young people 00:18:35.18\00:18:40.68 to suggest that they're a different gender 00:18:40.72\00:18:42.68 and then encouraging them to change genders because 00:18:42.72\00:18:45.79 we don't know the consequences. 00:18:45.82\00:18:47.59 Now they have school curriculums that are actually 00:18:47.62\00:18:50.63 trying to introduce this to Kindergarten-age kids 00:18:50.66\00:18:53.66 where... I have a client that actually 00:18:53.70\00:18:56.06 has a Day Care in a small town in Tennessee 00:18:56.10\00:18:58.90 and if she wants Government funding, 00:18:58.93\00:19:01.34 she has to allow the girls to dress up as boys 00:19:01.37\00:19:04.54 and the boys to dress up as girls. 00:19:04.57\00:19:05.91 And we're talking about zero to five-year-old children 00:19:05.94\00:19:08.34 if she wants Government funding. 00:19:08.38\00:19:10.88 Oh my! Mike, your experience 00:19:10.91\00:19:13.31 was kind of similar in that... you wanted to be a girl, 00:19:13.35\00:19:18.82 tell us a little bit about that. 00:19:18.85\00:19:20.22 Well, for me, it was Gender Dysphoria 00:19:20.26\00:19:22.72 but it was brought on basically because of the 00:19:22.76\00:19:24.79 defensive detachment that I had with my father, 00:19:24.83\00:19:26.83 it didn't come from my grandmother, 00:19:26.90\00:19:28.56 it was... the fact that... when I was at that age 00:19:28.60\00:19:31.03 where I was transitioning to my gender... 00:19:31.07\00:19:33.30 it was my father... and he... either wasn't available 00:19:33.34\00:19:36.04 because he was in the Navy, 00:19:36.07\00:19:37.41 so he'd be gone for three to six months at a time, 00:19:37.44\00:19:39.44 so, for a little boy between the ages of one and three, 00:19:39.47\00:19:42.38 that's almost half my life but then when my father was home 00:19:42.41\00:19:45.25 he was this hot-headed abusive Italian, 00:19:45.31\00:19:47.82 he was loud, he was angry 00:19:47.85\00:19:50.12 and so, at that time when I was transitioning, 00:19:50.15\00:19:52.52 he was frightening to me and very... it was undesirable, 00:19:52.55\00:19:57.03 his masculinity, so, in my defense, 00:19:57.09\00:19:59.36 even before I was conscious, I had detached from my father 00:19:59.39\00:20:01.93 and so the only example left was my mother 00:20:01.96\00:20:04.17 they talk about how every little child's identity 00:20:04.20\00:20:06.87 is like wet cement, 00:20:06.90\00:20:08.27 they don't know that they're male or female 00:20:08.30\00:20:10.51 and so, at this time when my cement was wet, 00:20:10.54\00:20:12.77 I returned back to my mother, she was soft, 00:20:12.81\00:20:14.94 I wanted to walk like her, talk like her, 00:20:15.01\00:20:17.05 and so my cement became hardened in the feminine, 00:20:17.11\00:20:20.05 and so I didn't know how to fix it, I was just a little boy, 00:20:20.08\00:20:23.08 but I thought that... I knew that something was wrong 00:20:23.12\00:20:25.89 the other kids were calling me names 00:20:25.92\00:20:28.76 and I knew that I was different than them 00:20:28.79\00:20:30.53 even though I wasn't sexualized 00:20:30.56\00:20:32.36 but for me, that's where it began. 00:20:32.39\00:20:34.16 You know, what I'm hearing 00:20:34.20\00:20:35.90 is... and what I've heard from the rest of your team 00:20:35.93\00:20:38.77 in 'Coming Out' Ministries as well, 00:20:38.80\00:20:40.47 is this brokenness, that there's some kind of trauma 00:20:40.50\00:20:46.78 that takes place early... in early childhood, 00:20:46.81\00:20:50.25 that causes this brokenness, 00:20:50.31\00:20:54.18 and where modern society has gotten off balance 00:20:54.22\00:20:59.05 is they don't use Jesus as the answer 00:20:59.09\00:21:01.89 everything else is the answer, 00:21:01.92\00:21:03.89 let Johnny dress up like Susie, 00:21:03.93\00:21:05.86 let Susie be Johnny, let... and... and... 00:21:05.89\00:21:09.03 the real deal is, well, you brought this up... 00:21:09.06\00:21:13.20 is... behavior versus gender identity. 00:21:13.23\00:21:17.44 Address the behavior. 00:21:17.47\00:21:19.71 That's exactly right and 00:21:19.74\00:21:21.91 today we're trying to take a behavior 00:21:21.94\00:21:25.21 and transform a behavior into an identity 00:21:25.25\00:21:28.48 and as a result of that, 00:21:28.52\00:21:30.69 what people don't seem to be able to pull together 00:21:30.72\00:21:34.32 like I can, at least I can see... 00:21:34.36\00:21:37.23 because I attempted suicide and... 00:21:37.29\00:21:39.06 Yvonne: At what age? 00:21:39.09\00:21:40.80 I was probably in my early forties, 00:21:40.83\00:21:43.67 I'd been struggling all this time 00:21:43.70\00:21:46.84 and 39... 40... somewhere in that... 00:21:46.87\00:21:49.90 I don't remember the exact time but I tried to commit suicide 00:21:49.94\00:21:52.67 and what we have with this population is 00:21:52.71\00:21:56.38 they attempt suicide at a rate above 40 percent 00:21:56.44\00:22:00.48 and the young people age group... 00:22:00.52\00:22:03.39 this was a study out of the State of Washington 00:22:03.42\00:22:06.82 and they said the age group between ten and twenty four 00:22:06.86\00:22:10.26 attempt suicide at the rate of around fifty percent. 00:22:10.29\00:22:14.43 So, I would ask anybody who has the ability to think 00:22:14.46\00:22:18.37 and reason a little bit that this... introducing... 00:22:18.40\00:22:22.30 this behavior to children is doing such damage 00:22:22.34\00:22:25.44 that they actually want to attempt suicide 00:22:25.47\00:22:28.51 at some point during this transition period 00:22:28.54\00:22:30.68 whether it's early or later in life 00:22:30.75\00:22:32.75 because it's so destructive to them, 00:22:32.78\00:22:35.28 we've taken away their core identity 00:22:35.35\00:22:37.29 and told them they're not who they are. 00:22:37.32\00:22:39.25 Hmmm... 00:22:39.29\00:22:40.62 So when that happened to you and you... before the forties... 00:22:40.66\00:22:44.53 let's talk about the teenage years a bit. 00:22:44.56\00:22:46.90 When you were a teenager, 00:22:46.96\00:22:48.30 with whom were you identifying at that point? 00:22:48.33\00:22:51.17 Were you more... acting more feminine or 00:22:51.20\00:22:54.70 were you acting masculine, 00:22:54.74\00:22:56.07 where was your head at that time? 00:22:56.10\00:22:58.17 Well, I was two sided... within... inside me... 00:22:58.21\00:23:02.28 I had the "girl in the purple dress" 00:23:02.31\00:23:04.68 and I gave her the name: Crystal West. 00:23:04.71\00:23:07.02 So she stayed inside and I presented myself 00:23:07.08\00:23:10.79 as Walt... outside... and in going to school 00:23:10.82\00:23:14.42 I had girlfriends, I ran track, 00:23:14.46\00:23:16.52 I played in football, I played basketball, 00:23:16.56\00:23:18.73 I did all the things, but inside me... was Crystal. 00:23:18.76\00:23:23.73 Yvonne: Were you attracted to boys? 00:23:23.77\00:23:25.10 Walt: No... 00:23:25.13\00:23:26.47 You were never attracted... you were never homosexual? 00:23:26.50\00:23:29.14 No, I never had any homosexual ideas or anything, 00:23:29.17\00:23:33.38 I was strictly heterosexual 00:23:33.41\00:23:35.38 with this "girl" living inside me that wanted to come out 00:23:35.41\00:23:39.51 but I knew back then the dangers 00:23:39.55\00:23:42.62 and not knowing myself what it was all about, 00:23:42.65\00:23:46.82 I had to deal with this solely on my own. 00:23:46.86\00:23:49.96 I mean, it's a long time ago that I was dealing with this 00:23:49.99\00:23:52.39 this is in the '50s... 00:23:52.43\00:23:54.73 so, I was something 00:23:54.76\00:23:57.00 fairly fresh and new if I would have "come out" that time. 00:23:57.03\00:24:00.10 Yvonne: You're looking good Brother. 00:24:00.14\00:24:02.87 Walt: Oh yeah, you know, thank you, 00:24:02.90\00:24:04.54 I've had a lot of work... 00:24:04.57\00:24:06.17 You know what I think is interesting though 00:24:06.21\00:24:09.48 is... just because someone has transgender ideation 00:24:09.54\00:24:13.75 doesn't mean that they're gay 00:24:13.78\00:24:15.12 and I think that a lot of times, 00:24:15.15\00:24:16.48 we put people in that compartment that 00:24:16.52\00:24:18.09 "Oh, if you're transgender, then you're gay" 00:24:18.12\00:24:20.16 but Walt, weren't you sharing with me 00:24:20.19\00:24:22.32 that... there's actually more transgender 00:24:22.36\00:24:24.46 that are still heterosexual rather than homosexual. 00:24:24.49\00:24:27.50 You know, it's true, 00:24:27.53\00:24:28.86 the vast majority of transgenders 00:24:28.90\00:24:31.03 are heterosexual, they're not homosexual, 00:24:31.07\00:24:33.54 they don't want to be homosexual 00:24:33.57\00:24:35.04 I mean, some of them will be drag queens 00:24:35.07\00:24:37.47 but they don't really want to have the full regiment 00:24:37.51\00:24:40.34 of surgery and change your identity in that way, 00:24:40.38\00:24:43.14 they like to play with it, 00:24:43.18\00:24:44.75 they like to play the female role 00:24:44.78\00:24:46.55 but they don't want to become a female. 00:24:46.58\00:24:48.82 Yeah, let's talk about the surgery for a minute 00:24:48.88\00:24:51.82 because you actually underwent the surgery, 00:24:51.85\00:24:54.76 what was going on in your head 00:24:54.82\00:24:56.83 just prior to the surgery? 00:24:56.86\00:24:59.06 Yeah, well I... you know... this whole "pain thing" 00:24:59.09\00:25:02.33 that started when I was a young child, 00:25:02.36\00:25:04.07 I had carried on... 00:25:04.13\00:25:05.47 by this time when I was considering surgery, 00:25:05.50\00:25:07.70 I was forty-years old, 00:25:07.74\00:25:09.07 I had gone and struggled with this for my entire life 00:25:09.10\00:25:13.61 trying to deal with the pain 00:25:13.64\00:25:15.28 and the confusion about my gender, 00:25:15.31\00:25:17.61 who was I, the abuses, 00:25:17.65\00:25:19.81 and so, I went in to the psychologist 00:25:19.88\00:25:23.25 who actually wrote the 00:25:23.28\00:25:24.89 "WPATH Standards of Care" for the treatment of transgenders 00:25:24.92\00:25:28.16 because... I was well enough off 00:25:28.19\00:25:30.49 to be able to afford somebody like that 00:25:30.53\00:25:32.16 and I went in and I said, 00:25:32.19\00:25:33.53 "What do I need to do to get rid of this 00:25:33.56\00:25:35.93 whole 'identity thing' that I have been struggling with?" 00:25:35.96\00:25:38.93 He said, "Well... " he said, "You are gender dysphoric, 00:25:38.97\00:25:41.90 you need hormone therapy and you need surgery. " 00:25:41.94\00:25:44.34 And that was in 1981 and still... 00:25:44.37\00:25:48.64 I knew it was true but it pained me to think 00:25:48.68\00:25:53.25 that that's what I had to do to get right with myself. 00:25:53.28\00:25:56.85 So I waited two more years and I went back to him 00:25:56.89\00:25:59.62 and asked him again, 00:25:59.65\00:26:01.19 I said, "Really? I've been still struggling. " 00:26:01.22\00:26:03.69 By this time I was... I'd still been married now... 00:26:03.73\00:26:06.03 I'd been married almost 17 years by this time. 00:26:06.06\00:26:08.16 Yvonne: I was going to ask you about what was going on 00:26:08.20\00:26:10.27 in your personal life. 00:26:10.30\00:26:11.63 Yeah, I had a good job and I had a marriage 00:26:11.67\00:26:13.50 that was starting to falter 00:26:13.54\00:26:15.30 because I was struggling so deeply with the issues 00:26:15.34\00:26:18.54 that just had not been addressed properly when I was younger. 00:26:18.57\00:26:22.31 Did she know? Did your wife know? 00:26:22.34\00:26:23.95 Yeah, she knew I was struggling, it was painful for her 00:26:23.98\00:26:26.68 and painful for me to continue to try to hide it 00:26:26.72\00:26:30.89 and still be an income earner with a good job, 00:26:30.92\00:26:34.99 I was an Executive with a large automobile company 00:26:35.02\00:26:37.86 and so, when he... I went the second time 00:26:37.89\00:26:41.86 and he said, "Yeah, this is what you need to do" 00:26:41.90\00:26:43.47 I realized that at that point I thought and was convinced 00:26:43.50\00:26:47.10 that the surgery would get rid of all that pain 00:26:47.14\00:26:49.64 that started when I was a young kid 00:26:49.67\00:26:51.91 and that was the only way to do it, 00:26:51.94\00:26:54.58 I saw no alternatives at that time 00:26:54.61\00:26:57.15 that were going to take away that childhood pain 00:26:57.18\00:27:00.55 and all this difficulty... I'd had now for 40 years in my life, 00:27:00.58\00:27:03.99 so, I got divorced and opted for the surgery 00:27:04.02\00:27:08.32 and underwent the surgery in 1983 00:27:08.36\00:27:11.76 and after the surgery there was this 00:27:11.79\00:27:15.16 very euphoric kind of exciting, "I finally made it" thing... 00:27:15.20\00:27:19.73 and it did feel like there was this great relief 00:27:19.77\00:27:23.84 and the weight of the world had been lifted off 00:27:23.87\00:27:26.54 I had finally arrived where I had been wanting to be 00:27:26.57\00:27:29.21 and... and... it was, "good" 00:27:29.24\00:27:31.85 and there I was, now I was Laura Jensen 00:27:31.88\00:27:36.99 with a whole new identity 00:27:37.02\00:27:38.92 and I went and got my birth record changed, 00:27:38.95\00:27:41.12 I got all my records changed 00:27:41.16\00:27:42.52 but when I notified the Automobile Company, 00:27:42.56\00:27:46.39 I was terminated so I didn't have an income 00:27:46.43\00:27:50.23 and eventually I ended up homeless and living in a Park 00:27:50.27\00:27:55.54 as a transgender female. 00:27:55.57\00:27:57.11 My! so, you made the decision to have the surgery 00:27:57.14\00:28:02.51 which... in and of itself... is huge... 00:28:02.54\00:28:05.45 because that... that's just huge... right, so... 00:28:05.51\00:28:09.22 Walt: It's huge... 00:28:09.25\00:28:10.59 Yvonne: It's huge, I mean, it's life changing... literally, 00:28:10.62\00:28:14.02 so, you decided to have the surgery, 00:28:14.06\00:28:17.56 you have it, you then have to deal with 00:28:17.59\00:28:21.03 "life as a woman," 00:28:21.06\00:28:22.73 you have to deal with being fired from your job, 00:28:22.76\00:28:28.10 the humiliation and shame attached to that 00:28:28.17\00:28:31.27 and then you end up losing everything. 00:28:31.34\00:28:34.38 Your home, your status, and really your identity 00:28:34.41\00:28:38.55 because now you're living in a new reality. 00:28:38.58\00:28:42.78 Walt: Yeah, it's true. 00:28:42.82\00:28:44.55 How did that... how did that work? 00:28:44.59\00:28:46.35 Before I ask you that, I want to go back for a minute, 00:28:46.39\00:28:49.32 to your married life because 00:28:49.36\00:28:53.09 so many questions arise like, you know, 00:28:53.13\00:28:56.13 in somebody like me who has no clue 00:28:56.16\00:28:59.10 about the whole lifestyle 00:28:59.13\00:29:01.44 and what goes on... and the pain 00:29:01.50\00:29:03.54 and the angst along with it, 00:29:03.61\00:29:05.07 how did you and your wife relate to each other 00:29:05.11\00:29:09.78 during that time, 00:29:09.84\00:29:11.18 during that time when you were battling with this pain 00:29:11.21\00:29:15.92 of "Am I a woman inside?" 00:29:15.95\00:29:18.32 Or "I want Laura Jensen to come out, but she can't come out" 00:29:18.35\00:29:22.42 how did you and your wife relate to each other? 00:29:22.46\00:29:24.69 We had a very normal sex life, relationship... 00:29:24.73\00:29:29.16 it was our life... really... everybody looked at us... 00:29:29.23\00:29:32.20 it looked like the perfect little family, 00:29:32.23\00:29:34.87 you know, good income, nice cars, nice house, 00:29:34.90\00:29:37.24 all that stuff was there, it was in place, 00:29:37.27\00:29:39.74 the picture was good, 00:29:39.77\00:29:41.31 the pain was in here that people didn't know about 00:29:41.34\00:29:45.05 and I was getting better and better about covering it up 00:29:45.08\00:29:48.32 until I started using more and more alcohol 00:29:48.38\00:29:50.85 and then... that's when the wheels started coming off 00:29:50.89\00:29:54.32 with the marriage and my emotions, my struggles 00:29:54.36\00:29:57.79 and the more alcohol I used, the more difficult things became 00:29:57.83\00:30:01.93 so, once alcohol was introduced into this thing, 00:30:01.96\00:30:05.43 literally, that's when things began to collapse. 00:30:05.47\00:30:08.90 Hmmm... so you had, in general, 00:30:08.94\00:30:12.07 a... what seemed to be... a normal, healthy relationship 00:30:12.11\00:30:17.81 until the alcohol was introduced and then... 00:30:17.85\00:30:21.62 again... I often talk about... on Dare to Dream... 00:30:21.65\00:30:25.25 and in Urban Report, I often talk about 00:30:25.29\00:30:26.99 God's plan... and Satan's plan... 00:30:27.02\00:30:29.79 and Satan's plan is to take you down, 00:30:29.82\00:30:32.56 by whatever means necessary, just take you down, 00:30:32.59\00:30:36.13 and of course, God's plan 00:30:36.16\00:30:37.57 is to elevate you to the best that you can be 00:30:37.63\00:30:41.74 and so Satan introduces the alcohol and that... 00:30:41.77\00:30:45.24 on top of all the pain that you already have 00:30:45.27\00:30:48.68 just ends you up more broken, now without your family 00:30:48.71\00:30:54.18 because now you're... and homeless. 00:30:54.22\00:30:55.95 Walt: Right... yeah. 00:30:55.98\00:30:57.89 How did you recover from that? 00:30:57.92\00:31:00.36 How did you go from, you know, Park Bench, 00:31:00.39\00:31:03.46 to back being financially solvent? 00:31:03.49\00:31:06.26 Well, that was interesting because at the time that 00:31:06.29\00:31:09.66 I was living in the Park, I was... 00:31:09.70\00:31:11.50 my friends know about this, I had this rabbit fur coat 00:31:11.53\00:31:15.34 that I was wearing that I'd gotten from a second-hand store 00:31:15.37\00:31:18.41 and I was sleeping... 00:31:18.44\00:31:19.87 and if you can imagine sleeping on the wet grass... 00:31:19.91\00:31:22.64 in a rabbit fur coat in a Park... 00:31:22.68\00:31:24.45 Yvonne: Were you attracting squirrels and rabbits? 00:31:24.51\00:31:28.08 Yeah, yeah, I probably was. 00:31:28.12\00:31:29.45 Yeah, I mean, you know people... 00:31:29.48\00:31:33.96 they stay their distance because I was sort of... 00:31:34.02\00:31:37.59 here I was... looking somewhat like a female 00:31:37.63\00:31:40.86 but I was early in the transition, 00:31:40.90\00:31:43.47 I was obviously not very healthy, 00:31:43.50\00:31:46.13 I wasn't clean and I remember 00:31:46.20\00:31:48.77 I was struggling with this alcohol 00:31:48.80\00:31:50.57 and I remembered somebody a few years prior to that 00:31:50.61\00:31:53.94 that was at the automobile company 00:31:53.98\00:31:55.54 had said, "If you ever need help 00:31:55.58\00:31:57.08 with your alcoholism, give me a call. " 00:31:57.11\00:31:58.71 So I got up from the Park and I went to this little restaurant 00:31:58.78\00:32:02.88 and people started scattering as I came in the front door 00:32:02.92\00:32:07.66 of the restaurant, here comes this, 00:32:07.69\00:32:09.02 "whatever this is in the rabbit fur coat" 00:32:09.06\00:32:10.69 and I started asking for money so that I could... 00:32:10.73\00:32:14.20 because then... that was that long ago, 00:32:14.23\00:32:16.16 that you could use coins to make a phone call 00:32:16.20\00:32:18.53 and I looked her name up, I got the coins actually, 00:32:18.57\00:32:21.30 one of the waitresses gave me some of her tip money 00:32:21.34\00:32:24.07 and I called Marilyn and I said, 00:32:24.11\00:32:26.27 "Marilyn, I'm ready for a meeting" 00:32:26.31\00:32:27.71 And she said, "Where are you?" 00:32:27.74\00:32:29.11 And I told her where I was, and... so she had a friend 00:32:29.14\00:32:32.45 that was the guy who went to AAA meetings 00:32:32.48\00:32:36.42 and he came and picked me up and he took one look at me 00:32:36.45\00:32:39.89 and he brought me to his house but he put me in the garage 00:32:39.92\00:32:43.29 he left me in the garage, so, he had a couple of couches 00:32:43.32\00:32:48.96 that he moved out in the garage and a couple of chairs 00:32:49.00\00:32:51.30 and... I mean... I was not real appealing 00:32:51.33\00:32:54.40 and I went to my first AAA meeting with him 00:32:54.44\00:32:57.47 and at that time, you know, 00:32:57.51\00:32:59.77 people hug at AAA meetings if you've every been to one, 00:32:59.81\00:33:03.14 well, no one hugged me. Yvonne: Oh, bless your heart. 00:33:03.18\00:33:06.51 Walt: So... 00:33:06.55\00:33:07.88 Were you feeling rejection at that point? 00:33:07.92\00:33:09.48 What were you feeling? 00:33:09.52\00:33:10.85 Well, I was feeling great 00:33:10.89\00:33:12.22 because I had a couch to sleep on... 00:33:12.25\00:33:13.86 it's a lot better than that the grass in the Park 00:33:13.89\00:33:16.93 so I felt like I'd gone up now, you know... 00:33:16.96\00:33:19.83 I was feeling good and so, that started... 00:33:19.89\00:33:22.83 sort of the journey through this process 00:33:22.86\00:33:25.27 that took many, many years after that. 00:33:25.30\00:33:28.40 Wow! Mike when you went through... 00:33:28.47\00:33:31.51 you never did the whole... like gender transformation thing 00:33:31.54\00:33:35.81 or anything but when you were at your lowest 00:33:35.84\00:33:40.12 what was it that brought you back up? 00:33:40.15\00:33:44.05 What was it that made you decide that this is not for me? 00:33:44.09\00:33:47.09 Well, it's interesting, there's no formula for why 00:33:47.12\00:33:50.43 someone is transgender nor the cure for that 00:33:50.46\00:33:53.60 the transgenderism was the worst for me, at puberty, 00:33:53.63\00:33:57.20 when I was 13-years old, I was in 8th Grade, 00:33:57.23\00:33:59.63 we lived in Detroit, Michigan, and they had a swimming pool, 00:33:59.67\00:34:02.84 built-in swimming pool, guys had it one week 00:34:02.87\00:34:05.14 girls had it the next week, here I am... 00:34:05.17\00:34:07.38 I'm a late bloomer and I started school when I was five 00:34:07.41\00:34:10.55 so, you know, everyone else is older than me 00:34:10.58\00:34:12.51 and much more developed, 00:34:12.55\00:34:13.88 and the school policy was that the boys swam naked 00:34:13.92\00:34:17.39 and so, here we are, standing on the side of the pool 00:34:17.42\00:34:20.66 doing jumping jacks, pairing up for sit ups 00:34:20.69\00:34:23.29 and so, when I'm surrounded by 00:34:23.32\00:34:25.23 more feeling of inadequacy as a male 00:34:25.26\00:34:27.50 and then the fact that you know, 00:34:27.53\00:34:29.66 I'm in a different school, still being called names, 00:34:29.70\00:34:32.30 still being put down, 00:34:32.33\00:34:33.67 that was the height of my transgender feelings, 00:34:33.70\00:34:36.40 I grew my hair out to my shoulders, 00:34:36.44\00:34:38.27 I remember fantasizing about being a female 00:34:38.31\00:34:41.68 and I think that for me the worst was 00:34:41.71\00:34:43.81 when I was confronted with how inadequate I was, 00:34:43.85\00:34:46.05 that it didn't measure up, that that's when it was the strongest 00:34:46.08\00:34:48.68 what was remarkable is that it wasn't any grand event 00:34:48.72\00:34:53.29 that actually took the transgender feelings away 00:34:53.32\00:34:55.69 but when I was 20-years old, 00:34:55.72\00:34:57.06 when I came out in the Gay culture, 00:34:57.09\00:34:58.63 because I couldn't find answers in the church, 00:34:58.66\00:35:01.46 I remember that... I realized that masculinity 00:35:01.50\00:35:04.27 in Gay culture was much more valuable than femininity 00:35:04.30\00:35:07.07 and so if I just butchered up a little more 00:35:07.10\00:35:09.17 and start working out at the gym, 00:35:09.20\00:35:10.54 then I found that I started to get what I was looking for 00:35:10.57\00:35:13.98 which was male affirmation and so as I got male affirmation, 00:35:14.01\00:35:17.58 then, I was finally comfortable with who I was physically 00:35:17.61\00:35:21.15 and my gender and my parts... 00:35:21.18\00:35:24.39 actually made sense and I found peace with that. 00:35:24.42\00:35:28.79 It's amazing isn't it how the whole journey, 00:35:28.82\00:35:32.49 it's just like, you know, you have this phase 00:35:32.53\00:35:35.43 and then this phase... and then this phase 00:35:35.46\00:35:38.33 and all along God is leading you 00:35:38.37\00:35:41.14 toward Him, He is wooing you, 00:35:41.17\00:35:43.87 the Holy Spirit is wooing you but you don't even realize it 00:35:43.91\00:35:46.47 how, Walt, did you find Jesus Christ? 00:35:46.51\00:35:50.75 Well, you know, I started... I went to church 00:35:50.81\00:35:54.78 while I was at the Recovery House 00:35:54.82\00:35:57.65 and I was going to meetings at that time, 00:35:57.69\00:36:00.12 I really needed to go to church and I went to a church 00:36:00.16\00:36:04.19 and I remember sitting down with the pastor 00:36:04.23\00:36:07.00 before I went into church and told him about my life 00:36:07.06\00:36:10.07 because I had gone to a church some time before that 00:36:10.13\00:36:13.13 and the pastor had told me, 00:36:13.17\00:36:15.04 "We don't want your kind in our church" 00:36:15.07\00:36:16.67 which was painful but yet it was interesting when I asked him, 00:36:16.71\00:36:21.51 "Well, what kind do you want?" you know, we're all broken... 00:36:21.54\00:36:26.21 it's just that my brokenness is very visible, 00:36:26.25\00:36:29.38 most everybody else's brokenness is quite hidden. 00:36:29.42\00:36:32.42 Hmmm... hmmm... hmmm... hmmm... it's true. 00:36:32.45\00:36:35.72 As long as you keep it hidden, it's okay. 00:36:35.76\00:36:38.83 Right... right... 00:36:38.86\00:36:40.20 But don't put it out there on Front Street 00:36:40.23\00:36:42.23 so, what he said really struck me 00:36:42.26\00:36:45.97 and he kind of leaned back in his big leather chair 00:36:46.00\00:36:48.70 and he said, "No," he said, 00:36:48.74\00:36:50.07 "I'm not going to try to change you," 00:36:50.11\00:36:51.61 he said, "My job is to love you 00:36:51.64\00:36:53.38 it's God's job to change you. " 00:36:53.41\00:36:55.04 And that just sunk in and even though it took years 00:36:55.08\00:36:59.81 after that, I never forgot what he said to me that day 00:36:59.85\00:37:04.52 because I knew that that moment, 00:37:04.55\00:37:06.45 that God was on a journey to change me 00:37:06.49\00:37:09.22 I just didn't know how it was going to come about, 00:37:09.26\00:37:11.69 I knew that my body had been altered badly, 00:37:11.73\00:37:15.93 and that I'd gone through a lot of things in my life 00:37:15.96\00:37:18.93 but I knew that the Lord Jesus Christ 00:37:18.97\00:37:23.17 had the power to redeem and restore my life 00:37:23.20\00:37:26.54 and I was getting prepared for that 00:37:26.57\00:37:28.81 and so, I stayed at that church and they actually encouraged me 00:37:28.84\00:37:33.98 to write a prayer letter so that the group of people 00:37:34.02\00:37:36.82 could actually... kind of look at what was going on in my life 00:37:36.85\00:37:40.36 as I wrote it and some of the early prayer letters were 00:37:40.39\00:37:43.09 very crude and very difficult 00:37:43.12\00:37:46.09 because I was struggling so deeply 00:37:46.13\00:37:48.50 and I started writing those prayer letters on a weekly basis 00:37:48.53\00:37:53.30 and then they became a monthly prayer letter 00:37:53.34\00:37:56.37 and I could see how in those prayer letters 00:37:56.40\00:37:59.44 that my life was beginning to transform as I wrote them 00:37:59.47\00:38:02.64 people... I had these people praying for me 00:38:02.71\00:38:05.45 and so, I eventually was working through my 12-Step Program 00:38:05.48\00:38:12.59 and I was meeting with the Counselor, a PhD Counselor 00:38:12.62\00:38:15.59 and we were praying one day and we got in this prayer time 00:38:15.62\00:38:21.70 and I wasn't much of a praying person, 00:38:21.73\00:38:23.87 I just... I had a hard time just praying in silence 00:38:23.90\00:38:27.70 it was tough for me but that day 00:38:27.74\00:38:29.14 I felt really moved to listen and let him pray 00:38:29.17\00:38:32.97 and he was praying and during that prayer, 00:38:33.01\00:38:36.75 with my eyes closed... I could see the Lord Jesus Christ 00:38:36.78\00:38:42.48 coming to me, I could see His face, 00:38:42.52\00:38:46.02 I could see His robe, 00:38:46.05\00:38:47.39 I could see His arms reaching out to me 00:38:47.42\00:38:49.92 and at that moment, I saw myself as a little baby 00:38:49.99\00:38:53.43 wrapped in cloth and He picked me up 00:38:53.46\00:38:55.73 and held me in His arms and He said, 00:38:55.76\00:38:57.90 "You will be safe with me forever" 00:38:57.93\00:39:00.94 and He eventually disappeared then... 00:39:00.97\00:39:03.91 and I knew at that moment that He'd come 00:39:03.94\00:39:06.81 to redeem and restore my life 00:39:06.84\00:39:09.21 and I knew that I was going to be fine 00:39:09.24\00:39:11.08 and from that moment on 00:39:11.11\00:39:13.15 my life completely was transformed by that 00:39:13.18\00:39:16.48 and interesting enough 00:39:16.55\00:39:18.22 I still write a prayer letter to the same people 00:39:18.25\00:39:21.46 the ones that are still there now, every month, 00:39:21.49\00:39:24.66 they still get to hear the journey 00:39:24.69\00:39:26.49 and that's over 30 years of prayer letters. 00:39:26.53\00:39:29.33 Wow! 00:39:29.36\00:39:30.80 You know, something that I picked up on that? 00:39:30.83\00:39:32.63 This is the second time I've heard that, but you said, 00:39:32.70\00:39:35.47 "You'll be safe with me forever" 00:39:35.50\00:39:37.61 and here we think we're talking about a gender issue when 00:39:37.64\00:39:40.94 was the issue really for you... Walt, 00:39:40.98\00:39:43.81 "I never felt safe" 00:39:43.85\00:39:45.18 didn't feel safe with the grandmother, 00:39:45.21\00:39:46.78 didn't feel safe with your father, 00:39:46.82\00:39:48.68 didn't even feel safe with yourself, 00:39:48.72\00:39:50.49 I don't know... is there something to that? 00:39:50.52\00:39:53.46 Sure could be... 00:39:53.49\00:39:54.82 "You are safe with me now. " 00:39:54.86\00:39:56.19 Yvonne: Yeah, yeah, yeah... 00:39:56.22\00:39:57.56 I just felt that He had picked up the child of Walt... 00:39:57.59\00:40:00.03 and pulled him back in and redeemed him 00:40:00.06\00:40:02.66 and restored me and I can go on to live my life 00:40:02.73\00:40:04.73 like I do today... serving Jesus Christ 00:40:04.77\00:40:07.60 and speaking about His transformation 00:40:07.64\00:40:10.44 and His power in my life. 00:40:10.47\00:40:11.87 Yvonne: Yes, as Walt... Walt: as Walt... 00:40:11.91\00:40:13.88 Yvonne: no more Laura... Walt: No more Laura... 00:40:13.91\00:40:15.84 Praise God, so from that moment on, 00:40:15.88\00:40:17.75 that was the end of Laura? 00:40:17.78\00:40:19.11 Was that the end? 00:40:19.15\00:40:20.48 It began... it wasn't like that, snaps finger... 00:40:20.52\00:40:23.79 it wasn't like flipping a switch off, 00:40:23.82\00:40:25.55 but you could see the incremental changes 00:40:25.59\00:40:27.82 as I went through the process 00:40:27.86\00:40:29.32 and began to stop "behaving" like Laura. 00:40:29.36\00:40:35.06 Hmmm... hmmm... 00:40:35.10\00:40:36.43 I had become the man that God had created me to be. 00:40:36.46\00:40:38.50 So there was a process to become Laura, 00:40:38.53\00:40:41.57 there was a process of deconstructing a behavior 00:40:41.60\00:40:45.87 of being transgender and once that behavior is over, 00:40:45.91\00:40:49.81 that's when you realize... you really have everything. 00:40:49.84\00:40:53.55 You really have got it and you're really living the life... 00:40:53.58\00:40:57.35 I mean, today, I'm sober 30 years, 00:40:57.39\00:40:59.79 I'm married almost 19 years 00:40:59.82\00:41:02.06 you talk about redemption and restoration 00:41:02.09\00:41:04.83 He gave it to me that day when He picked me up. 00:41:04.86\00:41:07.50 Yvonne: Amen, yes, yes, how beautiful 00:41:07.53\00:41:09.93 and that's what He came to do. 00:41:09.96\00:41:11.90 To give us life and life more abundantly. 00:41:11.93\00:41:14.97 That's what He promises and you two... 00:41:15.00\00:41:18.01 are both... examples of that 00:41:18.04\00:41:20.64 because as I talked to you all 00:41:20.68\00:41:23.18 and as I've talked to Mike over the years 00:41:23.24\00:41:25.95 and the 'Coming Out' Ministries' Team 00:41:25.98\00:41:28.62 whom I love... like... I just feel like God is... 00:41:28.65\00:41:31.69 He's in the restoration business 00:41:31.72\00:41:33.59 that's what He does with all of us 00:41:33.62\00:41:35.36 we all have our issues no one needs to look at you 00:41:35.39\00:41:39.53 or you or anybody, or me... 00:41:39.56\00:41:41.90 or anybody else and say, "Well, you're this or you're that" 00:41:41.93\00:41:44.57 No... yeah, I'm this or that... 00:41:44.60\00:41:46.40 and you're this or that... we all have issues 00:41:46.43\00:41:49.30 that's why we're all sinners in need of a Savior 00:41:49.34\00:41:52.14 and that's why Jesus Christ came 00:41:52.17\00:41:53.58 so He has restored you, He's given you a whole new life 00:41:53.64\00:41:59.91 with a whole new identity, you are now... Walt... 00:41:59.95\00:42:02.88 without looking back at "Laura. " 00:42:02.92\00:42:06.65 So, how do people in the LGBT Community 00:42:06.69\00:42:11.99 look at you... because you are the exact opposite 00:42:12.03\00:42:16.93 of what they're promoting and I want to talk a bit about 00:42:16.97\00:42:19.43 that whole "promotion thing" because I think 00:42:19.47\00:42:22.24 what's happening in Society now is that 00:42:22.27\00:42:25.17 this Movement is being promoted as something that should be... 00:42:25.21\00:42:31.68 should be exalted, should be glorified 00:42:31.71\00:42:34.52 and we're not supposed to call it sin 00:42:34.55\00:42:37.32 because in so doing... we're not politically correct, 00:42:37.35\00:42:40.29 we're not... so... let's talk a bit about 00:42:40.36\00:42:42.19 promoting this agenda. 00:42:42.22\00:42:44.06 Well, yeah, they've done an outstanding job 00:42:44.09\00:42:46.63 of selling the Nation... in fact, almost the entire world 00:42:46.66\00:42:50.37 that a "behavior" is an "identity" and as such 00:42:50.40\00:42:55.57 they've gone and passed laws to protect this behavior 00:42:55.60\00:42:59.47 and they've allowed people to go into restrooms 00:42:59.51\00:43:01.61 and we're seeing all this... 00:43:01.64\00:43:03.28 which is so damaging to the individual themselves 00:43:03.31\00:43:07.48 as well as the Nation, so, they've done a great job 00:43:07.52\00:43:11.55 of confusing us about who we are 00:43:11.62\00:43:14.06 and now, it wasn't too long ago they came out with 00:43:14.09\00:43:16.89 50-some different genders... 00:43:16.93\00:43:18.49 Yvonne: Wait... what? 00:43:18.53\00:43:21.26 Yes, they came out and said, Facebook came out... 00:43:21.30\00:43:23.67 because the LGBT came out 00:43:23.70\00:43:25.57 with this whole gender spectrum 00:43:25.60\00:43:27.80 of some 46 to 50 different genders 00:43:27.84\00:43:30.01 so what they're trying to do is 00:43:30.04\00:43:32.51 completely... the real agenda... is to eradicate gender 00:43:32.54\00:43:37.55 once they eradicate gender, then they can eradicate marriage 00:43:37.58\00:43:42.68 because... no longer... gender, no man... no woman... 00:43:42.72\00:43:45.75 they're trying to take men and women off the bathroom doors 00:43:45.79\00:43:49.12 and just have them all be the same, 00:43:49.16\00:43:52.66 so once you completely destroy gender, 00:43:52.69\00:43:56.10 you can destroy the family, you can destroy identity 00:43:56.16\00:43:59.77 and you have this horrible mess of people 00:43:59.80\00:44:05.94 not knowing who they are 00:44:05.97\00:44:07.31 and this... in my view... 00:44:07.34\00:44:09.24 is why we see so many of these young people 00:44:09.28\00:44:12.25 and older people who have transitioned now 00:44:12.28\00:44:14.98 attempting suicide at such high rates. 00:44:15.02\00:44:17.62 They don't know who they are, they don't know where to turn, 00:44:17.65\00:44:19.92 they have no foundation in which... to live their life. 00:44:19.95\00:44:24.96 In Jesus Christ, we know who we are, 00:44:24.99\00:44:28.23 it's says, "we're born a man... we're born woman... 00:44:28.26\00:44:30.87 we are to join in marriage as man and woman and be a family" 00:44:30.90\00:44:35.07 you know, when you break that apart, 00:44:35.10\00:44:37.04 you've got pieces scattered all over the place like we do today. 00:44:37.07\00:44:40.68 Hmmm... hmmm... hmmmm... hmmm... 00:44:40.71\00:44:42.44 I think it fits, again, with the times that we're living in, 00:44:42.48\00:44:44.55 it talks about how... in the Garden of Eden 00:44:44.61\00:44:47.35 before sin even entered the world, 00:44:47.42\00:44:49.08 that marriage was one of the institutions 00:44:49.12\00:44:51.35 that was established by God in a perfect world 00:44:51.42\00:44:53.76 and now, all of a sudden, it's... 00:44:53.79\00:44:55.86 marriage is under attack too... not only is it sexual identity, 00:44:55.89\00:44:59.23 maybe the cloaking issue but really 00:44:59.26\00:45:02.06 the undermining issue is the fact that the enemy, 00:45:02.10\00:45:04.87 Satan is out to destroy marriage... 00:45:04.90\00:45:06.74 one of the institutions that God had ordained in Eden. 00:45:06.77\00:45:10.41 At creation... the two institutions 00:45:10.44\00:45:12.61 that He... that God ordained 00:45:12.64\00:45:14.44 they're under attack... marriage and Sabbath. 00:45:14.48\00:45:17.08 And that's a very interesting phenomenon to me 00:45:17.11\00:45:19.71 that Satan wants to destroy the things 00:45:19.75\00:45:23.89 that God has established, that's his whole deal. 00:45:23.92\00:45:27.26 You're right, we shouldn't forget the foundation 00:45:27.29\00:45:30.53 of marriage, is it not... gender? 00:45:30.59\00:45:33.09 And, wait... wait Walt, 00:45:33.13\00:45:35.93 the foundation of marriage 00:45:35.96\00:45:38.70 was the complete expression of who God was. 00:45:38.73\00:45:41.34 Remember it wasn't until after He created Eve 00:45:41.37\00:45:43.71 that He stood back and He said, 00:45:43.74\00:45:45.07 "This is the express image of who I am" 00:45:45.11\00:45:47.94 the relationship between one man and one woman. 00:45:47.98\00:45:51.11 Wow, yeah... that's very, very deep. 00:45:51.15\00:45:56.08 So, you... you... 00:45:56.12\00:45:59.42 without necessarily naming the Networks... 00:45:59.45\00:46:01.66 but you've been invited to different Networks, 00:46:01.69\00:46:04.23 tell us about how that played out. 00:46:04.26\00:46:06.73 Mike: The Limo ride... 00:46:06.76\00:46:08.10 Yvonne: Yeah, tell us about the Limo ride. 00:46:08.13\00:46:10.77 Well, I've been invited to be on many TV shows 00:46:10.80\00:46:13.37 and... they... they... all they know is 00:46:13.40\00:46:16.54 I'm a transgender, apparently, 00:46:16.57\00:46:17.91 and they get me in the Limo, they schedule me to be on... 00:46:17.94\00:46:20.28 they get me in the Limo... I'm headed down to the Station 00:46:20.34\00:46:23.65 and then they find out that I'm not somebody 00:46:23.68\00:46:26.38 who's an LGBT Advocate... that I'm not... 00:46:26.41\00:46:29.02 I don't believe this behavior should be an identity 00:46:29.08\00:46:32.22 and so, I'll get a call... one time I was 00:46:32.25\00:46:35.32 could see the Station where I was supposed go 00:46:35.36\00:46:38.36 to be on at 6:00 in the morning, 00:46:38.39\00:46:39.73 I got up at 4:00... got a Limo ride at 5:00 00:46:39.76\00:46:41.76 and I was there before 6:00, 00:46:41.80\00:46:43.20 the Producer called me and said, "No, no, no, you can't... 00:46:43.23\00:46:46.10 you have to tell them to turn the car around 00:46:46.13\00:46:47.97 and go back home and take you back home. " 00:46:48.00\00:46:49.94 That's happened... many times... 00:46:49.97\00:46:51.64 so, they want to make sure they keep things squeaky clean 00:46:51.67\00:46:58.05 on television and they don't want people like me... 00:46:58.08\00:47:01.68 coming out and suggesting that a "behavior" now 00:47:01.72\00:47:05.22 has become an "identity" and that if it's a behavior, 00:47:05.25\00:47:09.62 which I believe it is from my own experience 00:47:09.69\00:47:11.86 and from the thousands of people that I get... 00:47:11.89\00:47:14.00 that have come to my website for the last ten years... 00:47:14.03\00:47:16.90 And what is your website? 00:47:16.93\00:47:18.63 It's called: sexchangeregret. com 00:47:18.70\00:47:21.70 and: atransgendersfaith. com 00:47:21.74\00:47:25.34 Yvonne: You have two? 00:47:25.37\00:47:26.71 I have two, yeah. 00:47:26.74\00:47:28.08 Yvonne: Say it again, and we'll have it up on the screen. 00:47:28.11\00:47:30.25 Yeah, so, sexchangeregret. com 00:47:30.28\00:47:32.61 and: atransgendersfaith. com 00:47:32.65\00:47:34.92 and so... people come to these websites 00:47:34.95\00:47:37.79 and they find things that they've never heard 00:47:37.82\00:47:39.99 because they don't allow me on television to talk about it. 00:47:40.02\00:47:42.86 Right, so, it's new information and it's... 00:47:42.89\00:47:46.36 What I have found is like... last year, 00:47:46.39\00:47:49.83 the website: sexchangeregret. com 00:47:49.86\00:47:51.30 got over 350,000 visits 00:47:51.33\00:47:53.80 and last year I was seen on media around the world 00:47:53.84\00:47:58.57 by over 300 million people 00:47:58.61\00:48:00.64 so, I'm able to get the message out 00:48:00.68\00:48:02.98 in every place outside of the U.S. 00:48:03.01\00:48:06.48 But the US does not want your message 00:48:06.51\00:48:09.92 to be promoted... because it goes against the agenda. 00:48:09.95\00:48:14.19 It's not politically correct to speak the way I speak 00:48:14.22\00:48:18.33 because I look at the letters of regret 00:48:18.36\00:48:21.70 that I get from people whose lives, just like mine, 00:48:21.73\00:48:25.17 have been totally damaged by the surgery, 00:48:25.20\00:48:27.27 totally damaged by a behavior 00:48:27.30\00:48:29.67 that someone told him was an identity... and it wasn't, 00:48:29.70\00:48:33.01 and they write me and say, "Now, what do I do? 00:48:33.04\00:48:34.98 I'm ten or fifteen years down the road 00:48:35.01\00:48:37.75 and I don't know how to come back, and... " 00:48:37.78\00:48:40.05 Yvonne: Are these people who've had the surgery? 00:48:40.12\00:48:43.59 Yes, yes, I get them frequently and I get people 00:48:43.62\00:48:46.99 who are near the edge, or have gone through it 00:48:47.02\00:48:50.09 or want help, I get those letters every day. 00:48:50.13\00:48:53.16 And so, when you get a pastor that comes to you and says, 00:48:53.19\00:49:00.90 "How do I deal with this in my church? 00:49:00.94\00:49:03.84 Like... what... what do you say, 00:49:03.87\00:49:05.84 how do you love the transgendered person 00:49:05.87\00:49:10.55 without reinforcing the behavior?" 00:49:10.61\00:49:12.45 Yeah, that's a great question, you know, 00:49:12.48\00:49:14.75 one of the things that's so important, 00:49:14.78\00:49:16.82 from what we've talked about today, 00:49:16.85\00:49:18.82 is we know... that the people who are acting out 00:49:18.85\00:49:21.72 in this transgender behavior, are hurting... 00:49:21.76\00:49:24.43 they've been injured, they've been damaged, 00:49:24.49\00:49:26.90 they've had something go wrong in their life, 00:49:26.93\00:49:29.80 and as such, if we're going to help them, 00:49:29.83\00:49:32.37 we need to sit down and listen to them, 00:49:32.43\00:49:34.90 we don't need to sort of support or encourage their behavior, 00:49:34.94\00:49:40.71 what we do need to do is find out 00:49:40.74\00:49:43.04 why they came to this conclusion 00:49:43.08\00:49:45.35 that they were a different gender, what happened? 00:49:45.38\00:49:47.15 I want to sit down with the people, 00:49:47.18\00:49:48.68 like I have done... I have sat across and said, 00:49:48.72\00:49:50.65 "What happened?" "When did this start?" 00:49:50.69\00:49:53.15 "When did you first get this feeling?" 00:49:53.19\00:49:55.26 "What type of relationship do you have with your father?" 00:49:55.29\00:49:58.06 "What type of relationship do you have with your mother?" 00:49:58.09\00:50:00.80 And, were they in a Foster home that was abusive? 00:50:00.83\00:50:04.83 Were they abused by a neighbor? What... did something... 00:50:04.87\00:50:07.64 Because, I have found 100 percent of the time, 00:50:07.67\00:50:10.17 my wife and I laugh about this now, 00:50:10.21\00:50:11.87 when they write me and say, "Well, the home life was fine" 00:50:11.91\00:50:14.68 and then I ask, five or ten good questions 00:50:14.71\00:50:17.05 and they write back... and you see... 00:50:17.08\00:50:18.41 that it was a total disaster. Yvonne: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:50:18.45\00:50:21.75 So, we do have... if we're going to be helping 00:50:21.78\00:50:25.05 people in a church, we have to sit down with them 00:50:25.09\00:50:28.36 and get to know what's causing them to hurt 00:50:28.39\00:50:32.43 and many of them, we know 00:50:32.46\00:50:33.80 62.7 percent of them 00:50:33.83\00:50:36.40 according to studies, are suffering from 00:50:36.43\00:50:38.13 Axis 1: psychological and psychiatric... 00:50:38.17\00:50:40.80 called "Comorbid disorders. " 00:50:40.84\00:50:42.90 Gender Dysphoria, by itself, 00:50:42.94\00:50:44.91 is the way they diagnose the condition 00:50:44.97\00:50:47.98 but under Gender Dysphoria, 00:50:48.01\00:50:49.68 is a comorbid disorder like, Dissociation 00:50:49.74\00:50:52.95 or Bi-Polar disorders or Schizophrenia 00:50:52.98\00:50:56.12 or Separation Anxiety, all these different disorders 00:50:56.15\00:51:00.32 that are never diagnosed by the attending physicians 00:51:00.36\00:51:03.76 who work with transgenders, they just overlook it 00:51:03.79\00:51:07.13 and offer them hormones 00:51:07.20\00:51:08.66 and send them on the road to having surgery 00:51:08.70\00:51:11.67 when in fact they're suffering from psychological 00:51:11.70\00:51:14.57 and psychiatric issues 00:51:14.60\00:51:16.30 if properly treated... 00:51:16.37\00:51:18.01 would alleviate the desire to change genders. 00:51:18.04\00:51:20.38 Mike: Exactly. 00:51:20.41\00:51:21.78 That's so... that is so deep, 00:51:21.81\00:51:25.21 so the label of Gender Dysphoria is really like the Band-Aid 00:51:25.25\00:51:31.52 that's covering the real issue, the real disorders 00:51:31.55\00:51:36.62 that you mentioned. 00:51:36.66\00:51:38.26 What I identified... is the yellow flag signaling caution, 00:51:38.29\00:51:42.50 there's something wrong. Yvonne: Hmmm... 00:51:42.56\00:51:43.90 And... because that is not... 00:51:43.93\00:51:46.87 we shouldn't be embracing Gender Dysphoria 00:51:46.90\00:51:49.54 because... it is nothing but a behavior 00:51:49.57\00:51:52.17 to tell us that something is hurting them 00:51:52.21\00:51:54.78 and they don't want to be who they are 00:51:54.81\00:51:56.88 so they're now attempting 00:51:56.91\00:51:59.11 to become someone who they can never really be. 00:51:59.15\00:52:01.38 Wow! that is incredible, you want to say something, Mike? 00:52:01.42\00:52:05.75 Well, just... well imagine 00:52:05.79\00:52:07.16 what that would have been for me if all of a sudden... 00:52:07.19\00:52:09.06 now they have laws to protect kids 00:52:09.09\00:52:11.06 that are transgender to have that sex change 00:52:11.09\00:52:13.70 so if I was 20-years old and then realized 00:52:13.73\00:52:16.26 that I was okay as a male, 00:52:16.30\00:52:18.07 only now, I've mutilated my body to resemble a female, 00:52:18.10\00:52:21.17 imagine how much more complicated 00:52:21.20\00:52:23.04 my issues would have been. 00:52:23.10\00:52:24.44 Absolutely, I mean, it's... it's just kind of incredible 00:52:24.47\00:52:28.91 that... that... what we're doing as a Society, 00:52:28.94\00:52:32.95 is to really make... make it all worse 00:52:33.01\00:52:36.38 instead of addressing the underlying issues 00:52:36.42\00:52:39.69 we're addressing... there's a manifest issue 00:52:39.72\00:52:42.72 and a latent issue 00:52:42.76\00:52:44.09 and we're addressing the manifest 00:52:44.13\00:52:45.46 without really dealing with the latent issue. 00:52:45.49\00:52:47.96 We're dealing with the symptom and not the problem. 00:52:48.00\00:52:49.76 Yvonne: Right. 00:52:49.80\00:52:51.13 And that is only a symptom 00:52:51.17\00:52:52.83 and I've had people write me a letter 00:52:52.87\00:52:55.34 and... an e-mail... 00:52:55.37\00:52:56.74 and I would have left church one time and got home, 00:52:56.77\00:52:59.27 looked at my e-mail and here's a letter from a guy 00:52:59.31\00:53:01.88 which says, "Please write me as soon as possible, 00:53:01.94\00:53:04.48 I'm going down to the store 00:53:04.51\00:53:05.91 to buy a gun and blow my brains out. " 00:53:05.95\00:53:07.62 Three years post surgery, 00:53:07.65\00:53:09.38 he was the same age I was when he had surgery, 00:53:09.45\00:53:13.02 he was a pilot making 200,000 dollars a year, 00:53:13.05\00:53:16.62 and he went through the surgery 00:53:16.66\00:53:18.89 now he is without a job, he's struggling 00:53:18.93\00:53:22.50 and wants to commit suicide. 00:53:22.56\00:53:24.07 I worked with him over 250 e-mails, 00:53:24.10\00:53:27.07 phone calls, and encouraging him... 00:53:27.10\00:53:30.01 he's alive today, he's back in being a pilot 00:53:30.04\00:53:33.38 and he's back being a man. 00:53:33.44\00:53:34.84 Mike: Amen. Yvonne: Praise the Lord. 00:53:34.88\00:53:37.25 What a blessing... what a blessing it is 00:53:37.31\00:53:39.95 to have you working with those... 00:53:39.98\00:53:42.42 you've been through the experience 00:53:42.45\00:53:44.82 the whole experience including the surgery 00:53:44.85\00:53:48.69 and you're helping people 00:53:48.72\00:53:51.33 who've been there, what a blessing! 00:53:51.36\00:53:53.33 Mike, I need to get your website information 00:53:53.40\00:53:56.46 before we close too 00:53:56.50\00:53:57.83 so that people know how to contact you 00:53:57.87\00:53:59.37 in 'Coming Out' Ministries. 00:53:59.43\00:54:00.77 Sure, it's: comingoutministries. org 00:54:00.80\00:54:04.87 That's it, comingoutministries. org 00:54:04.91\00:54:09.18 we have 30 seconds, 00:54:09.21\00:54:11.55 can you just give a closing thought, Walt, 00:54:11.58\00:54:14.62 to somebody who is going through that situation, 00:54:14.65\00:54:18.89 just 30 seconds. 00:54:18.92\00:54:20.36 Just understand that the people are hurting 00:54:20.39\00:54:23.22 and that are struggling with this 00:54:23.26\00:54:25.49 and try to find out what it is that caused them 00:54:25.53\00:54:28.56 to have such pain that they don't want to be 00:54:28.60\00:54:31.23 who they are and now they're attempting 00:54:31.27\00:54:33.74 to become someone who they can never be 00:54:33.77\00:54:35.90 because it's categorically impossible 00:54:35.94\00:54:38.01 to surgically, biologically, change someone 00:54:38.04\00:54:41.78 from one gender to the other, it's not possible. 00:54:41.81\00:54:44.28 They are still... if they were born male... 00:54:44.31\00:54:48.48 they're still male... correct? 00:54:48.52\00:54:50.42 Thank you so much for being with us... both of you, 00:54:50.45\00:54:53.12 thank you Mike, thank you Walt, 00:54:53.15\00:54:55.16 thank you so much for sharing this information with us 00:54:55.19\00:54:58.99 and thank you so much for joining us. 00:54:59.03\00:55:01.16 This has been an amazing blessing, God bless you. 00:55:01.20\00:55:04.27 Walt: Thank you. Mike: Thank you very much. 00:55:04.30\00:55:06.13 Wooooo, was that powerful or what? 00:55:06.17\00:55:11.17 God transforms 00:55:11.21\00:55:13.17 and we can be grateful for His Holy Spirit 00:55:13.21\00:55:15.54 who gives us new and true identities in Christ. 00:55:15.58\00:55:19.48 At Dare to Dream, 00:55:19.51\00:55:20.85 we appreciate your prayers and support 00:55:20.88\00:55:23.28 and we welcome your love gifts 00:55:23.32\00:55:25.45 so please ask the Holy Spirit how much you should give 00:55:25.49\00:55:29.62 and then send your tax-deductible love gifts to: 00:55:29.69\00:55:35.00 Dare to Dream, PO Box 220, West Frankfort, IL 62896 00:55:35.03\00:55:40.34 and the phone number, if you choose to call us 00:55:40.37\00:55:43.30 is 618-627-4651 00:55:43.34\00:55:47.88 that's 618-627-4651 00:55:47.91\00:55:52.38 or go to our website at: D2DNetwork. tv 00:55:52.41\00:55:57.92 D2DNetwork. tv 00:55:57.95\00:56:00.59 we're also on Facebook 00:56:00.66\00:56:02.52 we want you to "Like" us on Facebook 00:56:02.56\00:56:04.59 and if you have ideas for programs, 00:56:04.63\00:56:08.33 send us ideas or if you have a testimony 00:56:08.36\00:56:11.33 about how Dare to Dream has impacted your life, 00:56:11.40\00:56:14.97 please, send us a little video from your camera 00:56:15.00\00:56:18.27 or your iPad or something, 00:56:18.31\00:56:19.71 saying how Dare to Dream has impacted your life. 00:56:19.74\00:56:22.58 It's really important to us 00:56:22.64\00:56:24.28 that the programs that we are producing here 00:56:24.31\00:56:27.85 are a blessing to you. 00:56:27.88\00:56:29.28 We pray that your hearts are being turned to the Lord 00:56:29.32\00:56:32.69 because that's why we're doing this. 00:56:32.72\00:56:34.96 That's the whole purpose behind it 00:56:34.99\00:56:37.16 because we want to share Jesus with the world. 00:56:37.19\00:56:40.06 Well, thanks for joining us, 00:56:40.10\00:56:42.46 join us next time because you know what? 00:56:42.50\00:56:45.07 It just wouldn't be the same without you. 00:56:45.10\00:56:47.64