The following program discusses sensitive issues. 00:00:01.33\00:00:03.16 Parents are cautioned that some material 00:00:03.20\00:00:05.17 may be too candid for younger children. 00:00:05.20\00:00:10.61 Stay tuned to meet two men who are delivered from 00:00:10.67\00:00:14.41 gender identity confusion. 00:00:14.44\00:00:16.18 My name is Yvonne Lewis 00:00:16.21\00:00:17.91 and you're watching Urban Report. 00:00:17.95\00:00:19.98 Hello and welcome to Urban Report. 00:00:42.94\00:00:44.97 My guests today are Mike Carducci from 00:00:45.01\00:00:47.61 'Coming Out' Ministries 00:00:47.64\00:00:48.98 and Walt Heyer, Lecturer and Author. 00:00:49.01\00:00:51.31 I had a chance to talk with them 00:00:51.35\00:00:53.85 when they came here to be on our Dare to Dream Program 00:00:53.88\00:00:56.38 Pure Choices, 00:00:56.42\00:00:57.75 you won't believe the powerful way 00:00:57.79\00:01:00.36 God has worked in their lives. Take a look. 00:01:00.39\00:01:05.13 What a joy it is for me to be on the Set of Pure Choices 00:01:05.16\00:01:10.77 interviewing and talking to two amazing men of God. 00:01:10.83\00:01:17.47 Mike Carducci of 'Coming Out' Ministries 00:01:17.57\00:01:21.28 and Walt Heyer... Walt Heyer is a Lecturer 00:01:21.31\00:01:24.98 and Author and both of you have amazing experiences 00:01:25.01\00:01:29.88 and I asked Mike... who was here 00:01:29.92\00:01:32.92 with the rest of 'Coming Out' Ministries 00:01:32.99\00:01:35.12 to do this series... 00:01:35.16\00:01:36.89 they came to do this whole series on Pure Choices, 00:01:36.93\00:01:40.90 and when I heard Walt's testimony, 00:01:40.93\00:01:44.00 I knew that you had to hear this. 00:01:44.03\00:01:46.87 So, I got Mike to come join me 00:01:46.90\00:01:49.67 and Mike, I want you to just... kind of just... you know, 00:01:49.70\00:01:52.11 ask any questions that you might have 00:01:52.14\00:01:53.91 from Walt as we have Walt here, 00:01:53.94\00:01:55.54 and I knew that we only had Walt for 00:01:55.58\00:01:57.58 a little bit of time so we grabbed you up 00:01:57.61\00:02:00.22 and you to do this and so thank you so much 00:02:00.25\00:02:02.72 both of you for being with us. 00:02:02.75\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\00:02:09.36 it's just so profound because what I see in Media 00:02:09.39\00:02:14.20 is this thrust... this push to accept the whole transgender 00:02:14.20\00:02:22.57 movement, not only to accept it 00:02:22.60\00:02:24.71 but to promote it and so I'd like for our Viewers 00:02:24.74\00:02:29.14 to hear about your journey and then 00:02:29.18\00:02:31.05 we're just going to kind of ask you questions as we go along. 00:02:31.11\00:02:33.31 Walt: Sure. 00:02:33.38\00:02:34.72 Tell us about your journey, how did this whole thing start? 00:02:34.75\00:02:38.32 Yeah, that's great, 00:02:38.35\00:02:39.69 I'm so happy to be able to do this because 00:02:39.72\00:02:42.19 people do need to get a better understanding 00:02:42.22\00:02:44.43 of how this all gets started, in my case, 00:02:44.46\00:02:46.66 I was four-years old and whether it was my idea 00:02:46.70\00:02:50.70 or my grandmother's, I don't know 00:02:50.73\00:02:52.77 but she started crossdressing me 00:02:52.80\00:02:54.77 and she really enjoyed crossdressing me 00:02:54.80\00:02:58.14 but we did it in secret, 00:02:58.17\00:02:59.51 it was "grandma's secret" with me 00:02:59.54\00:03:01.81 and over a period of time, she began to increase this 00:03:01.84\00:03:07.22 to the point... she was a Seamstress 00:03:07.25\00:03:08.78 so she made this purple, chiffon evening dress, 00:03:08.82\00:03:12.49 this long, flowing evening dress 00:03:12.52\00:03:14.32 that she just took a lot of pride in 00:03:14.39\00:03:15.86 now keep in mind, I'm four-years old 00:03:15.89\00:03:18.43 and so, here she is... dressing me up 00:03:18.46\00:03:20.90 and she's fawning over me, she's making a big fuss over me 00:03:20.93\00:03:24.83 about being a girl and obviously, to me, 00:03:24.87\00:03:27.24 she liked me much better as a girl than she did as a boy 00:03:27.30\00:03:31.47 which... I always say plants a seed in my mind that 00:03:31.51\00:03:35.04 "Gee, there must be something wrong with me 00:03:35.08\00:03:37.01 if she's liking me better as a girl than as a boy... " 00:03:37.05\00:03:40.48 that becomes a conflict within myself 00:03:40.52\00:03:42.85 about who I am and... 00:03:42.88\00:03:45.35 so this went on for a couple of years... 00:03:45.39\00:03:47.86 every time she had the opportunity to babysit me 00:03:47.89\00:03:50.29 which was almost every weekend. 00:03:50.33\00:03:51.96 Yvonne: Were you an only child? 00:03:51.99\00:03:53.66 No, I had a brother and my brother got to go 00:03:53.70\00:03:56.53 to my other grandma's house. 00:03:56.60\00:03:57.93 Neither one of them wanted us both 00:03:57.97\00:03:59.30 so I got this grandma, 00:03:59.33\00:04:01.37 so I got this grandma... 00:04:01.40\00:04:03.30 I always teasingly say, 00:04:03.34\00:04:05.01 "Well, he got the good grandma 00:04:05.04\00:04:06.37 and I'm not sure I got the good one" but... 00:04:06.41\00:04:07.91 so this grandma... 00:04:07.94\00:04:09.78 it was in the LA area and it was behind a junkyard 00:04:09.81\00:04:13.52 in a small house and grandpa was a tow truck driver 00:04:13.62\00:04:17.02 and he was gone most of the time so when he was gone, 00:04:17.09\00:04:20.49 this is what grandma and I were doing. 00:04:20.56\00:04:22.42 And so, eventually, after a couple of years, 00:04:22.46\00:04:27.30 I really started kind of enjoying 00:04:27.30\00:04:30.03 the love and the affirmation and the encouragement 00:04:30.07\00:04:33.07 that I was getting... because she seemed to be very happy. 00:04:33.10\00:04:35.80 So it was making me happy that she was happy. 00:04:35.84\00:04:38.47 Now, do you know if she ever did this to anybody else? 00:04:38.51\00:04:42.84 To my knowledge, no. 00:04:42.88\00:04:44.25 Was she your maternal or paternal? 00:04:44.28\00:04:46.01 It was my mother's mother. 00:04:46.05\00:04:47.38 Okay, so she was dressing your mom up 00:04:47.42\00:04:50.35 in just regular "girl" clothes but there were no other siblings 00:04:50.39\00:04:54.29 that you had that she was doing this with, just you? 00:04:54.32\00:04:57.29 No, just me... yeah, and like I said, 00:04:57.33\00:04:59.83 she seemed to enjoy it a great deal 00:04:59.86\00:05:02.33 which made me enjoy it and so eventually, I decided, 00:05:02.40\00:05:07.27 "Gee, I want to wear this dress when I get home 00:05:07.34\00:05:09.44 but I'd have to... " I knew because it was a secret 00:05:09.47\00:05:11.57 I'd have to do it in secret 00:05:11.61\00:05:12.94 but I took the dress and put it in a brown bag 00:05:12.97\00:05:15.64 one time when dad was coming to pick me up 00:05:15.68\00:05:18.38 and take me back home, I got it home 00:05:18.45\00:05:20.65 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\00:05:26.62 well then... there was a big explosion in the house, 00:05:26.65\00:05:29.66 "What are you doing with the dress?" 00:05:29.69\00:05:31.03 "How did this come about?" 00:05:31.06\00:05:32.39 So there was this big explanation 00:05:32.43\00:05:34.40 and when they found out 00:05:34.46\00:05:35.83 that grandma had been crossdressing me 00:05:35.86\00:05:37.67 for two-and-a-half years, 00:05:37.70\00:05:39.03 it was a tough place to live for a while 00:05:39.07\00:05:41.64 I mean... because they were in conflict, 00:05:41.67\00:05:44.34 I couldn't go to grandma's anymore 00:05:44.37\00:05:46.27 then I felt like it was my fault, 00:05:46.31\00:05:47.81 that I had done something wrong 00:05:47.84\00:05:49.31 so I was bad... 00:05:49.34\00:05:50.71 and then Dad, who was a police officer, 00:05:50.75\00:05:53.25 auxiliary police officer at that time 00:05:53.28\00:05:56.52 decided that the way to "man" me up 00:05:56.55\00:05:59.69 was to use some heavy discipline like hardwood floor planks 00:05:59.72\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\00:06:09.93 and so, that was... I really believed though 00:06:10.00\00:06:13.84 within him, he was struggling with trying to... 00:06:13.87\00:06:17.31 he didn't know what to do, like most parents don't. 00:06:17.34\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\00:06:23.24 and it's a dynamic... in the family, 00:06:23.28\00:06:25.68 it's very difficult, you get a wife, 00:06:25.71\00:06:28.05 it's her mother, you get, you know, in-law... 00:06:28.08\00:06:30.72 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\00:06:34.99 watching this whole thing 00:06:35.06\00:06:36.39 and not knowing what to do himself. 00:06:36.42\00:06:37.76 How did your brother relate to you during this time 00:06:37.79\00:06:41.40 as all of this attention was on you, 00:06:41.43\00:06:43.83 how your brother react? 00:06:43.87\00:06:45.20 He kind of dove into silence and got into reading books 00:06:45.23\00:06:49.07 he just kind of disconnected and he became an avid reader 00:06:49.10\00:06:54.04 and he just read all the time book after book after book 00:06:54.08\00:06:58.98 and he was a year-and-a- half older than I was 00:06:59.01\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\00:07:07.69 "a strong, quiet intellect" in the family. 00:07:07.72\00:07:10.76 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\00:07:15.50 is that we had very aggressive, masculine fathers 00:07:15.53\00:07:18.73 and because of my rejection of that masculinity 00:07:18.77\00:07:21.90 is why I ended up going towards my mother. 00:07:21.97\00:07:24.11 Do you think that your father's over-masculine influence 00:07:24.14\00:07:28.61 had some reaction as well? 00:07:28.64\00:07:31.45 Because he became abusive and overbearing, 00:07:31.48\00:07:34.42 is it possible that along with the crossdressing 00:07:34.45\00:07:37.92 with your grandmother, that had an influence as well? 00:07:37.95\00:07:40.46 Well, sure, I think anytime you get 00:07:40.49\00:07:43.06 any kind of heavy discipline like that... it's going to bound 00:07:43.09\00:07:46.46 it's bound to have some negative influence on you 00:07:46.49\00:07:49.36 that... you know... all of a sudden, 00:07:49.40\00:07:50.73 you're now bad with grandma 00:07:50.77\00:07:52.10 and bad with dad, I mean, 00:07:52.13\00:07:53.50 the things you're just not... 00:07:53.54\00:07:54.87 it's hard to know what to do 00:07:54.90\00:07:56.24 when you're six- or seven-years old. 00:07:56.27\00:07:57.91 How do you work through all these ailments? 00:07:57.94\00:08:00.61 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\00:08:10.12 because you already had this identification 00:08:10.15\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\00:08:21.33 Well, you know, it's funny, my dad was actually 00:08:21.36\00:08:23.97 kind of two-sided that way because part of him 00:08:24.00\00:08:26.57 wanted... he wanted to be with me 00:08:26.60\00:08:28.94 because I think he wanted to have that influence 00:08:28.97\00:08:31.71 so he spent time with me but I think he was always troubled 00:08:31.74\00:08:35.38 by what he knew grandma was doing 00:08:35.41\00:08:37.15 and I could almost see the pain in him... 00:08:37.18\00:08:39.88 in his own way, trying to deal with me. 00:08:39.91\00:08:42.25 He bought me a little shovel one time... 00:08:42.28\00:08:44.59 a little red-handled shovel and I'd go out in the yard 00:08:44.62\00:08:47.76 and start to dig along... beside him, 00:08:47.79\00:08:49.29 that was kind of... one of the things he did 00:08:49.32\00:08:51.56 but he would have these periods where he was fine 00:08:51.59\00:08:54.73 and loving and caring 00:08:54.73\00:08:56.46 but he'd have times where it just... he was so frustrated 00:08:56.50\00:09:00.67 that... then his discipline just got out of hand, yeah. 00:09:00.70\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 00:09:10.28\00:09:14.18 and it seems as though your grandma was... 00:09:14.25\00:09:18.15 she told you, "This is a secret" 00:09:18.19\00:09:20.29 and that's what "groomers" do, is it not? 00:09:20.32\00:09:23.46 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\00:09:34.54 like... our playful little secret? 00:09:34.57\00:09:36.17 Yeah, it was a playful... that's the way I'd describe it, 00:09:36.20\00:09:37.91 a playful secret but isn't it interesting 00:09:37.94\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\00:09:44.81 but there's always an indication there's something wrong. 00:09:44.85\00:09:47.22 Hmmm... 00:09:47.25\00:09:48.58 Right, a secret means somebody's doing something wrong. 00:09:48.62\00:09:50.59 Hmmm... 00:09:50.62\00:09:51.95 And what troubles me today 00:09:51.99\00:09:54.26 is the same thing that I know today from 00:09:54.29\00:09:57.53 looking back at my life is that 00:09:57.56\00:09:58.89 when you crossdress a young boy... as a girl, 00:09:58.93\00:10:02.40 you're actually emotionally and psychologically 00:10:02.43\00:10:05.93 committing abuse on that child. 00:10:05.97\00:10:07.50 Unpack that... unpack that for us... 00:10:07.60\00:10:11.11 Anytime you are beginning to dis-assemble 00:10:11.14\00:10:15.71 by virtue of crossdressing and disassemble their identity, 00:10:15.78\00:10:19.98 what's happening? 00:10:20.02\00:10:21.35 You're impacting who they think they are 00:10:21.38\00:10:23.95 and it becomes very confusing, 00:10:23.99\00:10:25.32 it's no wonder they end up with "gender dysphoria. " 00:10:25.35\00:10:27.66 So, when you crossdress them, you're saying... 00:10:27.69\00:10:31.13 many things... you're signaled without the words. 00:10:31.16\00:10:34.56 One, there's something wrong with you... 00:10:34.56\00:10:36.03 one, you're better as a girl... one, I like you better as a girl 00:10:36.06\00:10:39.40 I prefer you... all these different things 00:10:39.43\00:10:42.10 are messages that... they don't have to speak 00:10:42.14\00:10:44.67 but you're saying them by the fact 00:10:44.71\00:10:46.54 that you're actually putting him in a dress 00:10:46.61\00:10:49.64 and then talking to them as though they're a young girl 00:10:49.68\00:10:52.75 and presenting them that way. 00:10:52.78\00:10:54.25 So, what do you say to that parent that says, 00:10:54.28\00:10:57.72 "Little Johnny likes dresses, 00:10:57.75\00:11:00.16 little Johnny wants to comb hair and play with hair 00:11:00.19\00:11:04.49 and do all of this 00:11:04.53\00:11:05.86 so I'm just letting little Johnny be who he is. 00:11:05.89\00:11:08.36 Well, you know, that is a troubling issue 00:11:08.40\00:11:10.73 for parents, no doubt, 00:11:10.77\00:11:12.10 if I were raising a child, 00:11:12.13\00:11:14.37 I think all kids are curious about their gender. 00:11:14.40\00:11:18.37 I also think it's a parent's responsibility 00:11:18.41\00:11:21.61 to teach them about who they are 00:11:21.64\00:11:23.61 and I don't think it's healthy if a kid asks a question 00:11:23.65\00:11:27.98 about girly things, 00:11:28.02\00:11:30.35 I think they still need to encourage them 00:11:30.39\00:11:32.59 and influence them in the same way 00:11:32.62\00:11:35.46 they were trained to do as a female... 00:11:35.49\00:11:36.99 they encourage him as a male, 00:11:37.03\00:11:38.36 take him out and buy him boy's clothes 00:11:38.39\00:11:40.56 and encourage them as a boy, 00:11:40.60\00:11:41.93 encourage them in ways that are not going to 00:11:41.96\00:11:44.70 offend their ideas 00:11:44.73\00:11:47.17 or suggestions that they might like a "girl" thing. 00:11:47.20\00:11:50.54 Find the creative way of getting them engaged 00:11:50.57\00:11:54.04 in doing "boy" things. 00:11:54.11\00:11:55.44 I think you can do that very easily 00:11:55.48\00:11:58.78 if you just sit back and not think, 00:11:58.81\00:12:01.58 "Oh, I have a transgender kid" 00:12:01.62\00:12:03.22 because that's what happens with the parents today 00:12:03.25\00:12:05.32 is... there's sort of this automatic idea 00:12:05.35\00:12:08.79 because a kid says, 00:12:08.82\00:12:10.16 "I like this dress or I like that. " 00:12:10.23\00:12:11.89 "Oh, I've got a transgender kid" 00:12:11.93\00:12:13.60 it's almost... like we're manufacturing 00:12:13.63\00:12:15.63 transgender kids today 00:12:15.66\00:12:17.80 faster than anything I've ever seen. 00:12:17.83\00:12:21.00 So, what I find interesting is that I think 00:12:21.04\00:12:23.61 the Scriptures really support that kind of idea 00:12:23.67\00:12:26.14 because... when it talks about how 00:12:26.17\00:12:27.91 men should not wear women's clothing 00:12:27.94\00:12:29.68 and women should not wear men's clothing 00:12:29.71\00:12:31.85 every time that I was playing "dress up" 00:12:31.91\00:12:34.02 every time that my aunt would tease my hair 00:12:34.08\00:12:36.38 and fix it to look like a girl, it was confirming 00:12:36.42\00:12:39.85 this gender dysphoria for me 00:12:39.89\00:12:41.79 because God said in Genesis, "I made the male and female" 00:12:41.82\00:12:45.13 and one of the things that He had to tell me even recently 00:12:45.16\00:12:48.40 is that, "No, I didn't make a mistake... I made you a male" 00:12:48.43\00:12:51.37 and even in Psalm 139 it talks about how 00:12:51.40\00:12:55.47 I knit together your very inward parts, you know 00:12:55.50\00:12:58.77 the intimate parts of you, He knew who I was 00:12:58.84\00:13:02.14 and who I was... supposed to be 00:13:02.18\00:13:03.65 so every time that you are dressed up in that dress, 00:13:03.68\00:13:05.98 every time that I was dressing up in my mother's clothes, 00:13:06.01\00:13:09.08 I was affirming my dissatisfaction 00:13:09.12\00:13:11.15 for the sex that I was born with. 00:13:11.22\00:13:13.36 And so, not only do you find that... 00:13:13.39\00:13:15.46 that the Scriptures, I think, support that, 00:13:15.49\00:13:17.86 but now there was something else 00:13:17.89\00:13:19.53 that you were bringing out about behavior... versus identity 00:13:19.56\00:13:23.06 which to me was shocking. 00:13:23.10\00:13:24.60 Yeah, I think it's so interesting, 00:13:24.63\00:13:26.60 I've come to the conclusion after all these years 00:13:26.70\00:13:28.60 that a transgender is a "behavior" 00:13:28.64\00:13:32.17 it's not an "identity. " 00:13:32.21\00:13:33.54 See... that... this... this is as eye-opening a concept 00:13:33.58\00:13:40.12 to me as the whole idea 00:13:40.18\00:13:43.02 of LGBT being a civil rights issue. 00:13:43.05\00:13:47.02 Because once you frame it a certain way, 00:13:47.06\00:13:50.49 and once you frame it a certain way, 00:13:50.53\00:13:53.86 then there are certain suppositions that follow 00:13:53.90\00:13:56.90 and so, what you're saying is that 00:13:57.00\00:14:00.14 this is not a "gender" issue so much 00:14:00.17\00:14:03.14 as a "behavior... " a set of behaviors... 00:14:03.17\00:14:06.34 Walt: That's right. 00:14:06.37\00:14:07.71 Yvonne: Unpack that some more for us. 00:14:07.74\00:14:09.08 Yeah, well, any time... we look at the word "behavior" 00:14:09.11\00:14:11.81 and if you look at the LGBT like... you're talking about, 00:14:11.85\00:14:14.68 you have "a behavior," their whole thing collapses 00:14:14.75\00:14:18.02 because they're basing everything 00:14:18.09\00:14:19.59 on the fact that they are "born that way," 00:14:19.62\00:14:20.96 that it's genetic 00:14:20.99\00:14:22.32 and what I'm saying is it's not genetic, 00:14:22.36\00:14:24.93 I haven't seen any evidence of it... that it's genetic 00:14:24.96\00:14:27.93 the only thing I've seen is that 00:14:27.96\00:14:30.03 we have pain in a child's life, 00:14:30.07\00:14:32.10 we have events where they're being crossdressed 00:14:32.13\00:14:34.54 which I think, crossdressing in of itself... 00:14:34.57\00:14:36.67 is abuse. 00:14:36.71\00:14:38.07 Hmmm... 00:14:38.11\00:14:39.44 And so, when you look at... some parent will tell me, 00:14:39.47\00:14:42.34 "Well, he's never had any trauma or anything in his life" 00:14:42.38\00:14:45.25 I said, "Were you crossdressing him?" 00:14:45.28\00:14:46.72 That's trauma, it's abusive 00:14:46.78\00:14:49.75 and today, we've come to this place where 00:14:49.78\00:14:53.52 we're accepting the idea of dressing boys as girls 00:14:53.56\00:14:57.29 and thinking that they're surviving this whole ideology 00:14:57.33\00:15:01.26 and they're not... and the best example of that 00:15:01.30\00:15:04.40 was a show that I saw in Network TV 00:15:04.43\00:15:07.04 where the young boy... the mother's being interviewed 00:15:07.07\00:15:09.80 and it's a long show where they're showing the kid 00:15:09.84\00:15:12.54 going to school and he'd been going to school 00:15:12.57\00:15:14.71 as a girl for some... three or four years 00:15:14.74\00:15:16.85 and in this one particular shot 00:15:16.88\00:15:19.25 the interviewer is talking to the mother, 00:15:19.28\00:15:21.68 the mother has the boy sitting at the dining table 00:15:21.72\00:15:24.22 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 00:15:26.79\00:15:28.99 and they're doing all these different things 00:15:29.02\00:15:31.46 and she's like... what reflected on me was 00:15:31.49\00:15:33.90 the fact that she was acting much like my grandmother did 00:15:33.93\00:15:36.67 so I really connected with this 00:15:36.73\00:15:38.13 and so she's combing the child's hair 00:15:38.17\00:15:40.60 and the interviewer is interviewing mom 00:15:40.64\00:15:42.90 and in this one amazing moment, the child turns his head back 00:15:42.94\00:15:48.64 and looks at mom and said, 00:15:48.68\00:15:50.75 "Would you love me if I was a boy?" 00:15:50.81\00:15:53.18 Wow! 00:15:53.21\00:15:56.52 so the child is actually saying, 00:15:56.55\00:16:00.59 "I sense that you want this for me. " 00:16:00.69\00:16:03.49 Exactly, exactly and then it began this process 00:16:03.56\00:16:09.46 with the camera rolling 00:16:09.50\00:16:11.23 where mom kind of stepped back, was a little shocked 00:16:11.27\00:16:13.74 and the boy says, 00:16:13.77\00:16:15.10 "Well, I'm not sure that I want to be a girl" 00:16:15.14\00:16:17.04 and mom says, 00:16:17.11\00:16:18.94 "Well, I've never heard this before" 00:16:18.97\00:16:20.78 but I think what's happening in this particular scene was 00:16:20.81\00:16:24.38 that mom was sort of pushing this agenda so hard 00:16:24.41\00:16:28.12 and she was wearing it almost like a badge of honor 00:16:28.15\00:16:31.35 that she has a transgender kid and she's on television 00:16:31.39\00:16:34.56 showing what she's doing 00:16:34.59\00:16:35.92 not realizing or not having anyone there 00:16:35.96\00:16:39.06 to suggest that this may be abusive and not healthy... 00:16:39.09\00:16:42.36 psychologically... for this kid, 00:16:42.40\00:16:44.03 and then the kid turns around and said, 00:16:44.07\00:16:46.33 "Would you love me if I was a boy?" 00:16:46.37\00:16:48.64 I mean... I wept... and I just couldn't believe 00:16:48.67\00:16:53.24 that mom was so forceful in this in pushing... 00:16:53.27\00:16:57.81 obviously pushing... 00:16:57.85\00:16:59.18 because they show... during the show 00:16:59.21\00:17:00.65 taking the boy to get hormone blockers... 00:17:00.75\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\00:17:18.00 After that seed had been planted what did you do? 00:17:18.07\00:17:21.17 Yeah, once that seed was planted... 00:17:21.20\00:17:23.51 and then... the two-and-a-half years expired 00:17:23.54\00:17:25.94 and I couldn't go to grandma's anymore, 00:17:25.97\00:17:29.41 I remember, sometime after that time 00:17:29.44\00:17:31.81 when I couldn't go to grandma's, 00:17:31.85\00:17:34.15 I woke up in the morning just weeping... crying... 00:17:34.22\00:17:37.99 I'm only seven years old and I'm crying 00:17:38.02\00:17:40.59 and everybody is upset, "Why are you crying?" 00:17:40.66\00:17:43.12 And I couldn't even explain why I was crying 00:17:43.16\00:17:46.53 but something was deeply broken within me 00:17:46.56\00:17:49.90 and I believe today as I look back, 00:17:49.93\00:17:52.73 my identity had been broken, I couldn't figure out who I was 00:17:52.77\00:17:55.94 and in the midst of this struggle... 00:17:55.97\00:17:59.64 I literally cried from morning until night, 00:17:59.67\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\00:18:21.20 who identify in this behavior, 00:18:21.23\00:18:23.97 is that they can't explain where the pain is coming from, 00:18:24.00\00:18:26.97 they don't have the whole equipment, 00:18:27.04\00:18:29.27 tools and psychological ability to know the consequences 00:18:29.30\00:18:33.48 of what's going to happen down the road. 00:18:33.58\00:18:35.11 So, we're really doing a great disservice to young people 00:18:35.14\00:18:40.65 to suggest that they're a different gender 00:18:40.72\00:18:42.65 and then encouraging them to change genders because 00:18:42.68\00:18:45.75 we don't know the consequences. 00:18:45.79\00:18:47.56 Now they have school curriculums that are actually 00:18:47.59\00:18:50.63 trying to introduce this to Kindergarten-age kids 00:18:50.66\00:18:53.63 where... I have a client that actually 00:18:53.70\00:18:56.00 has a Day Care in a small town in Tennessee 00:18:56.03\00:18:58.83 and if she wants Government funding, 00:18:58.87\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 00:19:20.29\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, 00:19:26.93\00:19:28.53 it was... the fact that... when I was at that age 00:19:28.56\00:19:31.00 where I was transitioning to my gender... 00:19:31.03\00:19:33.27 it was my father... and he... either wasn't available 00:19:33.34\00:19:36.00 because he was in the Navy, 00:19:36.04\00:19:37.41 so he'd be gone for three to six months at a time, 00:19:37.44\00:19:39.41 so, for a little boy between the ages of one and three, 00:19:39.44\00:19:42.34 that's almost half my life but then when my father was home 00:19:42.38\00:19:45.21 he was this hot-headed abusive Italian, 00:19:45.28\00:19:47.78 he was loud, he was angry 00:19:47.82\00:19:50.09 and so, at that time when I was transitioning, 00:19:50.12\00:19:52.49 he was frightening to me and very... it was undesirable, 00:19:52.52\00:19:57.03 his masculinity, so, in my defense, 00:19:57.06\00:19:59.33 even before I was conscious, I had detached from my father 00:19:59.36\00:20:01.86 and so the only example left was my mother 00:20:01.90\00:20:04.13 they talk about how every little child's identity 00:20:04.17\00:20:06.80 is like wet cement, 00:20:06.84\00:20:08.20 they don't know that they're male or female 00:20:08.24\00:20:10.47 and so, at this time when my cement was wet, 00:20:10.51\00:20:12.71 I returned back to my mother, she was soft, 00:20:12.74\00:20:14.88 I wanted to walk like her, talk like her, 00:20:14.94\00:20:17.01 and so my cement became hardened in the feminine, 00:20:17.05\00:20:19.98 and so I didn't know how to fix it, I was just a little boy, 00:20:20.02\00:20:23.02 but I thought that... I knew that something was wrong 00:20:23.05\00:20:25.82 the other kids were calling me names 00:20:25.85\00:20:28.69 and I knew that I was different than them 00:20:28.72\00:20:30.49 even though I wasn't sexualized 00:20:30.53\00:20:32.29 but for me, that's where it began. 00:20:32.33\00:20:34.10 You know, what I'm hearing 00:20:34.13\00:20:35.80 is... and what I've heard from the rest of your team 00:20:35.83\00:20:38.67 in 'Coming Out' Ministries as well, 00:20:38.70\00:20:40.37 is this brokenness, that there's some kind of trauma 00:20:40.40\00:20:46.71 that takes place early... in early childhood, 00:20:46.74\00:20:50.18 that causes this brokenness, 00:20:50.21\00:20:54.08 and where modern society has gotten off balance 00:20:54.15\00:20:58.95 is they don't use Jesus as the answer 00:20:58.99\00:21:01.86 everything else is the answer, 00:21:01.89\00:21:03.86 let Johnny dress up like Susie, 00:21:03.93\00:21:05.83 let Susie be Johnny, let... and... and... 00:21:05.86\00:21:08.96 the real deal is, well, you brought this up... 00:21:09.00\00:21:13.13 is... behavior versus gender identity. 00:21:13.17\00:21:17.37 Address the behavior. 00:21:17.41\00:21:19.64 That's exactly right and 00:21:19.67\00:21:21.84 today we're trying to take a behavior 00:21:21.88\00:21:25.15 and transform a behavior into an identity 00:21:25.18\00:21:28.42 and as a result of that, 00:21:28.45\00:21:30.65 what people don't seem to be able to pull together 00:21:30.69\00:21:34.26 like I can, at least I can see... 00:21:34.29\00:21:37.19 because I attempted suicide and... 00:21:37.23\00:21:38.99 Yvonne: At what age? 00:21:39.03\00:21:40.76 I was probably in my early forties, 00:21:40.80\00:21:43.60 I'd been struggling all this time 00:21:43.63\00:21:46.77 and 39... 40... somewhere in that... 00:21:46.80\00:21:49.80 I don't remember the exact time but I tried to commit suicide 00:21:49.84\00:21:52.57 and what we have with this population is 00:21:52.61\00:21:56.28 they attempt suicide at a rate above 40 percent 00:21:56.34\00:22:00.45 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\00:22:06.79 and they said the age group between ten and twenty four 00:22:06.86\00:22:10.23 attempt suicide at the rate of around fifty percent. 00:22:10.26\00:22:14.36 So, I would ask anybody who has the ability to think 00:22:14.40\00:22:18.30 and reason a little bit that this... introducing... 00:22:18.33\00:22:22.24 this behavior to children is doing such damage 00:22:22.27\00:22:25.37 that they actually want to attempt suicide 00:22:25.41\00:22:28.44 at some point during this transition period 00:22:28.48\00:22:30.61 whether it's early or later in life 00:22:30.71\00:22:32.68 because it's so destructive to them, 00:22:32.71\00:22:35.22 we've taken away their core identity 00:22:35.28\00:22:37.25 and told them they're not who they are. 00:22:37.29\00:22:39.19 Hmmm... 00:22:39.22\00:22:40.56 So when that happened to you and you... before the forties... 00:22:40.62\00:22:44.46 let's talk about the teenage years a bit. 00:22:44.49\00:22:46.86 When you were a teenager, 00:22:46.90\00:22:48.20 with whom were you identifying at that point? 00:22:48.23\00:22:51.07 Were you more... acting more feminine or 00:22:51.10\00:22:54.60 were you acting masculine, 00:22:54.64\00:22:55.97 where was your head at that time? 00:22:56.00\00:22:58.07 Well, I was two sided... within... inside me... 00:22:58.11\00:23:02.24 I had the "girl in the purple dress" 00:23:02.28\00:23:04.65 and I gave her the name: Crystal West. 00:23:04.68\00:23:07.02 So she stayed inside and I presented myself 00:23:07.05\00:23:10.79 as Walt... outside... and in going to school 00:23:10.82\00:23:14.39 I had girlfriends, I ran track, 00:23:14.42\00:23:16.49 I played in football, I played basketball, 00:23:16.52\00:23:18.69 I did all the things, but inside me... was Crystal. 00:23:18.73\00:23:23.67 Yvonne: Were you attracted to boys? 00:23:23.73\00:23:25.07 Walt: No... 00:23:25.10\00:23:26.43 You were never attracted... you were never homosexual? 00:23:26.47\00:23:29.07 No, I never had any homosexual ideas or anything, 00:23:29.10\00:23:33.34 I was strictly heterosexual 00:23:33.38\00:23:35.31 with this "girl" living inside me that wanted to come out 00:23:35.34\00:23:39.45 but I knew back then the dangers 00:23:39.48\00:23:42.55 and not knowing myself what it was all about, 00:23:42.58\00:23:46.76 I had to deal with this solely on my own. 00:23:46.82\00:23:49.89 I mean, it's a long time ago that I was dealing with this 00:23:49.92\00:23:52.33 this is in the '50s... 00:23:52.36\00:23:54.63 so, I was something 00:23:54.66\00:23:56.90 fairly fresh and new if I would have "come out" that time. 00:23:56.93\00:24:00.07 Yvonne: You're looking good Brother. 00:24:00.14\00:24:02.84 Walt: Oh yeah, you know, thank you, 00:24:02.87\00:24:04.51 I've had a lot of work... 00:24:04.54\00:24:06.14 You know what I think is interesting though 00:24:06.17\00:24:09.44 is... just because someone has transgender ideation 00:24:09.51\00:24:13.72 doesn't mean that they're gay 00:24:13.75\00:24:15.08 and I think that a lot of times, 00:24:15.12\00:24:16.45 we put people in that compartment that 00:24:16.48\00:24:18.05 "Oh, if you're transgender, then you're gay" 00:24:18.09\00:24:20.16 but Walt, weren't you sharing with me 00:24:20.19\00:24:22.29 that... there's actually more transgender 00:24:22.32\00:24:24.43 that are still heterosexual rather than homosexual. 00:24:24.46\00:24:27.50 You know, it's true, 00:24:27.50\00:24:28.83 the vast majority of transgenders 00:24:28.86\00:24:30.97 are heterosexual, they're not homosexual, 00:24:31.00\00:24:33.50 they don't want to be homosexual 00:24:33.54\00:24:34.97 I mean, some of them will be drag queens 00:24:35.00\00:24:37.41 but they don't really want to have the full regiment 00:24:37.47\00:24:40.28 of surgery and change your identity in that way, 00:24:40.34\00:24:43.08 they like to play with it, 00:24:43.11\00:24:44.68 they like to play the female role 00:24:44.71\00:24:46.48 but they don't want to become a female. 00:24:46.51\00:24:48.75 Yeah, let's talk about the surgery for a minute 00:24:48.82\00:24:51.75 because you actually underwent the surgery, 00:24:51.79\00:24:54.69 what was going on in your head 00:24:54.76\00:24:56.79 just prior to the surgery? 00:24:56.83\00:24:58.99 Yeah, well I... you know... this whole "pain thing" 00:24:59.03\00:25:02.30 that started when I was a young child, 00:25:02.33\00:25:04.07 I had carried on... 00:25:04.10\00:25:05.43 by this time when I was considering surgery, 00:25:05.47\00:25:07.67 I was forty-years old, 00:25:07.70\00:25:09.04 I had gone and struggled with this for my entire life 00:25:09.07\00:25:13.58 trying to deal with the pain 00:25:13.61\00:25:15.24 and the confusion about my gender, 00:25:15.28\00:25:17.58 who was I, the abuses, 00:25:17.65\00:25:19.78 and so, I went in to the psychologist 00:25:19.85\00:25:23.22 who actually wrote the 00:25:23.25\00:25:24.85 "WPATH Standards of Care" for the treatment of transgenders 00:25:24.89\00:25:28.12 because... I was well enough off 00:25:28.16\00:25:30.46 to be able to afford somebody like that 00:25:30.53\00:25:32.13 and I went in and I said, 00:25:32.16\00:25:33.50 "What do I need to do to get rid of this 00:25:33.53\00:25:35.86 whole 'identity thing' that I have been struggling with?" 00:25:35.90\00:25:38.87 He said, "Well... " he said, "You are gender dysphoric, 00:25:38.90\00:25:41.84 you need hormone therapy and you need surgery. " 00:25:41.87\00:25:44.27 And that was in 1981 and still... 00:25:44.31\00:25:48.58 I knew it was true but it pained me to think 00:25:48.61\00:25:53.18 that that's what I had to do to get right with myself. 00:25:53.21\00:25:56.79 So I waited two more years and I went back to him 00:25:56.85\00:25:59.55 and asked him again, 00:25:59.59\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... 00:26:03.76\00:26:06.03 I'd been married almost 17 years by this time. 00:26:06.06\00:26:08.13 Yvonne: I was going to ask you about what was going on 00:26:08.16\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\00:26:13.47 that was starting to falter 00:26:13.54\00:26:15.27 because I was struggling so deeply with the issues 00:26:15.30\00:26:18.51 that just had not been addressed properly when I was younger. 00:26:18.54\00:26:22.28 Did she know? Did your wife know? 00:26:22.31\00:26:23.95 Yeah, she knew I was struggling, it was painful for her 00:26:23.98\00:26:26.65 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\00:26:34.96 I was an Executive with a large automobile company 00:26:34.99\00:26:37.83 and so, when he... I went the second time 00:26:37.86\00:26:41.80 and he said, "Yeah, this is what you need to do" 00:26:41.83\00:26:43.43 I realized that at that point I thought and was convinced 00:26:43.47\00:26:47.04 that the surgery would get rid of all that pain 00:26:47.10\00:26:49.57 that started when I was a young kid 00:26:49.60\00:26:51.84 and that was the only way to do it, 00:26:51.87\00:26:54.51 I saw no alternatives at that time 00:26:54.54\00:26:57.11 that were going to take away that childhood pain 00:26:57.15\00:27:00.55 and all this difficulty... I'd had now for 40 years in my life, 00:27:00.58\00:27:04.02 so, I got divorced and opted for the surgery 00:27:04.05\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\00:27:15.13 very euphoric kind of exciting, "I finally made it" thing... 00:27:15.16\00:27:19.70 and it did feel like there was this great relief 00:27:19.73\00:27:23.81 and the weight of the world had been lifted off 00:27:23.84\00:27:26.51 I had finally arrived where I had been wanting to be 00:27:26.54\00:27:29.18 and... and... it was, "good" 00:27:29.21\00:27:31.81 and there I was, now I was Laura Jensen 00:27:31.85\00:27:36.99 with a whole new identity 00:27:37.02\00:27:38.89 and I went and got my birth record changed, 00:27:38.92\00:27:41.09 I got all my records changed 00:27:41.12\00:27:42.49 but when I notified the Automobile Company, 00:27:42.52\00:27:46.36 I was terminated so I didn't have an income 00:27:46.39\00:27:50.17 and eventually I ended up homeless and living in a Park 00:27:50.23\00:27:55.47 as a transgender female. 00:27:55.50\00:27:57.07 My! so, you made the decision to have the surgery 00:27:57.11\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\00:28:10.62 Yvonne: It's huge, I mean, it's life changing... literally, 00:28:10.65\00:28:14.02 so, you decided to have the surgery, 00:28:14.09\00:28:17.56 you have it, you then have to deal with 00:28:17.59\00:28:21.00 "life as a woman," 00:28:21.03\00:28:22.70 you have to deal with being fired from your job, 00:28:22.73\00:28:28.07 the humiliation and shame attached to that 00:28:28.14\00:28:31.24 and then you end up losing everything. 00:28:31.31\00:28:34.34 Your home, your status, and really your identity 00:28:34.38\00:28:38.51 because now you're living in a new reality. 00:28:38.55\00:28:42.75 Walt: Yeah, it's true. 00:28:42.78\00:28:44.52 How did that... how did that work? 00:28:44.55\00:28:46.32 Before I ask you that, I want to go back for a minute, 00:28:46.35\00:28:49.29 to your married life because 00:28:49.32\00:28:53.06 so many questions arise like, you know, 00:28:53.09\00:28:56.06 in somebody like me who has no clue 00:28:56.10\00:28:59.03 about the whole lifestyle 00:28:59.07\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, 00:29:03.64\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\00:29:29.13 it was our life... really... everybody looked at us... 00:29:29.20\00:29:32.17 it looked like the perfect little family, 00:29:32.20\00:29:34.84 you know, good income, nice cars, nice house, 00:29:34.87\00:29:37.21 all that stuff was there, it was in place, 00:29:37.24\00:29:39.71 the picture was good, 00:29:39.74\00:29:41.28 the pain was in here that people didn't know about 00:29:41.31\00:29:45.01 and I was getting better and better about covering it up 00:29:45.05\00:29:48.28 until I started using more and more alcohol 00:29:48.35\00:29:50.82 and then... that's when the wheels started coming off 00:29:50.89\00:29:54.29 with the marriage and my emotions, my struggles 00:29:54.32\00:29:57.76 and the more alcohol I used, the more difficult things became 00:29:57.79\00:30:01.86 so, once alcohol was introduced into this thing, 00:30:01.90\00:30:05.37 literally, that's when things began to collapse. 00:30:05.40\00:30:08.84 Hmmm... so you had, in general, 00:30:08.87\00:30:12.01 a... what seemed to be... a normal, healthy relationship 00:30:12.04\00:30:17.75 until the alcohol was introduced and then... 00:30:17.78\00:30:21.55 again... I often talk about... on Dare to Dream... 00:30:21.58\00:30:25.19 and in Urban Report, I often talk about 00:30:25.22\00:30:26.92 God's plan... and Satan's plan... 00:30:26.96\00:30:29.72 and Satan's plan is to take you down, 00:30:29.76\00:30:32.49 by whatever means necessary, just take you down, 00:30:32.53\00:30:36.03 and of course, God's plan 00:30:36.06\00:30:37.50 is to elevate you to the best that you can be 00:30:37.53\00:30:41.64 and so Satan introduces the alcohol and that... 00:30:41.67\00:30:45.14 on top of all the pain that you already have 00:30:45.17\00:30:48.58 just ends you up more broken, now without your family 00:30:48.61\00:30:54.08 because now you're... and homeless. 00:30:54.15\00:30:55.85 Walt: Right... yeah. 00:30:55.88\00:30:57.79 How did you recover from that? 00:30:57.82\00:31:00.36 How did you go from, you know, Park Bench, 00:31:00.39\00:31:03.43 to back being financially solvent? 00:31:03.46\00:31:06.23 Well, that was interesting because at the time that 00:31:06.26\00:31:09.60 I was living in the Park, I was... 00:31:09.63\00:31:11.43 my friends know about this, I had this rabbit fur coat 00:31:11.47\00:31:15.27 that I was wearing that I'd gotten from a second-hand store 00:31:15.30\00:31:18.34 and I was sleeping... 00:31:18.37\00:31:19.81 and if you can imagine sleeping on the wet grass... 00:31:19.84\00:31:22.58 in a rabbit fur coat in a Park... 00:31:22.61\00:31:24.38 Yvonne: Were you attracting squirrels and rabbits? 00:31:24.45\00:31:28.02 Yeah, yeah, I probably was. 00:31:28.05\00:31:29.38 Yeah, I mean, you know people... 00:31:29.42\00:31:33.92 they stay their distance because I was sort of... 00:31:33.96\00:31:37.53 here I was... looking somewhat like a female 00:31:37.59\00:31:40.80 but I was early in the transition, 00:31:40.86\00:31:43.40 I was obviously not very healthy, 00:31:43.43\00:31:46.03 I wasn't clean and I remember 00:31:46.10\00:31:48.67 I was struggling with this alcohol 00:31:48.70\00:31:50.47 and I remembered somebody a few years prior to that 00:31:50.54\00:31:53.84 that was at the automobile company 00:31:53.91\00:31:55.44 had said, "If you ever need help 00:31:55.48\00:31:56.98 with your alcoholism, give me a call. " 00:31:57.01\00:31:58.61 So I got up from the Park and I went to this little restaurant 00:31:58.68\00:32:02.85 and people started scattering as I came in the front door 00:32:02.88\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\00:32:10.66 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, 00:32:14.20\00:32:16.10 that you could use coins to make a phone call 00:32:16.13\00:32:18.47 and I looked her name up, I got the coins actually, 00:32:18.50\00:32:21.24 one of the waitresses gave me some of her tip money 00:32:21.27\00:32:24.01 and I called Marilyn and I said, 00:32:24.07\00:32:26.21 "Marilyn, I'm ready for a meeting" 00:32:26.24\00:32:27.64 And she said, "Where are you?" 00:32:27.68\00:32:29.04 And I told her where I was, and... so she had a friend 00:32:29.08\00:32:32.38 that was the guy who went to AAA meetings 00:32:32.41\00:32:36.35 and he came and picked me up and he took one look at me 00:32:36.38\00:32:39.82 and he brought me to his house but he put me in the garage 00:32:39.85\00:32:43.22 he left me in the garage, so, he had a couple of couches 00:32:43.26\00:32:48.86 that he moved out in the garage and a couple of chairs 00:32:48.90\00:32:51.20 and... I mean... I was not real appealing 00:32:51.23\00:32:54.30 and I went to my first AAA meeting with him 00:32:54.34\00:32:57.37 and at that time, you know, 00:32:57.44\00:32:59.67 people hug at AAA meetings if you've every been to one, 00:32:59.71\00:33:03.11 well, no one hugged me. Yvonne: Oh, bless your heart. 00:33:03.14\00:33:06.48 Walt: So... 00:33:06.51\00:33:07.85 Were you feeling rejection at that point? 00:33:07.88\00:33:09.45 What were you feeling? 00:33:09.48\00:33:10.82 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\00:33:19.79 I was feeling good and so, that started... 00:33:19.86\00:33:22.76 sort of the journey through this process 00:33:22.80\00:33:25.20 that took many, many years after that. 00:33:25.23\00:33:28.34 Wow! Mike when you went through... 00:33:28.40\00:33:31.44 you never did the whole... like gender transformation thing 00:33:31.47\00:33:35.74 or anything but when you were at your lowest 00:33:35.78\00:33:40.08 what was it that brought you back up? 00:33:40.12\00:33:43.99 What was it that made you decide that this is not for me? 00:33:44.05\00:33:47.02 Well, it's interesting, there's no formula for why 00:33:47.06\00:33:50.39 someone is transgender nor the cure for that 00:33:50.43\00:33:53.56 the transgenderism was the worst for me, at puberty, 00:33:53.60\00:33:57.10 when I was 13-years old, I was in 8th Grade, 00:33:57.13\00:33:59.53 we lived in Detroit, Michigan, and they had a swimming pool, 00:33:59.57\00:34:02.80 built-in swimming pool, guys had it one week 00:34:02.84\00:34:05.11 girls had it the next week, here I am... 00:34:05.14\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\00:34:12.48 and much more developed, 00:34:12.51\00:34:13.85 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\00:34:23.26 and so, when I'm surrounded by 00:34:23.29\00:34:25.19 more feeling of inadequacy as a male 00:34:25.23\00:34:27.50 and then the fact that you know, 00:34:27.50\00:34:29.60 I'm in a different school, still being called names, 00:34:29.63\00:34:32.23 still being put down, 00:34:32.27\00:34:33.60 that was the height of my transgender feelings, 00:34:33.64\00:34:36.34 I grew my hair out to my shoulders, 00:34:36.37\00:34:38.21 I remember fantasizing about being a female 00:34:38.24\00:34:41.61 and I think that for me the worst was 00:34:41.64\00:34:43.75 when I was confronted with how inadequate I was, 00:34:43.81\00:34:45.98 that it didn't measure up, that that's when it was the strongest 00:34:46.01\00:34:48.62 what was remarkable is that it wasn't any grand event 00:34:48.65\00:34:53.22 that actually took the transgender feelings away 00:34:53.25\00:34:55.62 but when I was 20-years old, 00:34:55.66\00:34:56.99 when I came out in the Gay culture, 00:34:57.03\00:34:58.56 because I couldn't find answers in the church, 00:34:58.59\00:35:01.43 I remember that... I realized that masculinity 00:35:01.46\00:35:04.27 in Gay culture was much more valuable than femininity 00:35:04.30\00:35:07.04 and so if I just butchered up a little more 00:35:07.07\00:35:09.14 and start working out at the gym, 00:35:09.17\00:35:10.51 then I found that I started to get what I was looking for 00:35:10.54\00:35:13.98 which was male affirmation and so as I got male affirmation, 00:35:14.01\00:35:17.55 then, I was finally comfortable with who I was physically 00:35:17.58\00:35:21.12 and my gender and my parts... 00:35:21.15\00:35:24.35 actually made sense and I found peace with that. 00:35:24.39\00:35:28.76 It's amazing isn't it how the whole journey, 00:35:28.79\00:35:32.46 it's just like, you know, you have this phase 00:35:32.49\00:35:35.36 and then this phase... and then this phase 00:35:35.40\00:35:38.27 and all along God is leading you 00:35:38.30\00:35:41.07 toward Him, He is wooing you, 00:35:41.10\00:35:43.81 the Holy Spirit is wooing you but you don't even realize it 00:35:43.87\00:35:46.41 how, Walt, did you find Jesus Christ? 00:35:46.44\00:35:50.71 Well, you know, I started... I went to church 00:35:50.75\00:35:54.72 while I was at the Recovery House 00:35:54.75\00:35:57.59 and I was going to meetings at that time, 00:35:57.62\00:36:00.12 I really needed to go to church and I went to a church 00:36:00.19\00:36:04.19 and I remember sitting down with the pastor 00:36:04.26\00:36:07.03 before I went into church and told him about my life 00:36:07.03\00:36:10.07 because I had gone to a church some time before that 00:36:10.10\00:36:13.10 and the pastor had told me, 00:36:13.13\00:36:15.00 "We don't want your kind in our church" 00:36:15.04\00:36:16.64 which was painful but yet it was interesting when I asked him, 00:36:16.71\00:36:21.48 "Well, what kind do you want?" you know, we're all broken... 00:36:21.51\00:36:26.18 it's just that my brokenness is very visible, 00:36:26.21\00:36:29.35 most everybody else's brokenness is quite hidden. 00:36:29.38\00:36:32.39 Hmmm... hmmm... hmmm... hmmm... it's true. 00:36:32.42\00:36:35.69 As long as you keep it hidden, it's okay. 00:36:35.72\00:36:38.79 Right... right... 00:36:38.83\00:36:40.20 But don't put it out there on Front Street 00:36:40.23\00:36:42.16 so, what he said really struck me 00:36:42.20\00:36:45.90 and he kind of leaned back in his big leather chair 00:36:45.93\00:36:48.64 and he said, "No," he said, 00:36:48.67\00:36:50.01 "I'm not going to try to change you," 00:36:50.07\00:36:51.54 he said, "My job is to love you 00:36:51.57\00:36:53.34 it's God's job to change you. " 00:36:53.38\00:36:54.98 And that just sunk in and even though it took years 00:36:55.01\00:36:59.75 after that, I never forgot what he said to me that day 00:36:59.78\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\00:37:15.90 and that I'd gone through a lot of things in my life 00:37:15.93\00:37:18.90 but I knew that the Lord Jesus Christ 00:37:18.93\00:37:23.14 had the power to redeem and restore my life 00:37:23.17\00:37:26.51 and I was getting prepared for that 00:37:26.54\00:37:28.78 and so, I stayed at that church and they actually encouraged me 00:37:28.81\00:37:33.95 to write a prayer letter so that the group of people 00:37:34.02\00:37:36.79 could actually... kind of look at what was going on in my life 00:37:36.82\00:37:40.36 as I wrote it and some of the early prayer letters were 00:37:40.39\00:37:43.06 very crude and very difficult 00:37:43.09\00:37:46.06 because I was struggling so deeply 00:37:46.09\00:37:48.43 and I started writing those prayer letters on a weekly basis 00:37:48.46\00:37:53.23 and then they became a monthly prayer letter 00:37:53.30\00:37:56.30 and I could see how in those prayer letters 00:37:56.34\00:37:59.37 that my life was beginning to transform as I wrote them 00:37:59.41\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\00:38:21.66 and I wasn't much of a praying person, 00:38:21.70\00:38:23.87 I just... I had a hard time just praying in silence 00:38:23.90\00:38:27.67 it was tough for me but that day 00:38:27.70\00:38:29.10 I felt really moved to listen and let him pray 00:38:29.14\00:38:32.94 and he was praying and during that prayer, 00:38:32.97\00:38:36.75 with my eyes closed... I could see the Lord Jesus Christ 00:38:36.78\00:38:42.45 coming to me, I could see His face, 00:38:42.48\00:38:45.99 I could see His robe, 00:38:46.02\00:38:47.36 I could see His arms reaching out to me 00:38:47.39\00:38:49.89 and at that moment, I saw myself as a little baby 00:38:49.96\00:38:53.40 wrapped in cloth and He picked me up 00:38:53.43\00:38:55.66 and held me in His arms and He said, 00:38:55.70\00:38:57.83 "You will be safe with me forever" 00:38:57.87\00:39:00.97 and He eventually disappeared then... 00:39:01.00\00:39:03.94 and I knew at that moment that He'd come 00:39:03.97\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\00:39:29.30 Wow! 00:39:29.33\00:39:30.77 You know, something that I picked up on that? 00:39:30.80\00:39:32.60 This is the second time I've heard that, but you said, 00:39:32.67\00:39:35.44 "You'll be safe with me forever" 00:39:35.47\00:39:37.61 and here we think we're talking about a gender issue when 00:39:37.64\00:39:40.91 was the issue really for you... Walt, 00:39:40.98\00:39:43.78 "I never felt safe" 00:39:43.85\00:39:45.18 didn't feel safe with the grandmother, 00:39:45.21\00:39:46.75 didn't feel safe with your father, 00:39:46.82\00:39:48.65 didn't even feel safe with yourself, 00:39:48.68\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\00:40:00.00 and pulled him back in and redeemed him 00:40:00.03\00:40:02.60 and restored me and I can go on to live my life 00:40:02.66\00:40:04.67 like I do today... serving Jesus Christ 00:40:04.70\00:40:07.54 and speaking about His transformation 00:40:07.60\00:40:10.37 and His power in my life. 00:40:10.41\00:40:11.81 Yvonne: Yes, as Walt... Walt: as Walt... 00:40:11.84\00:40:13.84 Yvonne: no more Laura... Walt: No more Laura... 00:40:13.88\00:40:15.78 Praise God, so from that moment on, 00:40:15.81\00:40:17.68 that was the end of Laura? 00:40:17.71\00:40:19.05 Was that the end? 00:40:19.08\00:40:20.42 It began... it wasn't like that, snaps finger... 00:40:20.48\00:40:23.75 it wasn't like flipping a switch off, 00:40:23.79\00:40:25.49 but you could see the incremental changes 00:40:25.52\00:40:27.76 as I went through the process 00:40:27.79\00:40:29.26 and began to stop "behaving" like Laura. 00:40:29.29\00:40:34.96 Hmmm... hmmm... 00:40:35.00\00:40:36.33 I had become the man that God had created me to be. 00:40:36.36\00:40:38.40 So there was a process to become Laura, 00:40:38.43\00:40:41.47 there was a process of deconstructing a behavior 00:40:41.50\00:40:45.77 of being transgender and once that behavior is over, 00:40:45.81\00:40:49.71 that's when you realize... you really have everything. 00:40:49.74\00:40:53.45 You really have got it and you're really living the life... 00:40:53.48\00:40:57.25 I mean, today, I'm sober 30 years, 00:40:57.32\00:40:59.69 I'm married almost 19 years 00:40:59.72\00:41:02.02 you talk about redemption and restoration 00:41:02.06\00:41:04.79 He gave it to me that day when He picked me up. 00:41:04.83\00:41:07.50 Yvonne: Amen, yes, yes, how beautiful 00:41:07.50\00:41:09.86 and that's what He came to do. 00:41:09.90\00:41:11.83 To give us life and life more abundantly. 00:41:11.87\00:41:14.90 That's what He promises and you two... 00:41:14.94\00:41:17.94 are both... examples of that 00:41:17.97\00:41:20.58 because as I talked to you all 00:41:20.64\00:41:23.11 and as I've talked to Mike over the years 00:41:23.18\00:41:25.88 and the 'Coming Out' Ministries' Team 00:41:25.91\00:41:28.55 whom I love... like... I just feel like God is... 00:41:28.58\00:41:31.62 He's in the restoration business 00:41:31.65\00:41:33.52 that's what He does with all of us 00:41:33.56\00:41:35.29 we all have our issues no one needs to look at you 00:41:35.32\00:41:39.46 or you or anybody, or me... 00:41:39.49\00:41:41.80 or anybody else and say, "Well, you're this or you're that" 00:41:41.83\00:41:44.47 No... yeah, I'm this or that... 00:41:44.50\00:41:46.30 and you're this or that... we all have issues 00:41:46.33\00:41:49.20 that's why we're all sinners in need of a Savior 00:41:49.24\00:41:52.04 and that's why Jesus Christ came 00:41:52.07\00:41:53.51 so He has restored you, He's given you a whole new life 00:41:53.54\00:41:59.81 with a whole new identity, you are now... Walt... 00:41:59.85\00:42:02.85 without looking back at "Laura. " 00:42:02.88\00:42:06.62 So, how do people in the LGBT Community 00:42:06.65\00:42:11.96 look at you... because you are the exact opposite 00:42:11.99\00:42:16.87 of what they're promoting and I want to talk a bit about 00:42:16.93\00:42:19.37 that whole "promotion thing" because I think 00:42:19.40\00:42:22.17 what's happening in Society now is that 00:42:22.20\00:42:25.11 this Movement is being promoted as something that should be... 00:42:25.14\00:42:31.61 should be exalted, should be glorified 00:42:31.65\00:42:34.45 and we're not supposed to call it sin 00:42:34.48\00:42:37.25 because in so doing... we're not politically correct, 00:42:37.29\00:42:40.22 we're not... so... let's talk a bit about 00:42:40.32\00:42:42.12 promoting this agenda. 00:42:42.16\00:42:43.99 Well, yeah, they've done an outstanding job 00:42:44.03\00:42:46.56 of selling the Nation... in fact, almost the entire world 00:42:46.59\00:42:50.30 that a "behavior" is an "identity" and as such 00:42:50.33\00:42:55.47 they've gone and passed laws to protect this behavior 00:42:55.50\00:42:59.37 and they've allowed people to go into restrooms 00:42:59.41\00:43:01.58 and we're seeing all this... 00:43:01.61\00:43:03.24 which is so damaging to the individual themselves 00:43:03.28\00:43:07.45 as well as the Nation, so, they've done a great job 00:43:07.52\00:43:11.52 of confusing us about who we are 00:43:11.59\00:43:14.06 and now, it wasn't too long ago they came out with 00:43:14.09\00:43:16.86 50-some different genders... 00:43:16.93\00:43:18.46 Yvonne: Wait... what? 00:43:18.49\00:43:21.20 Yes, they came out and said, Facebook came out... 00:43:21.23\00:43:23.63 because the LGBT came out 00:43:23.67\00:43:25.50 with this whole gender spectrum 00:43:25.53\00:43:27.74 of some 46 to 50 different genders 00:43:27.77\00:43:29.97 so what they're trying to do is 00:43:30.01\00:43:32.44 completely... the real agenda... is to eradicate gender 00:43:32.47\00:43:37.51 once they eradicate gender, then they can eradicate marriage 00:43:37.55\00:43:42.62 because... no longer... gender, no man... no woman... 00:43:42.65\00:43:45.69 they're trying to take men and women off the bathroom doors 00:43:45.72\00:43:49.06 and just have them all be the same, 00:43:49.09\00:43:52.59 so once you completely destroy gender, 00:43:52.63\00:43:56.00 you can destroy the family, you can destroy identity 00:43:56.06\00:43:59.67 and you have this horrible mess of people 00:43:59.70\00:44:05.91 not knowing who they are 00:44:05.94\00:44:07.28 and this... in my view... 00:44:07.31\00:44:09.21 is why we see so many of these young people 00:44:09.24\00:44:12.21 and older people who have transitioned now 00:44:12.25\00:44:14.95 attempting suicide at such high rates. 00:44:14.98\00:44:17.59 They don't know who they are, they don't know where to turn, 00:44:17.62\00:44:19.89 they have no foundation in which... to live their life. 00:44:19.92\00:44:24.93 In Jesus Christ, we know who we are, 00:44:24.96\00:44:28.16 it's says, "we're born a man... we're born woman... 00:44:28.20\00:44:30.83 we are to join in marriage as man and woman and be a family" 00:44:30.87\00:44:35.00 you know, when you break that apart, 00:44:35.04\00:44:36.97 you've got pieces scattered all over the place like we do today. 00:44:37.01\00:44:40.64 Hmmm... hmmm... hmmmm... hmmm... 00:44:40.68\00:44:42.38 I think it fits, again, with the times that we're living in, 00:44:42.41\00:44:44.48 it talks about how... in the Garden of Eden 00:44:44.55\00:44:47.28 before sin even entered the world, 00:44:47.38\00:44:49.02 that marriage was one of the institutions 00:44:49.05\00:44:51.29 that was established by God in a perfect world 00:44:51.35\00:44:53.72 and now, all of a sudden, it's... 00:44:53.76\00:44:55.79 marriage is under attack too... not only is it sexual identity, 00:44:55.82\00:44:59.16 maybe the cloaking issue but really 00:44:59.19\00:45:02.03 the undermining issue is the fact that the enemy, 00:45:02.06\00:45:04.83 Satan is out to destroy marriage... 00:45:04.87\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\00:45:12.57 that He... that God ordained 00:45:12.61\00:45:14.41 they're under attack... marriage and Sabbath. 00:45:14.44\00:45:17.05 And that's a very interesting phenomenon to me 00:45:17.08\00:45:19.68 that Satan wants to destroy the things 00:45:19.71\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? 00:45:30.56\00:45:33.06 And, wait... wait Walt, 00:45:33.09\00:45:35.86 the foundation of marriage 00:45:35.90\00:45:38.63 was the complete expression of who God was. 00:45:38.67\00:45:41.27 Remember it wasn't until after He created Eve 00:45:41.30\00:45:43.67 that He stood back and He said, 00:45:43.71\00:45:45.04 "This is the express image of who I am" 00:45:45.07\00:45:47.88 the relationship between one man and one woman. 00:45:47.91\00:45:51.05 Wow, yeah... that's very, very deep. 00:45:51.08\00:45:56.02 So, you... you... 00:45:56.05\00:45:59.35 without necessarily naming the Networks... 00:45:59.39\00:46:01.66 but you've been invited to different Networks, 00:46:01.69\00:46:04.26 tell us about how that played out. 00:46:04.29\00:46:06.73 Mike: The Limo ride... 00:46:06.76\00:46:08.06 Yvonne: Yeah, tell us about the Limo ride. 00:46:08.10\00:46:10.77 Well, I've been invited to be on many TV shows 00:46:10.80\00:46:13.34 and... they... they... all they know is 00:46:13.37\00:46:16.50 I'm a transgender, apparently, 00:46:16.54\00:46:17.87 and they get me in the Limo, they schedule me to be on... 00:46:17.91\00:46:20.28 they get me in the Limo... I'm headed down to the Station 00:46:20.31\00:46:23.65 and then they find out that I'm not somebody 00:46:23.68\00:46:26.35 who's an LGBT Advocate... that I'm not... 00:46:26.38\00:46:28.98 I don't believe this behavior should be an identity 00:46:29.05\00:46:32.19 and so, I'll get a call... one time I was 00:46:32.22\00:46:35.29 could see the Station where I was supposed go 00:46:35.32\00:46:38.33 to be on at 6:00 in the morning, 00:46:38.36\00:46:39.69 I got up at 4:00... got a Limo ride at 5:00 00:46:39.73\00:46:41.70 and I was there before 6:00, 00:46:41.73\00:46:43.13 the Producer called me and said, "No, no, no, you can't... 00:46:43.16\00:46:46.03 you have to tell them to turn the car around 00:46:46.07\00:46:47.90 and go back home and take you back home. " 00:46:47.94\00:46:49.87 That's happened... many times... 00:46:49.90\00:46:51.57 so, they want to make sure they keep things squeaky clean 00:46:51.61\00:46:57.98 on television and they don't want people like me... 00:46:58.01\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\00:47:16.87 And what is your website? 00:47:16.90\00:47:18.60 It's called: sexchangeregret. com 00:47:18.67\00:47:21.67 and: atransgendersfaith. com 00:47:21.70\00:47:25.31 Yvonne: You have two? 00:47:25.34\00:47:26.68 I have two, yeah. 00:47:26.71\00:47:28.04 Yvonne: Say it again, and we'll have it up on the screen. 00:47:28.08\00:47:30.25 Yeah, so, sexchangeregret. com 00:47:30.28\00:47:32.58 and: atransgendersfaith. com 00:47:32.61\00:47:34.88 and so... people come to these websites 00:47:34.92\00:47:37.75 and they find things that they've never heard 00:47:37.79\00:47:39.95 because they don't allow me on television to talk about it. 00:47:39.99\00:47:42.82 Right, so, it's new information and it's... 00:47:42.86\00:47:46.33 What I have found is like... last year, 00:47:46.36\00:47:49.76 the website: sexchangeregret. com 00:47:49.80\00:47:51.23 got over 350,000 visits 00:47:51.27\00:47:53.74 and last year I was seen on media around the world 00:47:53.80\00:47:58.51 by over 300 million people 00:47:58.54\00:48:00.64 so, I'm able to get the message out 00:48:00.71\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\00:48:21.66 that I get from people whose lives, just like mine, 00:48:21.70\00:48:25.13 have been totally damaged by the surgery, 00:48:25.17\00:48:27.24 totally damaged by a behavior 00:48:27.27\00:48:29.64 that someone told him was an identity... and it wasn't, 00:48:29.67\00:48:32.97 and they write me and say, "Now, what do I do? 00:48:33.01\00:48:34.94 I'm ten or fifteen years down the road 00:48:34.98\00:48:37.71 and I don't know how to come back, and... " 00:48:37.75\00:48:40.02 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\00:48:46.96 who are near the edge, or have gone through it 00:48:46.99\00:48:50.06 or want help, I get those letters every day. 00:48:50.13\00:48:53.13 And so, when you get a pastor that comes to you and says, 00:48:53.16\00:49:00.90 "How do I deal with this in my church? 00:49:00.97\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\00:49:10.58 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\00:49:26.93 they've had something go wrong in their life, 00:49:26.96\00:49:29.76 and as such, if we're going to help them, 00:49:29.80\00:49:32.33 we need to sit down and listen to them, 00:49:32.40\00:49:34.87 we don't need to sort of support or encourage their behavior, 00:49:34.90\00:49:40.68 what we do need to do is find out 00:49:40.71\00:49:43.01 why they came to this conclusion 00:49:43.04\00:49:45.31 that they were a different gender, what happened? 00:49:45.35\00:49:47.12 I want to sit down with the people, 00:49:47.15\00:49:48.65 like I have done... I have sat across and said, 00:49:48.68\00:49:50.62 "What happened?" "When did this start?" 00:49:50.69\00:49:53.12 "When did you first get this feeling?" 00:49:53.15\00:49:55.22 "What type of relationship do you have with your father?" 00:49:55.26\00:49:58.03 "What type of relationship do you have with your mother?" 00:49:58.06\00:50:00.80 And, were they in a Foster home that was abusive? 00:50:00.83\00:50:04.77 Were they abused by a neighbor? What... did something... 00:50:04.80\00:50:07.60 Because, I have found 100 percent of the time, 00:50:07.64\00:50:10.11 my wife and I laugh about this now, 00:50:10.17\00:50:11.81 when they write me and say, "Well, the home life was fine" 00:50:11.84\00:50:14.61 and then I ask, five or ten good questions 00:50:14.64\00:50:17.01 and they write back... and you see... 00:50:17.05\00:50:18.38 that it was a total disaster. Yvonne: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:50:18.41\00:50:21.68 So, we do have... if we're going to be helping 00:50:21.72\00:50:24.99 people in a church, we have to sit down with them 00:50:25.02\00:50:28.29 and get to know what's causing them to hurt 00:50:28.32\00:50:32.36 and many of them, we know 00:50:32.39\00:50:33.76 62.7 percent of them 00:50:33.80\00:50:36.30 according to studies, are suffering from 00:50:36.33\00:50:38.03 Axis 1: psychological and psychiatric... 00:50:38.07\00:50:40.70 called "Comorbid disorders. " 00:50:40.77\00:50:42.80 Gender Dysphoria, by itself, 00:50:42.84\00:50:44.81 is the way they diagnose the condition 00:50:44.87\00:50:47.88 but under Gender Dysphoria, 00:50:47.91\00:50:49.58 is a comorbid disorder like, Dissociation 00:50:49.64\00:50:52.85 or Bi-Polar disorders or Schizophrenia 00:50:52.88\00:50:56.02 or Separation Anxiety, all these different disorders 00:50:56.05\00:51:00.29 that are never diagnosed by the attending physicians 00:51:00.36\00:51:03.73 who work with transgenders, they just overlook it 00:51:03.76\00:51:07.10 and offer them hormones 00:51:07.20\00:51:08.60 and send them on the road to having surgery 00:51:08.63\00:51:11.60 when in fact they're suffering from psychological 00:51:11.63\00:51:14.50 and psychiatric issues 00:51:14.54\00:51:16.24 if properly treated... 00:51:16.30\00:51:17.94 would alleviate the desire to change genders. 00:51:17.97\00:51:20.34 Mike: Exactly. 00:51:20.38\00:51:21.71 That's so... that is so deep, 00:51:21.74\00:51:25.15 so the label of Gender Dysphoria is really like the Band-Aid 00:51:25.18\00:51:31.45 that's covering the real issue, the real disorders 00:51:31.49\00:51:36.56 that you mentioned. 00:51:36.59\00:51:38.19 What I identified... is the yellow flag signaling caution, 00:51:38.23\00:51:42.40 there's something wrong. Yvonne: Hmmm... 00:51:42.46\00:51:43.80 And... because that is not... 00:51:43.83\00:51:46.77 we shouldn't be embracing Gender Dysphoria 00:51:46.80\00:51:49.44 because... it is nothing but a behavior 00:51:49.47\00:51:52.07 to tell us that something is hurting them 00:51:52.11\00:51:54.68 and they don't want to be who they are 00:51:54.71\00:51:56.78 so they're now attempting 00:51:56.81\00:51:59.01 to become someone who they can never really be. 00:51:59.05\00:52:01.35 Wow! that is incredible, you want to say something, Mike? 00:52:01.38\00:52:05.72 Well, just... well imagine 00:52:05.75\00:52:07.16 what that would have been for me if all of a sudden... 00:52:07.19\00:52:09.02 now they have laws to protect kids 00:52:09.06\00:52:11.03 that are transgender to have that sex change 00:52:11.06\00:52:13.70 so if I was 20-years old and then realized 00:52:13.73\00:52:16.20 that I was okay as a male, 00:52:16.23\00:52:18.00 only now, I've mutilated my body to resemble a female, 00:52:18.03\00:52:21.10 imagine how much more complicated 00:52:21.14\00:52:22.97 my issues would have been. 00:52:23.04\00:52:24.37 Absolutely, I mean, it's... it's just kind of incredible 00:52:24.41\00:52:28.84 that... that... what we're doing as a Society, 00:52:28.88\00:52:32.88 is to really make... make it all worse 00:52:32.95\00:52:36.32 instead of addressing the underlying issues 00:52:36.35\00:52:39.62 we're addressing... there's a manifest issue 00:52:39.65\00:52:42.66 and a latent issue 00:52:42.69\00:52:44.03 and we're addressing the manifest 00:52:44.09\00:52:45.43 without really dealing with the latent issue. 00:52:45.46\00:52:47.86 We're dealing with the symptom and not the problem. 00:52:47.93\00:52:49.66 Yvonne: Right. 00:52:49.70\00:52:51.03 And that is only a symptom 00:52:51.07\00:52:52.73 and I've had people write me a letter 00:52:52.77\00:52:55.24 and... an e-mail... 00:52:55.27\00:52:56.64 and I would have left church one time and got home, 00:52:56.67\00:52:59.17 looked at my e-mail and here's a letter from a guy 00:52:59.21\00:53:01.84 which says, "Please write me as soon as possible, 00:53:01.91\00:53:04.45 I'm going down to the store 00:53:04.48\00:53:05.88 to buy a gun and blow my brains out. " 00:53:05.91\00:53:07.62 Three years post surgery, 00:53:07.65\00:53:09.35 he was the same age I was when he had surgery, 00:53:09.42\00:53:12.99 he was a pilot making 200,000 dollars a year, 00:53:13.02\00:53:16.59 and he went through the surgery 00:53:16.62\00:53:18.86 now he is without a job, he's struggling 00:53:18.89\00:53:22.43 and wants to commit suicide. 00:53:22.50\00:53:24.03 I worked with him over 250 e-mails, 00:53:24.07\00:53:27.00 phone calls, and encouraging him... 00:53:27.04\00:53:29.97 he's alive today, he's back in being a pilot 00:53:30.01\00:53:33.34 and he's back being a man. 00:53:33.38\00:53:34.78 Mike: Amen. Yvonne: Praise the Lord. 00:53:34.81\00:53:37.21 What a blessing... what a blessing it is 00:53:37.25\00:53:39.88 to have you working with those... 00:53:39.91\00:53:42.35 you've been through the experience 00:53:42.38\00:53:44.75 the whole experience including the surgery 00:53:44.79\00:53:48.62 and you're helping people 00:53:48.66\00:53:51.26 who've been there, what a blessing! 00:53:51.29\00:53:53.26 Mike, I need to get your website information 00:53:53.36\00:53:56.36 before we close too 00:53:56.40\00:53:57.73 so that people know how to contact you 00:53:57.77\00:53:59.27 in 'Coming Out' Ministries. 00:53:59.33\00:54:00.74 Sure, it's: comingoutministries. org 00:54:00.77\00:54:04.84 That's it, comingoutministries. org 00:54:04.87\00:54:09.14 we have 30 seconds, 00:54:09.18\00:54:11.51 can you just give a closing thought, Walt, 00:54:11.55\00:54:14.58 to somebody who is going through that situation, 00:54:14.62\00:54:18.85 just 30 seconds. 00:54:18.89\00:54:20.36 Just understand that the people are hurting 00:54:20.39\00:54:23.19 and that are struggling with this 00:54:23.22\00:54:25.46 and try to find out what it is that caused them 00:54:25.49\00:54:28.50 to have such pain that they don't want to be 00:54:28.53\00:54:31.17 who they are and now they're attempting 00:54:31.20\00:54:33.70 to become someone who they can never be 00:54:33.74\00:54:35.84 because it's categorically impossible 00:54:35.87\00:54:37.94 to surgically, biologically, change someone 00:54:37.97\00:54:41.71 from one gender to the other, it's not possible. 00:54:41.74\00:54:44.21 They are still... if they were born male... 00:54:44.25\00:54:48.42 they're still male... correct? 00:54:48.45\00:54:50.35 Thank you so much for being with us... both of you, 00:54:50.39\00:54:53.05 thank you Mike, thank you Walt, 00:54:53.09\00:54:55.09 thank you so much for sharing this information with us 00:54:55.12\00:54:58.93 and thank you so much for joining us. 00:54:58.96\00:55:01.13 This has been an amazing blessing, God bless you. 00:55:01.16\00:55:04.27 Walt: Thank you. Mike: Thank you very much. 00:55:04.30\00:55:06.10 Wooooo, was that powerful or what? 00:55:06.13\00:55:11.14 God transforms 00:55:11.17\00:55:13.14 and we can be grateful for His Holy Spirit 00:55:13.17\00:55:15.51 who gives us new and true identities in Christ. 00:55:15.54\00:55:19.45 At Dare to Dream, 00:55:19.48\00:55:20.82 we appreciate your prayers and support 00:55:20.85\00:55:23.25 and we welcome your love gifts 00:55:23.28\00:55:25.42 so please ask the Holy Spirit how much you should give 00:55:25.45\00:55:29.59 and then send your tax-deductible love gifts to: 00:55:29.66\00:55:34.93 Dare to Dream, PO Box 220, West Frankfort, IL 62896 00:55:34.96\00:55:40.30 and the phone number, if you choose to call us 00:55:40.34\00:55:43.24 is 618-627-4651 00:55:43.27\00:55:47.81 that's 618-627-4651 00:55:47.84\00:55:52.31 or go to our website at: D2DNetwork. tv 00:55:52.35\00:55:57.85 D2DNetwork. tv 00:55:57.89\00:56:00.59 we're also on Facebook 00:56:00.69\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\00:56:08.30 send us ideas or if you have a testimony 00:56:08.33\00:56:11.30 about how Dare to Dream has impacted your life, 00:56:11.37\00:56:14.94 please, send us a little video from your camera 00:56:14.97\00:56:18.24 or your iPad or something, 00:56:18.27\00:56:19.67 saying how Dare to Dream has impacted your life. 00:56:19.71\00:56:22.54 It's really important to us 00:56:22.61\00:56:24.25 that the programs that we are producing here 00:56:24.28\00:56:27.82 are a blessing to you. 00:56:27.85\00:56:29.25 We pray that your hearts are being turned to the Lord 00:56:29.28\00:56:32.65 because that's why we're doing this. 00:56:32.69\00:56:34.92 That's the whole purpose behind it 00:56:34.96\00:56:37.13 because we want to share Jesus with the world. 00:56:37.16\00:56:40.03 Well, thanks for joining us, 00:56:40.10\00:56:42.40 join us next time because you know what? 00:56:42.43\00:56:45.00 It just wouldn't be the same without you. 00:56:45.03\00:56:47.60