Are LGBT activists really interested in finding middle ground on issues like religious freedom? Some in Congress naively think so, which is why the Fairness for All Act is currently being pushed as an alternative to the radical Equality Act. But as was made clear during FRC's Pray Vote Stand broadcast Wednesday night, Fairness for All is not so much a grand compromise as it is a narrow carve-out that gives lip service to the freedom to worship, all the while trampling on the constitutional freedom to live out one's faith in all realms of society. Also during the broadcast, a powerful first-hand testimony uncovered what is at the wounded heart of those struggling with gender identity.
More and more conservative leaders have caught wind of the true nature of Fairness for All, including Russell Vought, President of the Center for American Restoration, who joined the broadcast and explained why his organization sent a letter to the House Republican co-sponsors of the bill urging them to drop it.
"This is about the ability to practice your faith in society, it's not about protecting your ability to go on Sunday to worship and benefit from a female-only bathroom," Vought pointed out. "It is the ability for a female employer who is a Christian to go out into the workplace and be able to operate and practice their faith according to the views that they have. This bill would not allow that person to do that, and what's worse, it would lead the entire society to move in the direction of the progressive ideology on which it's based."
Just how dangerous is this progressive ideology for those struggling with their gender identity? KathyGrace Duncan, a woman who lived as a man for 11 years, gave a powerful witness to being freed from the chains of the transgender deception and how society is asking the wrong questions when it comes to identity issues.
"It's really not a sexual issue, it's really an issue of the heart," Duncan said. "It's a relational issue. And then wanting to be transgender or any of the LGBTQ [identities] is just a fruit of a deeper wounding that needs to be healed ... rather than looking at the 'what' they want to do, the question needs to be, 'why do you want to do it?' or 'who told you this is good?'"
Duncan went on to reveal the lies and insecurities that drove her desire to become a man. "In the beginning [of transitioning] ... I had some lies in there that I wasn't safe as a woman, that I was hated as a woman, and being a woman, I would be vulnerable. So I did everything that I could to not be a woman, not to be recognized [or identified] as a woman, because for me, that was safe. The more deceptive I could be, the safer I was. And really, it was a lie, because as I looked back and I've gone through the process of coming out of that lifestyle, it really was relational. I was so detached from my emotions. I couldn't tell you if I was happy or sad ... it's looking at those underlying things that's pushing someone to want to choose this."
When Duncan did decide to transition from being a woman to a man, she eventually realized that not only was her life not getting any better, it was actually getting worse. "I did think that when I first started taking the hormones that I was free. Little did I know I was going deeper into the lifestyle, deeper into the deception. And things actually got harder. I didn't escape from any of my problems. I didn't escape from anything that was going to make me safer ... In fact, it intensified it. I've talked to others that have had surgeries and they've told me that it's only intensified their problems. It's made them more lonely because now with the surgeries, they feel even more like an outcast."
For Duncan, the turning point was a calling from the Lord: "...The Lord called to me ... and I said 'yes' to him. At that point in my life, I had just gotten out of a rebound relationship where I recognized I was my dad and she was my mom. And this wasn't healthy. And at the same time, I had developed a deep pornography addiction. It was severe. And when the Lord called to me and I said 'yes' to him, he delivered me from that ... [later] I confessed the truth [to her church] and said, I'm a woman living as a man. And when I did, the Holy Spirit blew into me ... when I told the truth, I realized I have to go back to being a woman that he created me to be. There was a longing for a relationship with him, more like a desperation [for] a relationship with him. And I saw that this was in the way. And as I walked out of that, he totally walked with me and brought healing to those places that had me believing that being a man was better or safer."
Be sure to watch the entirety of the broadcast, which also features Kelvin Cochran, Atlanta's former fire chief who was fired solely because of his Christian views about manhood, marriage, and family. Don't miss his compelling challenge to men to be the husbands, fathers, and leaders they are called to be in Christ.
