Read an open letter to Michael that addresses many of the points he makes in his essay...here:

www.thoughttheater.com

It appears to me that Glatze is still "performing" as he put it. I can't imagine such hate, it's like the form of Christianity which bit him was a rabid dog.

Now... not to call any sect that but I think I have found that Glatze was baptized recently in Halifax into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - the Mormons. I found this blog entry where it appears Michael Glatze was baptized last April 28th in Halifax, Nova Scotia - http://ashleyandchadquist.blogspot.com/2007/05/pretty-good-weekend.html:

"Then on Saturday was relaxing and fun. the morning/afternoon relaxed, then we went to the church at 4 for the baptism of Michael Glatze. He is very cool, he seems so excited to have found the gospel, it is very inspiring. Then we had a ward activity full of food, games and socializing."

The only denomination which I know of which is segregated into wards, is the Mormons. What do you get if you search World Net Daily for the word Mormon? WND is not to commendatory of the religion, so I guess as long as it's anti-gay they'll take anyone's story. Where'er Mormons are, the WND hates gays more.

It could be Evergreen had something to do with his "conversion."
...

It seems as though Michael has been sinning again already, hallelujah! After reading about this story a friend of mine thought it all funny because just last week he saw Michael holding hands with a hunky boy walking down Spring Garden Road- the busy street here in Halifax...

To My Friends Who Are Trapped In Homosexuality
By Michael Glatze

Dear friend,

Thank you for your kind comments and keen observations regarding my story and my revelation about no longer being homosexual and now being heterosexual. I thank you for the time that you have spent in considering this issue, deeply, and with great passion. God loves you.

God is right there, within you, whether you like to see Him or not. Can you humble yourself to Him? It's a really nice feeling. I know that, in some small way, you want to. We all do. We don't like being separated from our Father; it makes us sad and lonely, forcing us to be angry, to act out, to get vulgar... well, I won't go on; many of you have already demonstrated, on your blog comments, exactly what I'm talking about. ?

God love you, Yes! He does! And, He wants you to be free from homosexuality. God made us men and women. Think about that; you could - really - be a man or a woman! Not a strange creature... but, real! That's awesome... ?

Change is very difficult and takes a lot of inner strength. Do you have that strength? I promise you that the Gay Identity does not exist, that it is a fabrication of mankind (look it up, if you don't believe me), and that you are not "trapped" in same-sex-orientation. To believe that you are Gay is to be stupid. I'm sorry, if that sounds cruel; it's not cruel. To believe that you are a false identity, created by man, unnaturally, to participate in social engineering, is to be stupid.

It's not the acts, as much as it is the Identity. No one ever told you that, before, because they wanted to feed you with the lie that homosexuality is a set thing. Any intelligent "homosexual" knows there's no fixed Gay Identity. If you don't believe me, ask the theorists or "intellectuals." ?

Gay Identity has been packaged and fed to you, and - if you believe yourself to be "Gay" - you have eaten it, preventing you from further growth and understanding of your true and real self.

Coming out from under this packaged lie requires strong self-confidence and will and desire to know the Truth. Yes, Truth is capitalized. It is that way for a reason. There is only one Truth.

That one Truth is the fact that you are beautiful, perfect, and glorious, in the image of He who created you... God. There is only one God. I know it may be hard for you to get your head around the paradoxical nature of God... but, He is everywhere "out there" and - at the same time - right inside your soul. He sees and knows you. He loves you. ?

He wants you to be free of homosexuality. I promise you that. He's rooting for you; He knows you can do it. Remember, He loves you! He's not judging you - those angry voices in your mind, planted there by Satan, might scream and judge and ridicule - but, no; He's not judging you. He has patience. He'll give you strength. All you have to do is pray to Him.

Prayer and love - True Love, my dear friends - requires total humility. Can you do that?

I know, in my heart, that all homosexuals desire to be free.

It is a new world, one in which the lie will not stand much longer. The tide is turning. Be not afraid! It's a good change! Jesus will come. ? And, when that day happens, will you be - truly - yourself!? Or, will you be a demon, trapped in a fabrication not your own, lusting and hating and destroying your soul to hell? Consider this one last thing: all the love you may believe you feel for yourself or for someone else, while trapped in the homosexual mindset, is a grain of sand on the beach of the love that you could feel. Healing is possible. When you chose to go there, you know who to call on for help. His name is Jesus Christ.

Michael Glatze

To My Friends Who Are Trapped In Homosexuality
By Michael Glatze

Dear friend,

Thank you for your kind comments and keen observations regarding my story and my revelation about no longer being homosexual and now being heterosexual. I thank you for the time that you have spent in considering this issue, deeply, and with great passion. God loves you.

God is right there, within you, whether you like to see Him or not. Can you humble yourself to Him? It's a really nice feeling. I know that, in some small way, you want to. We all do. We don't like being separated from our Father; it makes us sad and lonely, forcing us to be angry, to act out, to get vulgar... well, I won't go on; many of you have already demonstrated, on your blog comments, exactly what I'm talking about. ?

God love you, Yes! He does! And, He wants you to be free from homosexuality. God made us men and women. Think about that; you could - really - be a man or a woman! Not a strange creature... but, real! That's awesome... ?

Change is very difficult and takes a lot of inner strength. Do you have that strength? I promise you that the Gay Identity does not exist, that it is a fabrication of mankind (look it up, if you don't believe me), and that you are not "trapped" in same-sex-orientation. To believe that you are Gay is to be stupid. I'm sorry, if that sounds cruel; it's not cruel. To believe that you are a false identity, created by man, unnaturally, to participate in social engineering, is to be stupid.

It's not the acts, as much as it is the Identity. No one ever told you that, before, because they wanted to feed you with the lie that homosexuality is a set thing. Any intelligent "homosexual" knows there's no fixed Gay Identity. If you don't believe me, ask the theorists or "intellectuals." ?

Gay Identity has been packaged and fed to you, and - if you believe yourself to be "Gay" - you have eaten it, preventing you from further growth and understanding of your true and real self.

Coming out from under this packaged lie requires strong self-confidence and will and desire to know the Truth. Yes, Truth is capitalized. It is that way for a reason. There is only one Truth.

That one Truth is the fact that you are beautiful, perfect, and glorious, in the image of He who created you... God. There is only one God. I know it may be hard for you to get your head around the paradoxical nature of God... but, He is everywhere "out there" and - at the same time - right inside your soul. He sees and knows you. He loves you. ?

He wants you to be free of homosexuality. I promise you that. He's rooting for you; He knows you can do it. Remember, He loves you! He's not judging you - those angry voices in your mind, planted there by Satan, might scream and judge and ridicule - but, no; He's not judging you. He has patience. He'll give you strength. All you have to do is pray to Him.

Prayer and love - True Love, my dear friends - requires total humility. Can you do that?

I know, in my heart, that all homosexuals desire to be free.

It is a new world, one in which the lie will not stand much longer. The tide is turning. Be not afraid! It's a good change! Jesus will come. ? And, when that day happens, will you be - truly - yourself!? Or, will you be a demon, trapped in a fabrication not your own, lusting and hating and destroying your soul to hell? Consider this one last thing: all the love you may believe you feel for yourself or for someone else, while trapped in the homosexual mindset, is a grain of sand on the beach of the love that you could feel. Healing is possible. When you choose to go there, you know who to call on for help. His name is Jesus Christ.

Michael Glatze

I appreciate the information about Michael Glatze's apparent conversion.

It is sad that he stereotypes all gays as hedonistic and part of the sex and drugs scene.

I'm happy for him that he left that self-destructive life but I wonder what he will do when he notices his SSA has not changed?

I wish he had gay Christian friends to encourage him without insisting he become heterosexual.

Rick Brentlinger
http://www.gaychristian101.com

Being GAY is NOT the problem.
A response to: How a 'gay rights' leader became straight

I've been a silent participant in this life and human struggle. But I felt compelled to respond to a recent article on worldnetdaily.com.

Like many homosexual men, I "lived the lifestyle" through my late teens up through my early 30's. Some of the things Michael Glatze points out about the homosexual condition, I completely agree with. For instance, lust and pornography are highly prevalent in our culture and I for one felt I was always in a highly charged state of sexual anxiety by living this lifestyle and reading any "respectable" gay magazine or literature. It was hard to get past the ads for doctors, dentists, life insurance, even the most silly service attached to pictures of almost naked men with perfect, chiseled bodies. Who wouldn't be able to resist thoughts of lust and fantasies.

But that does not make homosexuality wrong. Heterosexuals have hundreds of magazines that display the human body in exactly the same, objectifying way, and no one questions their normality. What makes it wrong is when we act on our lustful thoughts and feelings - when we lose self control.

I came out at 17 years old, but I knew I was "different" as far back as I can remember, my earliest memory is about 4 years old. I had frequent gay thoughts throughout my early years of 5 to 10 years old. I can't possibly believe this lifestyle is environmentally influenced. I have always believed it was natural and genetic. Regardless, I still hated myself for being this way.

About 8 years ago now, I was on Google attempting to find ways to painlessly end my life. I was fed up with being gay; I knew there was no way I could change. I was working for a Christian company at the time, and the literature at work and constant guilt I was feeling was too much for me to take anymore. I figured that if I ended my life instead of continuing to do what I was doing, maybe God could forgive me and would understand my decision was the best one to stop my "acting out". Like an idiot though, I did this Google browsing while at work. I didn't know it at the time, but the company had installed monitoring software to watch their employees Internet and email usage. I was red-flagged right away.

After finding a solution I could attempt online, at 4:55 my desk phone rang and I could see it was the president of the company on the caller ID. I had no idea that he knew what was going on in my mind that I was going to do that night. I answered with no knowledge of what to expect. He asked me if I had a moment to come into his office, which I answered "of course".

When I got there, the head of Human Resources was waiting with him. I thought I was about to be fired. I knew my performance had been lacking as my depression over life had taken over. I would have never imagined the sequence of events that then happened.

They told me they knew what I was planning to do. And they wanted to help me! I was aghast. I instantly broke down -- it was uncontrollable. I could not stop crying and it all spilled out of me. I told them I was gay and living with a man, that I couldn't stop my acting out behaviors (I'll explain later), and that I was miserable with my life, my decisions, being gay and I hated myself and my community. I wanted out, and I thought the only escape was death. I was HIV positive because of my own actions and there was no hope. I wanted to be in heaven because I was living in hell.

They both embraced me, telling me how much I was needed, loved and wanted here on earth. That God has a plan for me, a unique plan just for my life. They offered help, and a way out. They located a NARTH (National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality) Psychologist for me, and even paid for my visits. I started the route to "recovery". I found a church that had an EXODUS program in it, and went to individual and group sessions. During this time, as fate would have it, God did have a plan for my life. It was when I met my husband of almost 8 years now.

I did the ex-gay thing for about 6 months. When I realized it was not working for me, I stopped and of course, soon after that I lost my job. It would take about 6 more years before I came to realize the real problem.

After I met my husband, we instantly settled into suburban life, setting up a home, building a life together. I had a new job; I was honest with him about everything up front. I was HIV positive, a whore, narcissist, and had never been faithful to anyone in my life. He was HIV negative, had never been in a relationship, and I was his first love. I came to learn later that he was mine too.

This gets me into what I call the "gay condition". During my late teen's and up through about 33 years old, I was meeting men online, through phone sex lines, AOL, Gay.com, print ads in the local gay newspaper -- anything I could do to avoid any pain.

My being gay didn't start this way of course. I started off going to a gay teen group, I met a boyfriend, starting going out on dates. All the stuff that had been denied me throughout high school. I was a Senior when I started dating my first lover. I was in a constant state of euphoria. The problem was that because it had been denied me all my life, it was all I could think about. I felt like I could barely breath unless I could be near him. I left home 6 weeks before I graduated to move in with him and his Mom. I finished high school, my but grades were terrible. I was consumed by being with him that it literally made me crazy and ended up driving him away. Soon I learned how great it was to go clubbing and drinking away my sorrow with friends. And then how great it would be to find someone new who wanted me, and the cycle began.

I would have boyfriends and lovers, but all the while cheating on them. I could never get enough. I would often stay up all night until I found a hook-up. I would hook-up multiple times a day if I could. All I wanted was to be filled by men, as much as I could. I went from being safe at the beginning to right away only finding men who would top me bareback. I didn't want it any other way. It had to have the illusion of something intimate, no matter how horrible the situation may have been.

I got into poppers when I was losing interest in sex. Of course, I could no longer maintain an erection, but that didn't matter, I was a bottom. I experimented with Pot, X, Crystal, Cocaine, Speed, and a few others that I honestly don't know what they were, but I took them because they were offered.

In June of 1997, my lover at the time found out that I was cheating. I was terrified of being alone, and that he would leave me, so we starting seeing a counselor. He told me right away I was a sex addict. No way, I thought. I'm not addicted to this. But I started going to a local SAA (Sex Addicts Anonymous) group so I wouldn't lose my lover. I needed to appear like I was doing something to help our relationship and therefore myself. I continued cheating the whole time, just being more careful and hiding my tracks better. I finally left therapy, SAA and him 3 months later.

In November of 1997 I became HIV positive. I had the worst flu I had ever experienced in my life right after Thanksgiving that year. I called a friend to take me to the hospital ER because my fever was over 105 degrees and my sweat was literally leaving blue stains on my sheets. I didn't know what was going on. After spending the night in the ER on IV fluids, back home the next day I looked in the mirror and just told myself "You have it". I didn't need a test, I knew I was HIV positive. After a week of this flu, it went away and I felt back to normal. I started back with the sex, and continued to never play it safe. I just didn't care about myself anymore or anyone else. I told myself if they want to stick it in me unwrapped, that is their business.

I was well into this chain reaction living when I wanted to kill myself and my job found out. After I met my husband, for six years I continued this activity and life-threatening choices. I never played safe; I never told anyone I was positive. My husband began to suspect, but I tried ever harder to convince him that he was wrong and I was faithful. In June of 2005, it all came to a head, and he finally confronted me before I was about to head out of town for a family trip. I had programmed in some numbers into my cell phone of some guys I was planning on meeting up with during my trip that I had met online. I finally cracked and told him everything. It has been a rough two years for both of us, but we made it through. I finally learned the lesson that I was unwilling to learn years ago. I was a sex addict, and I was deeply hooked.

Being gay was never the issue. It was not what was wrong with me or what made me abnormal. What caused this fracture of self-hate was my growing sex addiction that grew from hate and abandonment over being different growing up and turning to the only thing I could get my hands on cheaply and easily to take away the pain of living and hating myself.

Looking back over the thousands of encounters I have had, I couldn't help but think I was lost as a human being. I recall the saying that we've all heard that every time you sleep with someone else you leave a piece of yourself with them. I had no soul, no self left. After almost 2 years of SAA now, and a fantastic counselor, not to mention a very understanding and loving husband (who is still HIV negative), I have myself back, and I can finally sense the plan God has for my life.

I do consider myself a Christian. But instead of trying to understand countless passages in a book written by so many that claim to have written it while being influenced by the hand of God, and then finally put together by a Roman Empire Pagan council (rejecting many books of the Bible that we've never even read or seen) I made my peace with God. I decided that the only way this religion thing could work for me was to never go to church, never listen to anyone else about it, and make my own opinion. His son was sent to earth with ONE message for us all. We can be saved if we just believe. Once you accept that, and you ask him into your heart, that's it, it's a done deal, you are saved. His Golden Rule? To love one another as we love ourselves. Look around the world, our nation, our communities, the news, any media outlet, ourselves. Where is the Golden Rule being applied? Being GAY is NOT the problem. The world is losing its capacity to love one another at a rate far greater than any other time in history.

No, the entire gay community is not sex addicts. But I have to admit, the gay community does have a knack for free and uncommitted sex. I've described it many times that gay sex is just a like a handshake. It's almost how we greet each other. We see an instant attraction (lust), act on it, and it's no big deal because we are men. We don't have those emotional attachments to sex; it's just getting off. The problem is that it is not love, and where there is lack of real love, there is lack of the love of self. Self-hatred invades our culture like a virus spreading and growing and destroying our credibility and us. But I do not blame the gay culture for this, nor can we peg this on heterosexuals. The problem is not with one sexual identity; the problem is human nature period. Sex sells, our culture demands it, just about any company in the world who advertises understands that. And we've let it happen.

I was tired of feeling so sexually charged all the time. So I don't go out to clubs hardly at all; my husband and I will go out about once every 6 months. I don't read certain magazines; and I'm not talking about porn, even the most "safe" seeming publication can be filled with ads full of hot bodies. For myself, I prefer to not have them around me. I use my DVR a lot (digital video recorder) so I can skip as much advertising as possible. I prefer movies over TV anyway as most shows are Reality TV crap or another episode of who slept with who, who screwed who over, or who killed who. As my distance to advertising and our human culture grows, so does my love for myself, and my husband. I wish the message of love would grow, but I know in my heart for events to unfold the way they are supposed to, it will only continue to get worse. All I can do is voice my concerns and hope someone listens. I don't judge culture, I'm not called to that purpose, nor is it my place. But I can voice my concerns.

I used to joke about those couples that would disappear from "society" once they hooked up. But now I understand that the only way to work on my relationship, continue to grow genuine love and maintain a healthy home life, is to stay as disconnected from the rest of the human condition happening around me as possible. It's not hiding from the world, but protecting myself from it. It's not about being GAY or saying it is wrong, it is about staying NORMAL in an abnormal world.

I hope my words are not misread. I certainly don't mean to say that the entire gay community are sex addicts. That is simply not true, but I have the courage to admit my identity was fragmented by self-hate and it developed into a horrible range of coping skills. Gay or straight, I know I was not alone.

Mike,

Congrats on the conversion. I suppose you are happier now. How you got to that path, I don't know. It seems damn near impossible to change a person's orientation. You know its an orientation right?

I discovered that I was gay in fourth grade when my interests in my fellow male friends trumped how I felt towards my female compatriots. To say that a person in fourth grade sins on a daily basis is illogical. I never acted on it until I was in college. But I knew. I always knew. It was never a choice but more of an awakening. My life up until this point, 25 has been one of accepting and understanding that I was "different" from my peers. It made me introverted, afraid to willingly expose myself to anyone out of fear of rejection due to other's lack of understanding.

We can blame the media for that. That socialized hatred for we homosexuals. Sure people may say, "ew gross" when contemplating even kissing someone of the same sex yet I feel that way towards women. It is all relative buddy. To say that MILLIONS and perhaps BILLIONS of people throughout history were wrong because they never found god, well that is ridiculous.

Go to Youtube and type in Christopher Hitchens. He'll explain his beliefs that throughout time, religion has done nothing but poison society. I'm glad that you filled that empty-void in your soul with the help of jesus and all that bullshit.

Some of us can make our own decisions about the world.

Some of us see things in black and white.

Some of us refuse to be blinded by mysticism.

Some of us are just plain happy being who we are.

Regardless of what mainstream society says, homosexuality is not a sin. Sins are inconsequential in life. We all die and end up in the ground. To think that there is life after death is absurd. I know that may seem harsh but logically it makes sense.

You argue that homosexuals tend to be more promiscuous than straight people is also ridiculous. Statistically rapes occur mostly by men that are straight. Straight men would love to have all the sex they could if it wasn't for the fact that women tend to me more reserved. Its not within their biological drive to be so (based on dialogues I've had with others - and I've had many conversations with people on the topic). Sure gay people love having sex but sex is wonderful.

To limit yourself of "lust" when you only get the chance to live once, is unfortunate.

But to each their own. I did say, its all relative. But the fact that you went public with this "news" is even more troublesome. After your brainwashing, had you kept private about the matter rather than telling gays that they too can change, everything would be alright. But you didn't.

You are a public person and therefore are open to all this scrutinizing.

Forgive me for my negative tone, its just that I am confused as to why you would work so hard for gay rights and to then turn around, using the cliche of religion as your reasoning,and say that we are wrong. Hell I think straight people are damn near boring and we gays think outside of the box.

Living a life of introversion tends to do that to a person.

-JW.

good for you michael!
it takes a lot of guts to do what you did!
i hope and pray that you keep strong and keep to the truth.

love in Christ,
ss

Good for him. I think it is so hypocritical that gays cannot accept when someone turns to the straight life. If we are so secure in our own sexuality, then why not embrace him and congratulate him on a step that makes him happy. If you hate how the straight world treats a man coming out as gay, then why do you treat a gay who comes out as wanting to be straight in the same hateful way? You're no different. You are peddling the same hateful ways. The gay community is so hypocritical and judgmental. They love those who embrace their ways but act like the KKK when it comes to those who go against their beliefs or turn from the gay life. Quit being little whimpy tinkerbells and grow up.

Andi,

As a fellow "whimpy tinkerbell" I would like to point out that people like myself haven't been chastising Michael for believing he is now straight but for blaming the "homosexual lifestyle" on his misfortunes and screwed up life. In fact, the only one that Michael has to blame for that is himself. I have been gay for a long while and at no time have I had any of the problems that Michael has had. So it irks me and others quite a bit when someone like himself comes along to tell me how many problems I have and that I need to be like him.

Not buying it babe!

-Jeff

Andi,

By becoming straight he makes the entire "process" come off as a sort of choice and rather than the natural progression homosexuality is. To those out there trying to fight the homosexuality bug, its more ammunition to use against us in the long run when we try to get more equal rights.

if he had come "back" privately, there would be no problem. the fact that he had to use god is pathetic and shows how weak-minded and easily-led he is.

I am one of many who, from the start, has decided not to follow along with the same sex attraction that I was dealt. True enough, I don't have a sex life. But I don't think I am missing much. My life is fill with satisfying work, a sense of purpose, healthy relationships, and a close faith community. And I am growing in the acceptance of and gratitude for the man God made me to be.