Ex-lesbian: God Turned Me Around

A national speaker who says her dedication to her religion has forced her to end lesbian relationships came to the Back Mountain on Saturday and answered questions from a few local Christians who have gay family members.
Melissa Fryrear of Colorado Springs, Colo., urged Christians to embrace gays but not their sexual preferences.
“I love you Lord. I’ll yield because I love you,” Fryrear proclaimed before about 60 people at the Back Mountain Harvest Assembly, a Pentecostal church in Trucksville.
Fryrear said “everyone is created heterosexual” and said many women are gay because they’re searching for a mother figure or because they have been sexually abused by a man. She said some women are gay because it’s “en vogue.”
John Dawe, executive director of the Rainbow Alliance of Northeast Pennsylvania, which serves the local lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, says he doesn’t believe being gay is a choice.
“If you’re going to be a minority, would you choose to be what society considers second-class?” asked Dawe, who was contacted by a reporter after the speech. “I think that certain religious groups and politically conservative organizations would like you to believe change is possible. … When someone says, ‘I’m an ex-gay’ what I think they’re really saying is, ‘Now I’m a homosexual who has chosen to be celibate,’ or, ‘Now I’m a bisexual who has chosen to (only) have sex with the opposite sex.’”
Dawe noted that many other churches are accepting of gays and their sexual preferences and added that evidence has shown that trying to make a gay person heterosexual doesn’t work.
“This type of rhetoric is certainly not the majority,” he said. “I think many people shrug it off as people going out to an extreme.”
Fryrear, a middle-aged woman originally from Louisville, Ky., said that as a teenager she knew she was a lesbian and “closed her heart to God” when she read a Bible passage that says, “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.”
“I thought God was saying Melissa (Fryrear) was detestable,” she said, noting she had her first lesbian relationship at 16.
“I was unwilling to resist the draw and the temptation.”
After college, Fryrear said she began attending church again and stopped her lesbian relationships. She said she and her girlfriend were treated by her church with “kindness and friendliness.”
She said the church decided to take her in just as they have taken in other “sinners.”
Fryrear said Christians should embrace gays by “not just telling them what is wrong, but by inviting them into our family, our church.”
During a question and answer session, Fryrear appeared to become uncomfortable when a reporter asked her what her sexual orientation is now and if she still has sexual urges for women.
“Without question, I’m attracted to men, particularly tall men with red hair,” said Fryrear with a nervous laugh. “Does an alcoholic ever think about having a drink again? … Thoughts may come into my mind.”
Although gays should be accepted into the church, they should not take leadership roles, Fryrear said. One audience member, who asked how to deal with someone who she knows is gay, said she found hypocrisy in that statement because other “sinners” can take office in the church.
Another woman said she’s angry because her son is gay and his sexual orientation has been accepted by his church. She said the Bible says the opposite and asked Fryrear for advice.
“Homosexuality is not natural; we know that from Scripture,” Fryrear said.
from The Times Leader