sex-change story with happy ending

Discussion in 'Family, Relationships, and Single Life' started by Rexlion, Aug 22, 2022.

  1. Rexlion

    Rexlion Well-Known Member

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    Today I read this story about a girl who tried to become a boy (and turned away from God), but later she returned to faith in God and went back to being a woman. In case the site requires that the reader create an account to view the article, I'll reproduce most of it here.

    After Laura Perry Smalts became Jake, and then Laura again, she wanted to tell the world what it means to be a woman—at least to her.

    Who better to speak of womanhood than one who has questioned it deeply on a personal level and, through painful trials, found joy in it?

    She explained her epiphany.

    “Woman was created for relationships,” Laura told The Epoch Times. “Women are so much more relational. We joke, my husband and I, all the time … when I’m freaking out because I haven’t cooked a very good meal, like something went wrong with the cooking, I couldn’t care less about the food. I’m freaking out because I haven’t made a good meal for my husband.

    “He’ll be like, ‘Well, just do better next time.’ So, it’s a very different thing.”

    Laura’s epiphany comes following childhood trauma, years of perturbance about womanhood, and, she says, help from above.

    She shared her story.

    ‘I Always Felt Like I Was a Boy’
    “Throughout childhood, I had dreamed about being a boy, I would write stories all the time about me being a boy,” Laura said. “I’d play video games with male characters—sort of living in a fantasy world.”

    Springing from Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Laura, now 39, didn’t relate to girls at all. She felt rejected by her mom—who endured the trauma of having stillbirth sons—and felt closer to her dad.

    There was this sense of neither belonging in her female body, nor to her family’s Christian faith.

    Laura’s being molested at age 8 by an older boy spawned a sexual curiosity in her. And she recalls “walking away from God” at age 16. Besides dreaming of being male, she wanted a girlfriend—and fancied she knew how to treat one.

    She nevertheless dated many guys, often to be dumped, “treated like trash,” or left feeling rejected.

    Looking for love, adult dating sites seemed like a solution, which sent Laura across the state. She was ever jealous of her boyfriends’ masculinity. Drag wasn’t unheard-of in those days, though the idea of people changing sex was a shocker for her. The web yielded a whole world of enticements; she joined a support group for transgenders.

    She’d already cropped her hair short and begun dressing more manly; now the affirmation she desired was within reach.

    “Within five minutes, they’re like, ‘Oh, you are definitely transgender,’” Laura said. “I was really concerned that I would never look like a man, and they said, ‘Don’t worry about it; after a year or so of taking hormones, no one will ever know you were a girl.’”

    The hormones lowered Laura’s voice. Facial hair sprouted; even her jaw and hips started looking more manlike.

    In 2009, Laura had her name legally changed to Jacobe—Jake for short.

    Transitioning Away From God
    It was around then that she met with her parents for dinner—on their anniversary.

    They hadn’t yet seen the changes she’d made. With her manly looks on full display, her dad couldn’t help but excuse himself to step into the men’s room. Shocked, her mom whispered, “Laura, are you trying to look like a man?”

    Laura burst into tears.

    “It didn’t go too well,” she told The Epoch Times.

    What followed? A double mastectomy and surgery to remove her female parts—Laura’s uterus and reproductive organs—in a desperate bid to make her fantasy reality.

    She now agonizes over all of this.

    “I realized that my surgery hadn’t made me a man,” she said. “I felt stupid, I’m like, ‘Why did I think that removing the breasts was going to make me a man? Women have breasts removed all the time for medical reasons.’

    “I didn’t realize then what I’ve discovered now … there are studies that there are over 6,500 biological differences between men and women; every part of our body is different.”

    Scouring the internet looking for miracle operations, she was aghast by what she found: cases of mutilation, necrosis, infection, leakage, and women confined to wheelchairs due to botched procedures. She’s thankful she lacked the $100,000 needed for the “highly rated” gender transition surgeon she located in Canada.

    “Jake” would eventually hook up with a transgender woman—of male biology—who went by “Jackie.” Jake would call Jackie her “wife.”

    She now had all that she’d wanted—a relationship, a group affirming her assumed persona, a job with a supportive lesbian boss, an identity molded after her dreams. And yet, somehow, Laura wasn’t happy; rather, she was miserable.

    “There is sort of this honeymoon period where you’re just on cloud nine,” she said. “‘This is going to solve all my problems, and this is amazing!’ And everybody’s affirming you. You sort of get to reinvent yourself.

    “All of us have things we’d like to change about ourself. You could invent the perfect person that you wanted to be.

    “But then when reality starts to set in that you can’t make that a reality …”

    Laura couldn’t be around her parents, not even her supportive sister, for they stirred up painful memories of who she was. So she shut them out. In despair, her parents threw themselves into their faith.

    Laura was haunted by nightmares, coming face to face with her female self, and with God. She couldn’t escape the harsh reality: manhood would forever be beyond reach.

    “For the first time in my life, I began to question what I believe,” she said. “I’d gotten kind of disillusioned, because I realized that it was never going to be real. But at the same time, there was no way I was going to go back to being female.”

    It was her transgender partner—of all people—and her parents who eventually turned her toward the truth. And Laura started praying.

    Step by step, her heart crept toward Christ. With her creating a website for her mom’s Bible study, the “trustworthiness” and “consistency” of the scriptures resonated in Laura’s heart.

    In the fall of 2014, she, very unexpectedly, surrendered her life to Jesus.

    Laura Is Alive Again
    “I could feel this change inside me, and all of sudden my attitude began to change, my heart began to change,” she said.

    Yet, still clinging, Laura aspired to being a “man of God”—until a voice called on her to face reality. To God, she retorted, “What do you want from me?” She heard an answer: “If you stood before me tonight, what name would I call?”

    “But I can’t go back!” she thought.

    There was no choice.

    Laura took the leap. She had no clue what life as a female would look like—God never said, but only asked whether she trusted Him.

    Of course, she did.

    She felt as if down a dark abyss with light beaming in from far above.

    In July 2016, Laura “left it all behind”—Jackie, Jake, the whole life. Returning to church, she faced 300 people all calling her “Laura.”

    “It was one of the hardest things I’d ever been through, and I cried through the entire service,” she said, but admitted, “I needed to hear that.”

    Joining her mom’s Bible study, the older women, overcome, embraced Laura, having long prayed for her. At first, she felt like the “awkward trans person in the room,” but eventually, seamlessly, she became “one of the girls,” something she’d never experienced before.

    Like peeling away layers of an onion, Laura’s old identity fell away.

    “I started working at the church, and each of the ministers, they had their own secretary,” she said. “They were all girls and we did everything together.

    “I really began to develop deep friendships with girls that I’d never had.”

    A ‘Beautiful Woman’ Meets Her Soul Mate
    In 2018, Laura began to share her story with others, which, through a common friend, led her to meeting her then-future husband, Perry. Of hearing about her background, he told The Epoch Times: “I thought it was really interesting,” adding that they “just clicked” and “had a wonderful time.”

    As for marrying a former transgender, he shared: “I knew that her past is in the past. She’s not the same person, she’s not the person that she once was.

    “God has radically changed her life, completely and forever. … I wasn’t dating a trans person, I was dating a beautiful woman.”

    They have much in common; both now serve in an Oklahoma City ministry. In May 2022, they wed. It was God who joined them after her redemption, they believe.

    Laura laments others enduring gender dysphoria, saying social media bears blame for manipulating their feelings of self-hatred, rejection, or not fitting in into their leading a destructive lie.

    “They don’t see the truth behind all this,” she said.

    It takes constant upkeep and reaffirmation to live that way, but it’s not real.

    She mourns the operation that barred her having a baby with her soul mate, and recently had surgery to partially remedy her double mastectomy.

    A man in a woman’s body she was not, she says. But she enlightened as to the purpose of both: man and woman.

    “We’re created to be in this symbiotic relationship, as counterparts to work with one another, ultimately to display the gospel,” she said. “We display different aspects of God’s character.”​
     
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  2. Rexlion

    Rexlion Well-Known Member

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    My son made me aware of an interesting report on the current situation with gender treatment and how we got here. It's definitely worth reading IMO.
    Anyone can download the pdf here. The report shows that the current gender treatment scheme is built on a "house of cards" of faulty data and is being pushed by idealogues. In addition, gender dysphoria should be virtually a non-issue because until the last decade it was extremely rare; as recently as 2013, adult gender dysphoria would be found in less than 14 per 100,000, but due to environmental (schools, social media, medical community, etc.) factors a June 2022 study found that nearly 1 in 5 teens age 13-17 now identify as transgender. In other words, modern gender dysphoria is entirely a manufactured issue, and huge profits are being reaped from it.
     
  3. Annie Grace

    Annie Grace Well-Known Member

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    I accept whatever gender a person claims to be, although I can't say I truly understand the whole issue. I have never felt like a 'girlie' girl but on the other hand, I have never felt like particularly masculine either. I just accept that I am more of a 'tomboy' type female, and this was never an issue when I was growing up. I still preferred dolls over trucks, but I also preferred outdoor activities to shopping or fashion and makeup. This didn't cause any gender confusion for me. I was just me.

    Even as a teen and adult, I never did identify with women who are focused on appearance and flirting etc but rather than worry about being different, I just accepted that there are all types of women, just as there are all types of men.

    I just wonder if the whole issue hasn't been blown up way out of proportion. Maybe if everyone just ignored the whole topic, and accepted people however they presented themselves, it wouldn't be such a big deal. It's like ignoring an eccentric on public transport - let them be. Maybe if people are allowed to experiment, they will eventually figure out who they are. But as I say, I don't really know much about the issue.

    I am 70 years old and have seen and done a lot - now I just want to live and let live.
     
  4. Br. Thomas

    Br. Thomas Active Member

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    I concur with what you have said. My problem is when I am demanded to accept whatever gender they want me to know them as or their non-binary whatever. It is there I draw the line to being made to accept what they believe. I, too, am 70 and there is little chance I will be drawn into the pool of multi-name genders.
     
  5. Annie Grace

    Annie Grace Well-Known Member

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    I don't actually have any problem calling people by whatever pronoun they want. I find 'they' and 'them' to be a little unwieldy but if it makes someone feel more comfortable, then so be it. I see it kind of like I see name changes, just use whatever is current for the person. I will no doubt forget and make mistakes, but as long as I am trying to be accommodating, I think the other person owes me some leeway - lol.

    I have had several name changes over my life, including my first name. It was always hard for people to start calling me by the new name, but now, 20 years later, I think most of them even forget the old one! Acceptance is the key for me,
     
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  6. arik88

    arik88 Member

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    God bless that Happy ending happened ;-;. ;D God forgives we shouldn't be judging and give chaneces like God gives a chance eachday.
     
  7. CRfromQld

    CRfromQld Moderator Staff Member

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    The numbers might have changed slightly but about 85% of young people with gender dysphoria will desist ( revert to their birth sex) after puberty.

    Given the high rate of desisting I oppose any non-reversible treatment, and that includes puberty blockers and cross sex hormone treatment, until adulthood. If an adult has gender dysphoria to the extent that gender reassignment surgery is necessary to alleviate their mental distress, and alternative therapies have failed, then I accept that as the appropriate treatment in their case.
     
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  8. Mark T. Zak

    Mark T. Zak New Member

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    Not on board with any of this, I do not believe that a person can change their gender. Gender dysphoria is real, but the answer is not to affirm their malady, and certainly not to butcher them.
     
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  9. Rexlion

    Rexlion Well-Known Member

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    Here is an interesting (and brief) video clip showing one of the main reasons why gender dysphoria has grown so dramatically in the US during the past 15 years.



    The love of money lies at the root of all sorts of evil, 1 Timothy 6:10.