Gay activist Michael Glatze, the politically charged co-founder of Young Gay America magazine and a popular spokesman for homosexual activism, says he has "come out" of homosexuality.
In 2005, Glatze appeared on a panel at Harvard. His rhetoric then was harsh and inflammatory, as he spoke about a protest event.
"What the Equality Ride is going to do is essentially go to all these homophobic, really homophobic Christian schools," he said on the panel. "These are the schools where if you're gay you either get kicked out, or you've got to go to shock treatment."
Looking back on that day, Glatze said that's when he began to seriously doubt what he was doing.
"It was at that point that it was just shattering," he told Family News in Focus. "It was mind blowing. I started to read the Bible. I was terrified. I can't even express to you how terrified I was to be opening up the Bible because I was the ultimate left-wing gay activist."
That led to a lengthy process of reading, learning – and change. In June, Glatze emailed David Kupelian, author of The Marketing of Evil, saying the book had helped with his healing.
"He wanted to actually get some advice on what was the best way to go public with this," Kupelian said.
Kupelian advised him to write about it, and his testimony was posted on the Web.
Gay activists responded to the news with criticism and vitriol. Caleb H. Price, a social research analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said he wasn't surprised.
"A striking feature of the gay activism is their unwillingness to consider the fact that they might be wrong," he said.
While Glatze said he's is uncertain what his future holds, he said coming out is the most "liberating, beautiful and astonishing thing" he's ever experienced.