He Redeemed My Life': Man Who Lived as Woman for Years Now Shares Christ With Transgenders
http://christiannews.net/2015/02/02/he-redeemed-my-life-man-who-lived-as-woman-for-years-now-shares-christ-with-transgenders/
LOS ANGELES, Calif. –
A California man who obtained a sex change operation in the 1980’s to
live as a woman and later reverted back to his biological gender is
sharing his story of how God redeemed his life and gave him hope.Walt Heyer lived as Laura Jensen for eight years and even had a job with the U.S. government while living as a transgender, but says that having a physical operation did nothing to resolve the mental and emotional struggles that he faced.
Heyer told the Daily Mail recently that he believes his problems stem from his childhood, when he was sexually abused by one relative and cross-dressed by another.
“[M]y grandmother, when I was being babysat by her, started dressing me in female clothing. She even made me a purple chiffon evening dress,” he recalled. “And when dad found out what grandma had been doing, and dressing me up like a girl, it did change everything.”
His mother’s strong disciplinarian personality was also difficult to cope with as well.
“Mom’s discipline got even more severe,” Heyer explained, “and I would learn much later in life that on one occasion, her discipline was so tough she thought she had almost killed me.”
He said that the insecurity he felt over the circumstances soon led him to believe that he was a girl trapped in a boy’s body, and he began becoming more recluse. Although Heyer went on to marry and have children, at the age of 37, he decided to obtain a sex change operation to become a woman.
He said that he divorced his wife just before the operation because he did not want to put her through the ordeal. However, his children were not happy with how the situation was destroying their family.
“When a father does that, you’re betraying your children, and what came to my mind later on was I saw myself as much more important than my kids,” Heyer explained. “That is probably the most self-centered, narcissistic thing a person can do. It’s just nonsense to place yourself over a couple of kids, who needed someone to be there for them.”
He lived as Laura Jensen for eight years and worked for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. But one day while studying psychology at the University of California, Heyer had an epiphany: He wasn’t a transgender. He was a man with a psychological problem that trying to live as a woman wasn’t going to fix. Heyer also learned that his answer wasn’t within himself; it was in Christ.
So, eight years after obtaining the operation, Heyer reverted back to living as a man, and now says he doesn’t believe that people are born transgender.
“Gender dysphoria is a psychological condition where you are dissatisfied with your gender,” he told the Daily Mail. “Nobody’s ever born a transgender. They’re manufactured as a result of something, a developmental childhood issue that has yet to be determined for many people. In retrospect, I can see that changing genders, quite frankly is just pure foolishness.”
Heyer says that those who struggle with the condition are not receiving proper care, and many medical professionals are too quick to agree to surgery.
“All of them have some level of depression, and we’re not treating them,” he lamented. “We’re just cutting off body parts and giving them a new name and a new gender.”
“[But] biologically, no one can transport to the other gender, it’s not even possible,” Heyer stated. “All they do is pump people full of hormones, put in breast implants and declare that they’ve manufactured a female. It’s biologically impossible to make a man into a woman.”
The now 74-year-old man has since made amends with his children and runs a website to compassionately help others who struggle with gender identity or are expressing regret over having a sex change operation.
“God designed man; He designed women,” he said in a video recorded last year. “God will redeem the lives of people who struggle with gender identity issues just like I did. He redeemed my life, and I’ve been free from it as a result of that.”
