Former Gay Rights Leader Becomes a Christian

Michael Glatze Has Renounced His Old Life and is No Longer the Publisher of a Magazine Geared to Homosexual Young Males

Michael Glatze, once a leader in the "gay rights" movement and a publisher of the Young Gay America magazine has renounced his lifestyle of homosexuality and activism after becoming a born again Christian. Glatze says he cut himself off of the homosexual lifestyle about a year ago, but he added many people will still be surprised to hear of his conversion.

Glatze says his mother died when he was 19, and his father had died when he was 13. He says as a result, he was confused about who he was and said when he noticed at attraction to males at 14, he concluded he was gay. He made that known publicly when he was 20.

At 22, he became the editor of the first magazine aimed at a young, gay male audience, Young Gay America. He says now that he believes the magazine he once published bordered on pornography. The magazine won awards and honors, including the National Role Model Award, from the major gay organization, Equity Forum. The magazine was also featured on PBS, the Seattle Times, and MSNBC.

Glatze produced, with the help of Equity Forum and PBS affiliates, Jim in Bold, the first major documentary to tackle gay teen suicide. The movie received several awards.

A photo exhibit, created by the magazine, with many photographs and stories of gay young people across North America, toured Europe, Canada, and parts of the United States.

Michael Glatze says, however, that the homosexual lifestyle did not bring fulfillment, and that caused his 16 year search which led him to become a Christian. He says that to him the homosexual lifestyle was not virtuous. He says that was difficult for him to learn, because he was so caught up in living as a homosexual.

While Glatze was having personal doubts, schools, parent groups, libraries, government associations, and others wanted his magazine. He spoke at the prestigious JFK Jr. Forum at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in 2005. It was after viewing a videotape of that speech that Glatze began to doubt his lifestyle and the influence he had over others.