Woman explains why she left ‘super wild’ lesbian lifestyle to follow Christ

Immersed in the gay lifestyle from age fifteen, Emily Thomes’ life was transformed when she encountered the real God.

Rebellious from an early age, Emily’s actions led her into immoral choices.  “I met my need for attention by constantly ‘going against the grain,’” she explains online and in a viral video released last week.  

“I partied, slept around, and by fifteen I came out as a lesbian to some friends,” Emily continued in the Anchored North-produced video.  “I cut my hair short, wore boy clothes, and used men’s bathrooms and dressing rooms.”

She figured God was okay with her doings, because “God being love meant God was nice.”  Her view of God was one of benevolent all-acceptance.  “God was chill with what you were cool with,” she thought.

As she became more and more openly gay, she delved deeper and deeper into perversion.  “I enjoyed the thrill of doing and being what was outside the norm—trying harder drugs, exploring even more taboo sexual acts, and getting a couple of regrettable tattoos.”

But despite an outward facade of happiness, Emily describes herself at the time as having “hollow eyes and hopeless heart.”

At age 22, a co-worker invited her to a Bible Study.  Because her aunt was involved Emily went, but she planned to quit as soon as the topic of homosexuality came up.

The Christian women in the study shared positive experiences about God.  “I had nothing like that, and it bugged me,” Emily admitted.  

“I couldn’t stop questioning,” she said, “because I (didn’t) feel okay anymore.”

Emily was quite surprised --and not a little frightened-- that the real God was not the all-approving one she had imagined.

“I knew what the Bible said about homosexuality,” she now says, “but I hadn’t cared before (because) I had little understanding of the God I was sinning against.”

Emily began reading the Bible on her own.  She felt “struck by lightning” when she grappled with First Corinthians chapter six.

Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God...

“That day it was like my eyes were really opened,” Emily shared.  “Suddenly I could no longer argue.  It was clear.  I was in the ‘Will Not Enter the Kingdom of God’ lineup … It scared me really, really bad.”

And then Emily made the discovery that has transformed millions of lives the world over: she read the next verse.

...and such were some of you.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

The light of new hope went on in Emily’s heart.  She understood that God heals and transforms people from sins just like hers.

“My whole life changed that day,” Emily proclaims.  “I grasped His hand by faith ... I was amazed at the grace He showed me.”

Emily’s video has so far been seen by over 1.5 million people.

Now married for two years and expecting her first child, Emily shares her story to give hope to others like her.  

She tells fellow strugglers that the path from homosexuality to wholeness in Christ is not always simple or easy, but it is healing.

“It’s not gay to straight. It’s lost to saved,” she says. “God calls us not to heterosexuality, but to holiness.”