Despite being raised in a Christian home, Haley Furst spent several of her young adult years identifying as a man. She even built a significant social media following around advocacy for transgenderism, abortion, and other left-wing issues.But then Jesus found her in that darkness, pulled her out, and has been healing her ever since.On this episode of “Relatable,” Haley shares her incredible testimony with Allie Beth Stuckey. Although as a child Haley never questioned her gender, social media indoctrination sowed confusion in her young teenage years. In secret, she slowly began to question God’s design for marriage and gender.Then at 16, she was sexually assaulted.“It resulted in me becoming really uncomfortable with myself, with my body. And so, you know, I started to dress in a way that I felt protected me. … I cut my hair short. I started to wear what would be called men’s clothing,” she tells Allie.Even though Haley was not planning to identify as a man despite her masculine look, her teachers began expressing support for her new appearance and inquired about what name and pronouns she wanted to use.“These YouTubers, these creators that I would watch … they all had something in their past that was hard, and [transgenderism] seemed to work for them, and people are telling me, ‘Hey, this is what seems to be happening in your life.’ … I started to believe it for myself,” she recounts.She then started identifying as nonbinary and using they/them pronouns.“I was really, really welcomed in when I started to do that. I began to have more friends. I was a part of an LGBTQ club in my high school, and for the first time in my life, I started to feel like I had an identity that I could cling to that would open doors,” she tells Allie.At 17, she told her parents she was transitioning into a man, leading to a tumultuous final year at home. When she turned 18, Haley moved in with a boyfriend and immediately began cross-sex hormone therapy. Roughly two years later, she had a hysterectomy.All this time, Haley documented and built a large online community around her “transition.”“I would make a lot of videos about my experience coming out and coming out to a Christian family, and a lot of people would identify with that, and we would have discussions … to encourage each other, to empower each other, and kind of fight against that ‘oppressive’ Christian belief,” she explains.With her Christian foundation withering, Haley began to support and speak on more progressive issues, including abortion, Black Lives Matter, and even “anarchal communism.”But when a bad breakup flipped her entire life upside down, Haley found herself in a deep depression working as a Starbucks barista. Even though she was surrounded by people in the LGBTQ+ community who were hostile to Christianity, she had a couple of co-workers who had recently become Christians.“One evening when we were working together, [a coworker] started to read the Bible to me. … What he had actually read to me was Romans 8, and he had gotten to Romans 8:38, and something in my heart clicked where I had remembered that scripture from my youth,” Haley recounts.“I became very sure that [Jesus] was what I was needing. … But I had told myself that there was no way I could ever be a Christian because I’m a leftist, because I’m transgender. … And so I can’t give my life to Jesus because Christians are conservative, straight people, and I am not that, and I will never be that.”This tension created a deep anger in Haley, but after months of wrestling, she couldn’t shake her desire to follow Jesus.“I prayed the prayer. I said, you know, like, ‘Christ, if you would still have me, I want you come make your home in my heart.’ And right in that moment, the presence of God fell so heavy in that room that I physically could not stand up. I kept trying to get up, and I would just fall on my knees, and I just began to weep,” she says.“The feeling of Christ entering my heart and the experience of his love in that moment, just a touch of his love, made me mourn all the years I had spent apart from that, and I knew in that moment that I can never spend one day of my life apart from that ever again.”But despite this newfound deep faith, Haley refused to de-transition. In fact, she went “further into [her] transition” in an effort to become so indistinguishable from a biological male that people in her new church couldn’t see her true identity.This secretive life, however, consumed her. The anxiety became too much to bear, and one day Haley confessed to her pastor, who pledged to walk with her as she pursued Jesus. Other congregants did the same.“I never had one person ever confront me about [being transgender],” Haley says.But the Lord continued to press on her heart.“I remember one evening thinking to myself, I don’t think I’m going to heaven as a man. … I don’t think I’m going to look at Jesus, and I don’t think he’s going to see a man. I think he’s going to see the girl that he made. … I think he’s going to welcome me by my name — not a name that I chose, but a name that was lovingly given to me by my parents,” she recalls.That’s when Haley stopped taking testosterone, grew out her hair, and embraced femininity again.“I thought, you know, I’ll never get married. I’ll never work in ministry. I’ll never get back what the enemy stole, and the way that the Lord has not only restored and redeemed, but given back a double portion in my life, I just stand in awe of what he’s done,” she beams.To hear Haley’s full story and where she’s at today, watch the episode above.Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
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