By Steve Rees —
Molested by a pastor and abused physically and mentally by men, she rejected church and Jesus – instead finding a sense of belonging and a form of love within the LGBTQ+ community.
She saw an opportunity to honor women and men by becoming a man.
“I’m going to show men what they’re really supposed to be like for women as defenders, protectors and providers,” Grezuana Wright said at the time.
Living as a transgender man for six years, Wright looked forward every year to June’s rainbow-flagged celebrations of pride, and the opportunities to speak to an accepting newfound community, which included 700 drag queens and an eclectic mix of friends.
One month after pride last year – in July 2023 – Wright was saved by grace through faith in Jesus, beginning the transition process back to her God-given gender.
She then enrolled in ministry school, moving to Texas one month before a group of former LGBTQ+ men and women came to Dallas to celebrate freedom from unwanted same-sex attractions and mistaken gender identities.
Invited by two speakers from the ministry Rainbow Revival/Freedom March, Wright found a community where she really fit.
“I saw multiple people de-transitioning and going through similar experiences of breaking free from fear of man and healing from deep-seated wounds,” said Wright.
Her church and school have been supportive in what is a long process of changing both gender and name back to what God and her parents assigned at birth – a baby girl named Grezuana.
Thankfully, many of her brothers and sisters in Christ at church and ministry school are eager to learn more about Wright’s journey and provide spiritual covering for her growing ministry.
Encouraged by fellow believers, Wright is praying about missions and already there’s promised spiritual and financial support for her future ministry.
When pride begins on June 1, Wright is accompanying a team of spiritual warriors to the large Dallas events.
Team members will carry a rainbow flag with inscribed names of LGBTQ people in need of Jesus’ redeeming love to one or more celebrations of pride in Dallas – second in size only to California’s.
They’ve prayed over and celebrated communion around the rainbow flag which, for them, is about God’s promise – not pride.
Last October, Rainbow Revival/Freedom March hosted a day-long outreach with worship, prayer and evangelism in the exact location as this year’s Dallas pride celebration, prophetically preparing the ground for a harvest of souls from that community.
Wright knows from experience that LGBTQ people are looked down upon by some Christians because of the unnatural aspects of their sexual sin and gender confusion.
“Little do these people know there are things that lead up to it; we’re not born gay. There is rejection, abandonment, generational curses, addiction, and pornography,” said Wright.
She also knows the LGBTQ+ community is loving and welcoming to outsiders but not toward people who leave it. Wright’s life has been threatened since cutting ties with her former social circle.
A pastor and Rainbow Revival/Freedom March online leader, Davon Johnson agrees the LGBTQ+ community appears loving and welcoming initially, but it can break people too.
“The sin nature is there, and the wage of sin is death. There’s always going to be brokenness, rejection, and disappointment when the core of a community is rooted in sinfulness,” said Johnson.
Also transformed by God’s love – TBGL rather than LGBT as Johnson likes to say – another man familiar with pride parades and parties in multiple cities was addicted to a fast life of glamour, drinks, and drugs.
Patrick Quezada says “wreaking havoc was his game.”
“Crowded with an entourage of superficial superstars, we were well equipped with poppers and porn, meeting men at bars, bath houses, and bookstores followed by after parties,” Quezada said.
Often high on Tina (meth), Quezada and his gay friends lacked inhibitions, limitations, and pride – though the latter was the supposed reason for celebrating.
A lifestyle he knew was taking him to hell, the LGBTQ community offered nothing real or lasting to Quezada, who discovered he was looking for love in all the wrong places.
Through a redeeming relationship with Jesus and connections to Rainbow Revival/Freedom March, Quezada now has communities at church and among people who once identified as LGBTQ – all of them transformed by God’s love.
He plans to attend a pride celebration in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where Quezada will pray, love, and share Jesus. In addition, he plans to pass out water and candy at the mountain town’s pride event.
“Being a friend and ally without judgment, and sowing seeds of hope for all who want a changed life” are Quezada’s goals in reaching out.
He is author of a soon-to-be published book titled “Open My Encrypted Heart.”
Ministry to and prayer for the LGBTQ community is always on God’s heart but especially so during pride month, said Jon Sowell, another Rainbow Revival/Freedom March online leader, who is praying for a gay man at the gym where the two work out.
In a dream, Sowell saw the man lifting his hands in worship at church.
So Sowell asked him if he would like to visit his church sometime; the invitation brought a smile to the man’s face and an enthusiastic ‘yes’ to the question.
“We can analyze the dry bones, or we can prophesy over them that they don’t have to remain dead,” said Sowell, quoting from Ezekiel 37.
He believes God impressed this on his heart: Jon, you don’t have to be an analyzer. Stop talking about how dry and dead the bones are and start prophesying and speaking life over them.
“If we see someone in the gay lifestyle or anything that’s contrary to the heart of God, say to Him: ‘God use me as an instrument to prophesy life into that which is dead.’
“If they refuse an invitation to church, then bring the church to them by praying for them,” Sowell said.
Family – not an organization – is what Freedom March co-founder and Rainbow Revival senior leader MJ Nixon calls former LGBTQ+ people who’ve united under God in 14 cities since 2018.
“This is just the beginning of taking people out of the LGBTQ community and into the kingdom of God as we stand firm in fasting, prayer and belief,” Nixon said.
The next Freedom March – No 15 in cities ranging from Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Los Angeles to Dallas – is set for Chicago on October 19.
Another movement with which Rainbow Revival is connected – A Million Women – will be in the nation’s capital on October 12 – the biblical Day of Atonement.
“God is amid it,” Nixon said. “I believe the wind of what is happening with the million women in D.C. directly impacts what we’ll be doing with Rainbow Revival in Chicago on October 19,” Nixon said.
