2 Pulse survivors to hold ‘ex-gay’ march in Orlando same week leaders look to ban conversion therapy in Orange County

ORLANDO | As LGBTQ leaders and community supporters gathered Aug. 15 at Stonewall Bar in Orlando to hold a rally to ban conversion therapy in Orange County, two Pulse shooting survivors appeared on a Christian podcast to discuss an ex-gay march they plan to hold at Lake Eola next month.

Luis J. Ruiz and Angel Colon—both survivors of the June 12, 2016 mass shooting at Pulse— are claiming they are no longer gay and want to spread their message of “ex-gay” conversion by holding a march at Lake Eola Park in Orlando, less than two miles from Pulse, on Sept. 14.

Ruiz and Colon, under the name of Fearless Identity, plan to host the event in conjunction with Freedom March, a group of “former LGBTQ people who march in major U.S. cities, proclaiming freedom in Christ.”

Fearless Identity is a ministry founded by Ruiz and Colon—also listed as the group’s CEOs—that “brings hope and understanding to the LGBTQ community and the church through education, biblical clarity and support in a judgment-free environment for those seeking the option to change.”

Ruiz and Colon spoke with conservative radio host Julie Roys on her Christian podcast Aug. 15 about their “Freedom March” and how finding God helped them to become “ex-gay.”

“It’s not a gay to straight thing. It’s a lost to saved thing,” Ruiz said of his conversion during the podcast.

Colon echoed the sentiments, saying “after I started testifying to the world, after I shared to the world that he is my God, that change is possible, that I left the homosexual lifestyle … we became these men, these soldiers, these generals that aren’t scared anymore to share wherever they go the gospel of God.”

While Ruiz and Colon state that changing ones sexual orientation is possible, that claim has been discredited by every major medical organization in the U.S. and has even been shown to be deadly to LGBTQ youth.

According to statistics supplied by Equality Florida, LGBTQ youth who are forced to undergo conversion or reparative therapy are eight times more likely to attempt suicide, six times more likely to experience depression and three times more likely to abuse drugs.

These destructive statistics were center stage during the Convert To Love rally at Stonewall Orlando. The event was emceed by LGBTQ activist Eric Rollings and had speakers from Equality Florida, One Orlando Alliance, The Trevor Project, Thrive LGBTQ+, Orlando Youth Alliance and Zebra Coalition, as well as a conversion therapy survivor, State Sen. Linda Stewart and the former president of the reparative therapy organization Exodus International.

The online petition calling for the Orange County ban currently has more than 5,500 signatures. The Convert To Love coalition will be going before the Orange County commissioners and Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings on Sept. 10 at 9:30 a.m. to present the signatures and to ask them to ban the dangerous practice. The meeting is just four days before the “ex-gay” Freedom March.

A similar Freedom March, which was attended by Ruiz, was held in Washington, D.C. in May 2018 at the National Sylvan Theater. According to news outlets, the event was only attended by about 36 people.

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