Laura Perry Smalts’ Authentic Shift From Transgenderism To Embracing God’s Design

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Although Laura Perry Smalts grew up in a Christian home, she struggled with the message of the gospel.

“I never really understood what it meant to ask Jesus into my heart,” Laura recalls, highlighting the spiritual confusion that clouded much of her early life.

Her confusion was fueled by a strained relationship with her mother. Though Laura now knows this to be a lie, she believed at the time that her mother favored boys. Laura felt like she had a closer relationship with her father, so she believed she identified with him. These two beliefs fueled her discontentment and confusion.

“I just didn’t like being a girl,” Laura admits.

While it is perfectly normal for some little girls to be tomboys, for Laura, that label just added to her feelings of not fitting in. To her young mind, “Tomboy” was a label that said she wasn’t a boy. But, she thought, am I a different kind of girl?

One flip remark sounded like a life sentence to 14 year old Laura.

As a tween, Laura recalled, “So at that time, I was not thinking that I was going to transition and live as male. So even though I didn’t like being female, I still wanted to be pregnant and have kids one day.”

However, her adolescent years were punctuated with chronic, excruciating pain. During a medical appointment, a doctor said to her, “Somebody’s gonna have a hard time getting pregnant.”

What 14 year old Laura heard in that moment was she was never going to get pregnant. It was then that she began to believe the lies whispered into her heart. Lies that said no man was ever going to want her. She would never get married. She would never have a normal life as a girl.

At that point, Laura blamed God for a lot of her problems. As she explained, “I wanted nothing to do with Christians, with the church. I wanted to sin in every way possible, to hurt my parents as much as I could. I was just full of anger and bitterness. And, you know, I look back and I don’t know how I got to that point.”

Even though Laura says her childhood was not as traumatic as the upbringing lot of people experience, nonetheless, she grew very bitter. Looking back on her path, Laura sees her own struggles reflected in the Bible, especially in Hebrews 12:14-15 where the Scripture gently reminds us, “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no ‘root of bitterness’ springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.”

Laura reflected on the verse. “And this is exactly what happened to me.”

Questions and anger

Laura goes on to explain, “It’s what I’ve seen in so many others. Romans 1 talks about how God has revealed himself to every man. And we know in Romans 1 there’s this whole progression: people being given over to lust and then unnatural lust, and then eventually to a mind that completely rejects the truth.”

During those tough times of doubt and confusion, Laura’s experiences really resonated with the warnings in Romans 1 which talks about how easy it is to drift away from God and His truth.

“And so I look back and I think so much of my problem was that I was so full of anger and bitterness that it just festered over the years.” She said she never dealt with the questions and beliefs that were the root of her anger. “I kept refusing to forgive.”

Laura realized she felt like God had been unfair to give her this “tomboy thing.” The label wasn’t what she wanted. She just felt like she didn’t fit in. Not with the boys. Not with the girls.

But God didn’t leave her there.

A radical transformation in Christ

Laura’s radical transformation began when she encountered the love of Christ in a way she had never experienced before. “I remember telling God, I would never serve him again… But God had other plans,” she recounts, acknowledging the divine intervention that changed the course of her life.

Through a series of events and encounters with Christians who showed her the true love of God, Laura began to see herself through the lens of her Creator, rather than the distorted mirror of the world. Laura saw a powerful shift in her mother and in her mother’s relationship with God. Her mother loved and accepted Laura even as Laura felt confused about her identity. Additionally, Laura’s mother and her friends prayed faithfully for Laura.

Laura Perry Smalts mbracing God’s design

Today, after years of cross-sex hormone therapy, two major so-called gender-affirming surgeries, Laura Perry Smalts is a strong testament to the power of faith and the truth of the gospel.

She speaks openly about the dangers of transgender ideology and the importance of a Christian worldview to understand our true identity.

“God has created our entire bodies… ultimately, they’re about the glory of God.” Laura asserts that she found beauty and purpose in embracing our God-given design for men and women.

Laura’s journey from transgenderism to transformation is a powerful reminder that our identity is found not in the changing tides and trending waves of culture, but in the unchanging truth of God’s Word.

Her story encourages us to seek the Lord in all things, and trust in His design for our lives in every way. Perhaps most of all, Laura’s journey encourages us to find our true identity in Christ. 

Laura Perry Smalts’ story is not just a personal testimony; it’s a call to the church to minister with compassion, understanding, and truth to those struggling with gender identity. As in Laura’s case, there are many underlying interpretations to our experiences in life that can lead people to believe lies about ourselves, others, and God. Her journey reminds us that real transformation is possible through faith in Christ, and that embracing God’s design leads to true freedom and joy.