For years Becket Cook had a highly successful career as a production designer in the fashion world. During that time, he lived fully engaged as a gay man in Hollywood. Cook said, “I had many boyfriends over the years, attended Pride Parades, and marched in innumerable rallies for gay-marriage equality. My identity as a gay man was immutable, or so I thought.” In 2009, he experienced something extraordinary: a radical encounter with Jesus Christ while attending an evangelical church in Hollywood for the first time.

Cook explained what happened:

I walked into the church a gay atheist and walked out two hours later a born-again Christian, in love with Jesus. I was stunned by this reversal. Since then, I no longer identify as gay but rather choose to be celibate because I believe God’s plan and purpose—revealed in the Bible—is authoritative, true, and good.

Surrendering my sexuality hasn’t been easy. I still struggle with vestiges of same-sex attraction, but denying myself, taking up my cross, and following Jesus is an honor. Any struggles I experience pale in comparison to the joy of a personal relationship with the one who created me and gives my life meaning. My identity is no longer in my sexuality; it’s in Jesus.

But instead of celebrating Cook for his authenticity, when he came out as a Christian to his friends he was met with skepticism and, in some cases, outright hostility. His closest friends abandoned him. His production-design agency in Hollywood dropped him under the most vague and frivolous of pretexts—even though he was one of their top artists.

Cook went on to say:

I’m not complaining or claiming to be a victim. What I gained in Christ is absolutely priceless. Like the apostle Paul, I’m learning to “count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8). Yes, the loss of close friendships and a lucrative career were harsh, but being in the kingdom of God more than compensates!

Recently, Cook exclaimed to a friend,

I’m the most authentic person you know! In fact, because I’m now who God created me to be; I’m finally authentic. Becoming more and more like Jesus—the truest human who ever lived—is a far more authentic transformation than becoming more and more like whatever “self” my fluid feelings suggest on any given day.