Greg Quilan: I remember asking my father, I said, “You hate me, don’t you?” And he came back, and taking the Lord’s name in vain, he says, “Yes, blankety-blank, I hate you,” and laughed. Now, that wasn’t like a kick. That was a like, “Yes, I knew that. I knew that.”
And at the tender age of eight, Greg Quinlan realized that those would probably be the kindest words he would ever hear from his father. Later, the emotional abuse would escalate and became physical. When asked, "What did more damage, the physical abuse or the emotional/verbal abuse?" he answered, "Words hit harder than a fist".
Greg searched for a way to escape his pain. Although his father was an atheist, his mother was a Christian and took Greg and his siblings to church.

Greg Quinlan: "At nine years old I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior in junior church. It was a real experience. I know what it means when they say that that burden was lifted. I didn’t know I had one until it was gone. I do remember praying and asking the Lord that, whatever happened, not to let go of me. I was in such fear growing up. I was always afraid".

Not long after accepting Jesus into his life, Greg was introduced to pornography at a friend’s house.

Greg Quinlan: "So we’re sitting there looking at all this, and we’re looking at this, and we’re looking at that. Then a boy across the street introduced me to sex. And, yes, I knew it was wrong. But at the same time, I have to tell you, it was wonderful, and here’s why. Someone was touching me without hurting me. Someone was giving me affection. It’s something I never got at home. I was getting approval and affirmation. Again, something I never got at home. I wasn’t getting that from anywhere else except in this relationship that was wrong. I was getting the very things I needed as a little boy growing up.".
Greg got older, the conflict between practicing homosexuality and his faith led to a secret double life.

Greg Quinlan: I had a heart for the Lord. I wanted to serve Him. I didn’t want the feelings and emotions I had. I remember thinking that either I come out of the closet or do something with this, or I kill myself. That was my choice.
Greg decided to live openly as a homosexual.
It was the 1980s, and Greg was working as a licensed practical nurse. The incidence of HIV/AIDS was skyrocketing to epidemic proportions in the homosexual communityIt was the 1980s, and Greg was working as a licensed practical nurse. The incidence of HIV/AIDS was skyrocketing to epidemic proportions in the homosexual community.
Greg Quinlan: "Before it was all over, I watched a hundred of my friends and acquaintances die of AIDS, and that’s when I stopped counting."
Greg got involved as an activist for AIDS awareness.

Greg Quinlan: "I was a Republican, and I was pro-life. So I became sort of a token pro-life Republican in the homosexual political movement. I founded the Dayton Committee for the Human Rights Campaign Fund. We would go three or four times a year to Capitol Hill, and we would lobby Congress".

Between the time spent with his nursing consultation business and politics, Greg sometimes watched Christian television, just out of curiosity.
Greg says, "I would watch such shows as "The 700 Club"the points where I wanted to strangle Pat Robertson and other hosts. At the same time, though, watching to see what they were doing when they were talking about the homosexual agenda, the compassion still came through. Not the hatred and the negativity so much, because they would bring people who had left the lifestyle. They would have testimonies of people who had done that. And I thought, “Is this really true? Is this really going to happen?” At the same time I’m miserable. I had finally went to my hundredth funeral. “I’m tired. I’m sick of this. I want out. I’m not happy.” Relationships weren’t working out. Financially things weren’t working out".
And things weren’t working out for Greg’s father either.

Greg Quinlan: "At the same time, Dad was sick. He has an abdominal aortic aneurysm the size of a grapefruit. And who did he want around to help take care of him?
Yes, the his little boy he said he hated. After all, I’m the nurse in the family".
Taking care of his father brought back childhood memories of rejection. His dad was not repentant, and Greg was not ready to forgive. Plus, Greg was still dealing with his own weariness with the gay lifestyle.

Greg Quinlan: I was watching television again. In the same week or two-week period, CBN had ex-gay testimonies. The 700 Club and TBN had them. And I’d had enough. I had had enough. So I made the phone call. So I said the sinner’s prayer. And I knew the sinner’s prayer. No bells or whistles, no fireworks. But I slept that night. There was peace.
During a church service, Greg says that he received encouragement in his decision to follow Jesus.

Greg Quinlan: I said, “Lord, if you have taken me back, if you really were married to the backslider, if you are going to use me, I have to know, and I’ve got to know right now.” At that second, at that moment I prayed that prayer, “Son, there’s a call on your life! Raise that boy up in the striped shirt.” And she was pointing at me. And she pulled her mike away, and she said, “What the devil’s trained you to do, God will use for His glory.”
In his journey to wholeness in his male identity, Greg learned that the first stop along the way was to submit himself to God’s plan for change.


Greg Quinlan:
“Don’t conform any longer to the pattern of this world.” And we’ve all got them. It’s those patterns that we have learned. It’s those patterns we have to unlearn. Don’t do things the way this world does them, “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” It’s a process. It’s a process of crucifying this flesh. It’s a process of forgiveness. That’s the hard thing, because pride doesn’t want us to forgive".
Greg also knew that he had to forgive his father.

Greg Quinlan: Dad’s dying. Like I said, he’d been in and out of the hospital like a yo-yo. I had not forgiven him yet. I was still harboring the bitterness, the resentment, all those feelings. And he had refused the ventilator. So I lived furthest away, and so when I got there I said, “Dad, do you understand what that means?” And he said, “Yes, blankety-blank, I know what it means! I’m going to die!” “Okay. All right.”
A friend from church told Greg and his mother to go get something to eat while she stayed with Harry.

Greg Quinlan: And when we came back she said, “Greg! Dora! Harry prayed to receive Christ, and he did it twice.” And we were very patronizing to her, because we thought, “He probably said that to shut her up. He didn’t mean it.” That’s what we thought. In that week before he died, he didn’t take the Lord’s name in vain once, and that’s odd. There were some changes that were made, and here’s the biggest change.
The night before he went into a coma, Greg was so behind in my work, being a consultant at nursing homes:
Greg said to his father, “Dad, I’ve got to go, and I’ll be back tomorrow later".

He said:
“Yes. Well, that’s okay Greg.”

Greg Quinlan:
And I said, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Dad,” and he said, “Okay. I love you, Greg.” “What?” And my friends who were there, too, one of them turned around and said, “Tell him you love him, too.” “I love you, too, Dad.” That night he went into a coma, and he died that Thursday. So that was God, nobody else but Him. So, in that moment, I still had unresolved issues, but a lot of things were taken care of, because I finally heard from the man, who told me when I was eight years old he hated me, that he loved me. I mean, what a difference. What a shock!"
Greg is making a difference himself now for families instead of the gay and lesbian agenda. He’s fulfilling the prophecy spoken over him years ago.

Greg Quinlan: So, what the devil trained me to do, God is now using for His glory. I’m on the board of directors of Ohio Christian Coalition. I founded my own organization called Pro Family Network. Our objective is to put a paid Christian lobbyist in every state capitol of the country".
Greg now has a close ally in his fight for the family: his wife. Cheryl has a unique understanding of Greg and the problems of his past. You see, she struggled with the devastation of childhood sexual abuse from a family member. Cheryl is completely recovered from the alcohol and drugs she used to escape her pain. She also left behind her own long-term lesbian relationship to serve the same Lord who set her free, just like He did for her husband, Greg.

Cheryl says:
"This makes me want to praise God. And I just know that He’s awesome and that looking back, I can see where He had His hand in my life, and He really protected me, because He knew one day that I was going to come to Him. And I’m just a completely different person than I was".

Being asked, whether they can really be happily married in a heterosexual relationship, once they’ve come out of the homosexual lifestyle, Greg says:
"Yes. We can. No, and it’s not an act. We’re pretty transparent people. Like I said, we’ve had our moments. Of course, every heterosexual couple I’ve ever talked to talks about those moments".
"I’m not tempted by sexual sin. I can really say that I am free. I don’t think the Lord would have brought us together, if we weren’t free. I mean, that’s really the best way to say it. I just want to make sure that everyone understands that to change is a process. God saves you and delivers you, and then at the minute that He comes into your life, you are His. You belong to Him. But changing a whole lifestyle choice, changing the way you’ve lived your life in a wrong way takes time.
"The Lord will set you free from that and change you and change your feelings and take away all the attraction to the same sex—and the way God intended us to be, and that is to be attracted to the opposite sex and be in a married, committed relationship".
Greg Quinlan: "When you come to that understanding, the temptations are less. Does the devil not try to tempt you? Of course, he does. But is the appeal there? No. You don’t have to live this lifestyle anymore. That’s the first key. Understand you don’t have to be like this anymore. You can change, and you can change only through the help and the power of the Holy Spirit, through what Jesus Christ did at the cross. It’s something that homosexuals need to understand, that in the Scripture it says, “He died once and for all.” And He covered all my sin, not just a little part of it. All of it"