In the early morning hours of June 12, 2016, Angel Colon was drunk and high, dancing at one of Orlando’s LGBTQ nightclubs. Though raised in a Christian home, Angel had long since abandoned his faith and instead adopted a homosexual lifestyle.

At approximately 2 a.m., just after bartenders announced the “last call,” 29-year-old Omar Mateen walked into the club carrying multiple weapons and began indiscriminately firing at the crowd. As Mateen was making his way through the club killing patrons, he placed a 911 call, swearing allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, and declaring this mass shooting was his form of protest for U.S. intervention in Iraq and Syria. He hung up the phone and proceeded hunting down bar patrons like ducks in a pen.

Angel Colon lay in a pool of blood. He had already been shot five times, but was somehow miraculously still alive. He held the hand of a young woman who lay bleeding next to him.

Suddenly, Angel felt the young woman’s body jump off the floor, and his hand lost its grip on hers. Mateen had returned and pumped yet another bullet into the woman, killing her instantly. In an interview with Liberty Counsel’s Freedom Alive, Angel described what happened then:

I was petrified knowing I was next. I heard the shooter behind me, gauging his next move. That's when I asked the Lord for forgiveness, to forgive me for failing Him, for turning my back on Him. I wanted to be at peace with God, but at that moment, my prayer changed to prophecy.

I prophetically claimed my life for the Lord. I told Him I would not leave that building dead, that I had a purpose, and He would fulfill all the promises He made over my life. I knew in that moment that I was chosen, and God had something big for me.

I promised Him I would worship Him for the rest of my days. The very moment I said, "amen," I felt the bullet. Heat swelled through my abdomen, and I was certain I was dead. But when I opened my eyes, I knew the Lord spared me.

Angel felt that sixth bullet from Mateen’s weapon rip through his flesh so forcefully that his body bounced up from the floor, before slamming down again on the broken glass beneath him.

The shooter moved on, thinking Angel was finally dead. When police arrived and stopped the killing spree, Angel was found among the living, though barely. One of the bullets had shattered his femur, and collectively all six bullets were causing Angel to bleed to death. Rescuers had to drag Angel out of the building, but broken glass all over the floor further shredded his flesh.

Angel’s injuries were so extreme that had he not received medical care within 5 minutes, he would have been dead.

But Angel lived ... and he honored his promise to God. Not only did Angel leave the homosexual lifestyle, but he also started a ministry to help others experience freedom and embrace God’s design for sexuality.

Six bullets couldn’t stop Angel from speaking the truth in love to others trapped in this behavior. But bans on Christian change counseling ARE silencing Christian mental health counselors and people like Angel from rescuing those trapped in an LGBTQ lifestyle.

Liberty Counsel has fought hard to overturn 23 bans on counseling that tells the TRUTH about gender dysphoria and God’s design for human sexuality. But 87 bans remain in place across the country.

Banning ANYTHING simply because it is Bible-based or Christian is a violation of First Amendment rights. But these politically motivated bans on Christian change counseling are, for many, a matter of life or death.

Liberty Counsel is filing three new cases, one on each coast and another in the Midwest, defending Christian counselors and their patients from these unlawful bans. I will provide more details as soon as we file the lawsuits.

Even Congress is moving to silence professional change counseling.

HR 15, the so-called “Equality Act” seeks to federally ban Christian change counseling. The “Equality Act” also punishes anyone who dares stand on the side of biological science, or who proclaims God’s perfect design for sexuality and humanity.

Unless we raise a righteous roar that cannot be ignored, the LGBTQ agenda might win this fight to silence Christians, scientists, counselors, and medical practitioners from telling the truth about gender-bending lies and God’s perfect human design.

Mat Staver
Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel