Gay Star News has tracked down a Reddit post written by an evangelical pastor who is begging forgiveness for spending much of his life preaching that homosexuality is wrong.

“I almost feel like I owe a debt to the LGBT community,” he writes, “or an apology perhaps. Ya see, I spent years as an evangelical pastor, and as I’m sure we’re all aware, this didn’t afford me a lot of freedom in neither my sexuality, nor the worldviews I projected.”

His message continues:

“I always felt strange, almost wrong, telling teenagers that ‘homosexuality is wrong’ and quoting other things that I was taught to quote to discredit the freedom of sexual expression or gender identification.

A year ago, I left that career path because I couldn’t hide that I can no longer support many of their perspectives. The one thing that has torn at my heart is that I taught and encouraged a younger generation to have a negative worldview of any LGBT individual or organization.

I fight back tears now as I regret that there are some who grew passionate about opposing this wonderful group of individuals. I know that if I stayed quiet, no one would miss a wink of sleep and I don’t think that I am changing anything.

But I want to tell anyone who may read this that I love you for who you are.

When I left the church, everyone turned their back on me, including my now ex-wife, who discovered that I am attracted to men and women equally.

So I don’t really have anyone to say this to. And if only two or three people read this, that’s okay. But I’m on course to genuinely love people and accept all walk of life from here on, and LGBT individuals need more people to turn to the rainbow side.”