“I got highlighter on, I got blush, I got eyebrow gel, I got Laneige lip moisturizer, you know what I’m saying?” she continued. “Even when I was a stud, the girls I was with would say I’m acting too girly. I wasn’t even man enough for them. So now I’m over here being a girl girl, and that ain’t good enough. I don’t know what else to do.”
“I done had four kids. I been married for 11 years,” she emphasized. “Do you understand what I’m saying? It’s like at this point, I don’t know. Y’all want me to bust out in Spanx—to make what point? No. I’m not doing it.”
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“I actually want to speak from the vantage point of your husband, of your development,” Preston said. “One, I love your style. I think that your style is beautiful. I love the way you dress…if you wasn’t stylish, it would be hard for me because I love fashion.”
“You got to lead me in the way I should go,” she replied.
“Right, right, right,” he said. “But you’re a beautiful woman. And one of the things that frustrates me is, you know, I think a lot of the criticism that I’ve seen you get is actually a result of unbelief.”
“People not having the ability to truly believe God’s power in someone’s life actually makes [them] come into the conversation wanting a person to do all the outside things so you can prove to them that you’re delivered,” said Preston.
“What I mean is because [other people] struggle with God’s redeeming power,” he explained, “because [they] struggle with God being a deliverer, Jackie has to show up with red bottoms and sundresses for [them] to believe that she’s delivered.” They are focused on her appearance, “not faithfulness to her husband, not faithfulness to a local church, not faithfulness to the Scriptures.”
People want Jackie to present herself in a way that communicates to them she is “delivered,” but not according to how God defines deliverance. “I do think that when it comes to people doubting you,” Preston told Jackie, “it is indicative to them doubting the Lord. It is not about you, it is about their lack of faith.”
Preston said that when he and Jackie were first married, she didn’t wear blush or eyeliner. “But you came out with this book called ‘Gay Girl, Good God,’ and I saw the immediate impact that it had on culture, the church, the LGBTQ+ community,” he said. “I saw the immediate impact.”
“As I saw you be faithful year after year, you’ve actually become—I won’t say more of a woman, because that’s ignorant—you’ve always been a woman,” said Preston. “But you’ve become more comfortable in your femininity.” Jackie agreed.
“But I’ve seen the attacks grow,” he said.
“Which is crazy,” she interjected.
“As you became more girly!” he finished. “That shows you that it’s spiritual warfare.”
“I want to encourage you in this,” Preston told Jackie. “I think the devil is tired of you.” Describing the impact of his wife’s ministry, particularly through “Gay Girl, Good God,” Preston explained that he believes the devil is using critical words from Christians to try to tear Jackie down in her faith.
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