Ep 1387 | Mormon to 'Trans' to Christian: How the Gospel Changed Everything | LaRell Herbert
August 21, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readLaRell Herbert grew up in a devout Mormon family with deep roots in LDS history (Brigham Young’s brother was his fourth great uncle). From age four, he felt he was a female trapped in a male body. Every night he prayed to God either to remove the feeling or to let him wake up in the right body. He kept this secret for decades because he knew he would be seen as mentally ill if he told anyone. The LDS church taught that gender was eternal and fixed—if you were male on earth, you had always been male and always would be. But for Herbert, that teaching only deepened the conflict: if God made no mistakes, why did he feel like one?
The role of the Mormon church and early programming
Herbert explains that the LDS church programmed his identity in contradictory ways. It taught that souls had gendered pre-existence and that gender was eternal, but it never said you could be born in the wrong body. Herbert’s own mind tried to reconcile the church’s permanence of gender with his persistent feeling of wrongness. He concluded that God must have made a mistake. When he eventually left Mormonism in 2016 after reading The Changing World of Mormonism, his whole worldview dissolved. No longer believing in God, he saw himself as a product of evolution. That shift allowed him to believe that a biological accident had occurred, and he could now pursue transition without religious restraint.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Introduction: From Mormon to Trans to Christian** - LaRell Herbert is introduced as a former Mormon who lived as a woman for four years, underwent gender transition surgery, and later detransitioned after becoming a Christian.
- 2 (03:00) **Mormon Theology and the "Wrong Body" Feeling** - LaRell explains how LDS teachings about pre-existence and gendered souls created a cognitive dissonance that fueled his belief he was a female soul in a male body.
- 3 (05:09) **Childhood Origins of Gender Dysphoria** - LaRell details his earliest memories of feeling different, starting around age four, and the social isolation that resulted from keeping his feelings secret.
- 4 (11:52) **Pornography, Repressed Abuse, and the Programming of Sexuality** - LaRell reveals how his pornography addiction led to the recovery of a repressed memory of childhood sexual abuse and how it programmed his identity.
- 5 (16:17) **The Mechanism of Sexual Programming** - LaRell argues that repetitive exposure to certain sexual content can actively create and reinforce a trans identity, a concept he uses to help others.
- 6 (21:08) **Marriage and the Confession** - LaRell describes getting married, hoping it would cure his feelings, and the difficult moment he had to confess his trans identity to his wife.
- 7 (26:42) **Leaving Mormonism and Embracing Evolution** - LaRell explains how leaving the LDS church dissolved his foundational identity and opened the door for him to fully pursue his trans identity.
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Show Notes
Allie interviews LaRell Herbert, who grew up in the Mormon church and experienced confusion regarding his gender from a young age. Everything he knew to be true was based on LDS doctrine, and when his belief in the “church” dissolved, the belief that he was simply a product of evolution took its place. When his worldview turned to the idea that he was a product of chance and not an intentional creation, the only thing that made sense with his conflicting feelings regarding his sexuality was that he was born in the wrong body. He expressed this heartbreaking information to his wife and began attending therapy with a nonbinary therapist who encouraged him to start receiving hormones and surgical treatment. LaRell went on to identify openly as a woman for seven years. His life changed, however, when he came to the realization that his feelings of being a woman were not something that he was born with but were rooted in childhood trauma. He now has a relationship with Jesus and accepts his true identity as a man made in the image of God. LaRell sits down with Allie to share his story as well as offer helpful insight for those who have loved ones walking through similar challenges.
Check out LaRell’s Book: https://www.amazon.com.au/Embracing-Man-Within-Building-Confidence-ebook/dp/B0HC91S66C
Read More about LaRell Online:
https://larellherbert.com/
https://www.instagram.com/larellh/?hl=en
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Time Codes
0:00 Introduction
1:00 Growing Up Mormon & Confused
11:44 Does P*rn Inspire Transgenderism?
21:36 His Marriage to a Woman
37:09 LaRell’s Trans Procedures
40:34 Detransition and Journey to Christ
59:48 Advice to Parents of “Trans” Children
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Episodes You May Like:
Ep 1381 | He Lived as a 'Trans Christian' for 30 Years Before He Heard This | Willi
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