A week ago, I wrote a post on my blog about coming out as a gay father. I mentioned strands of Mormon thinking which, I had come to realize, were woven throughout my psyche as a gay father, along with the strands of general homophobia, shame and self-loathing that are endemic to gays and lesbians ...
There was a heated discussion here a few months ago about mixed-orientation marriages. What doesn’t feel resolved for me is how to assess the patriarchy gay Mormon men engage in when they marry women. A couple aspects that seem obvious are the fact that the power of the priesthood runs through men only, so that ...
This post is a companion piece to Monday’s essay, “To Young Men Only: The Gay Version”. I had intended to write this back in January, but it never happened. I think it is appropriate to insert it here in this series of posts as a follow-on to last Friday’s post about Mormon doctrine concerning homosexuality. ...
This is the fourth in a series of posts addressing issues relating to gay Mormon men marrying heterosexual women. The first post was published on my own blog as well as Main Street Plaza. The next two posts were published only on my blog (here and here), and beginning with this post, the rest of ...
“So I found out a friend from my freshman ward is doing the “I’m in the closet and I mess around with guys but I’m not gay and I plan on marrying a girl in the temple” thing. I feel really bad for him. Not much I can do, but it’s sad … That makes ...
About ten days ago, I published a post on my blog (invictuspilgrim.blogspot.com) entitled “An Overwhelming Emptiness.” It was Dave’s story, the story of his struggle to come to terms with his sexuality and identity in a Mormon mixed-orientation marriage (MoMoM). Then, on Wednesday of this past week, I published another post, entitled “Falling Away”, in ...
“Losing you [when you joined the church] was like a guillotine blade that beheaded the loving richness I had in my life. [After you joined the church] I saw you withdraw from life. The relationship between your withdrawal from life and your involvement in the church appeared to be proportionally related: the more you became ...
This now-infamous question (slightly paraphrased) posed by President Boyd K. Packer at this past October Conference will, I think, reverberate in the minds of many church members for years to come – and not just with respect to sexual orientation. I can’t help thinking that Elder Packer may for many members have, in a moment ...
My world changed forever on Sunday, October 3, 2010. That morning, I heard four sentences that wrecked my faith in Mormonism, shattered my marriage and destroyed a false persona that I had carefully maintained for most of my adult life. These words, which quickly became infamous, were uttered by the second most senior apostle of ...
x-posted at Daily Kos, Pam’s House Blend, and Street Prophets. And this particular journey will be (mostly) televised. ABC Nightline … After watching the two segments embedded below, Wayne Besen asks ABC Nightline: Do people really need to spend $650 to suppress their desires? I was incredibly disappointed with ABC Nightline’s segment that aired last ...
KUTV interviews Sister Dottie S. Dixon: Former LDS Homosexual Says Church Shouldn’t Ask For Change (who writes these headlines?) How much longer before mainstream Utah news orgs adopt the same frame as the rest of the country, namely: LGBT folks often grapple with their received religion for good reason (i.e., it’s time to give up ...
Here’s the video report from KUTV 2News (tip o’ the hat to Faith-Promoting Rumor for the heads up): Excerpts from KUTV’s report: “I am a LDS mother, a wife and I struggle from same sex attraction,” said Misty, whose name has been changed to protect her kids. … Evergreen International, a group whose mission is ...
I’ve just written a review (here) of Steven H. Lee’s compelling memoir Falling into Life. One thing I didn’t mention in the review — but one of the most fascinating aspects of it — is that it represents perhaps the most complete two-sided portrait of an LDS mixed-orientation-marriage that exists. It turns out that Steven’s ...