Gay Mormon Celebrates Ten Year Anniversary with Wife

[Ryan Scott]

I'm not sure if this is too controversial for General Discussion, but it didn't seem to fit too well in the other forums.

Here's an incredibly interesting piece someone passed along to me today:

http://www.joshweed.com/2012/06/club....html?spref=fb



Also a blog post inspired by my reaction to it.

I'm most interested on what people think of the original post.

[Jim Chabot]

Wonderful, just plain wonderful. This fellow is insightful, idealistic, realistic and pragmatic. An unusual combination. Perhaps his advice and his story might not be universally helpful, yet this fellow needs to be heard.

As I read through his post, I got to seeing similarities within myself. Sure his attractions are quite opposite of my own, while all the same, I have suffered temptation just the same. An attraction to someone other than your wife is a temptation to overcome, regardless of gender, no? What I found captivating and compelling is that he is focused upon that which positive and fulfilling, rather than that which is forbidden and destructive. I'm feeling a good bit of admiration for his outlook.

Thanks for sharing this! Great!

[Wes Smith]

Fascinating. Gives another dimension to the gay/lesbian issue. Thanks for posting. I'll probably have more to say when I've had some time to think about this for awhile.

Friend,

Wes

[Wes Smith]

Well, I have to say that I have admiration and respect for the authors.

His testimony certainly adds an option to the gay/lesbian dilemma.

I can't quote him exactly, but he (Josh Weed) talked about love and sex being relationship at the highest and best level and his insight about being in a heterosexual relationship and being committed to his wife superseded his own homosexuality. I can say that really makes a great deal of sense to me, but when I put myself in his place, I simply wouldn't be able to follow his example. Simply, if I had to either be in an intimate relationship with a man or remain celebate, I would remain celebate.

He gave lofty reasons for not following his personal sexual inclinations: faith and family.

It will be interesting to see if his story causes others to either tell their stories, or inspires others to attempt a similar story.

Friend,

Wes

[Ryan Scott]

I already saw another blog from a committed Mormon woman who married a gay man and it didn't go well. Obviously the difference is the attitude - her husband expected to be cured of his homosexuality - clearly Weed takes a different perspective.

I suspect Weed's training as a counselor and his supportive family helped whereas few other situations work out so well.

[Kevin Rector]

I thought that this was a very insightful paragraph and that it really gets to the heart of the issue:

One of the sad truths about being homosexual is that no matter what you decide for your future, you have to sacrifice something. It’s very sad, but it is true. I think this is true of life in general as well. If you decide to be a doctor, you give up any of the myriad of other things you could have chosen. But with homosexuality, the choices seem to be a little bit more mutually exclusive. If you are Mormon and you choose to live your religion, you are sacrificing the ability to have a romantic relationship with a same-sex partner. If you choose a same-sex partner, you are sacrificing the ability to have a biological family with the one you love. And so on. No matter what path you choose, if you are gay you are giving up something basic, and sometimes various things that are very basic. I chose not to “live the gay lifestyle,” as it were, because I found that what I would have to give up to do so wasn’t worth the sacrifice for me.