Tuesday, February 10, 2009

My struggle.

So I am mormon gay and in the closet. as you can imagine I have a lot of conflicting feelings. I love the church and its teachings, if I don't read my scriptures I feel empty, there is no other church like it. what I want is to marry another wonderful gay mormon and raise a family. I would not have sex till I am married to that man, however the church does not recognize gay marriage as marriage. and sex outside of marriage would result in excommunication. and if I was excommunicated I would not be able to go to the temple I would lose the priesthood and I would not make it to the celestial kingdom (the highest degree of heaven) I would be denied the presence of God and I would not be able to create my own world with my spouse like heavenly father has done with our world. one would have to deny that the church was true knowing that it is true to go to outerdarkness (more commonly known as hell) a place with only your regrets for company not a place of fire and brimstone. so marrying a man and having intercourse with him would not sentence me to hell. what is so hard with my position is that I am not sure if the churches position on gay marriage is right or wrong, they've been wrong about things before, denying blacks the priesthood and the practice of polygamy. but is the churches position on gay marriage one of those mistakes? I go back and forth on that issue never sure either way. with the other beliefs of the church I have known them to be right. I know with every fiber of my being that the church is true, but I don't know that with gay marriage. sometimes I think that I will be able to get married to a woman and raise a family, I am not repulsed by the thought of being with a woman but I am not attracted to them either. I try thinking sexual thoughts about women hoping that I will be aroused, but it doesn't work like when I think about men.
Another confusing thing is when I was little even though I liked wearing dresses pretending to be a princess and playing with barbies I do remember that barbie was very attractive, I even had Ken and barbie get naked together until my parents saw what I was doing and explained that I shouldn't do that. but at puberty at about age 12 I started noticing hot guys more and more, and liked looking at them very much (discreetly of course). so sometimes I wonder if I could go through gay therapy or something and be "turned straight." but I really want to be with a man and not a woman. and then I have fears that if I come out and look for a man that I will not be able to find that handsome good gay mormon boy who has similar interests, when I think of marrying a woman I don't have those fears, I'm sure there are a million mormon women who want to learn ballroom dancing and watch Masterpiece theatre.
There are several things that I hate about being in the closet when I am telling my friends about a guy who is good looking and they ask me what he looks like I want to say "He's Hot!" but I can say nothing of the sort, also it feels weird to call a girl hot, unless its a supermodel wearing practically nothing. It feels more natural to call a beautiful woman pretty or beautiful. there are many other things that I would like to do and say that I cannot.
I have heard of a group of mormons who are gay and lesbian that meet together for church in San Francisco, but I have looked for them online and not found them. if I was to come out I would go there. Now let me clarify that I love the leaders of the church and they do not hate homosexuals. the leaders of the church I do not think have thought much about gay marriage. before I knew I was gay I did not think much about it. Practicing homosexuality even if those involved were faithful to each other was just wrong and that was it.
I have looked in the bible and conference talks and discussions with the apostles and they don't give any really good reasons for denying gays marriage. if there was a good reason for homosexuality being wrong then I would remain selabet or find a way to get married with a woman. but in the bible it says those who practice homosexuality "shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them" ( leviticus 20:13), I know that God does not want homosexuals put to death and neither do the Church leaders. and I read this interview with one of the Apostles and one of the 70, but the interviewer asked easy questions and in my opinion when asked about polygamy he did not really answer the question and he never said that polygamy was ever wrong he said that it was a duty and that now the duty has been lifted ( here's the link for that interview http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/public-issues/same-gender-attraction ).
Since I don't have anyone I can tell this to the web is my outlet, writing this has helped me so much, getting it out of my head and on paper so to speak has helped me a lot I would appreciate comments that way I know that someone knows what I am going through. thanks!

6 comments:

  1. Garet,
    I am sure that as you have seen online, there are many gay mormon guys. Everyone takes time to realize and process and find out what is going to work for them. Many are closeted and will remain their forever.
    I grew up in the church, served a mission, married in the temple, and have 2 beautiful children. Reflecting back now, I wish I would have dealt with my issues much earlier than I did. I kept taking steps in my life hoping that my feelings would change and go away. It hit a point in my life where I couldnt look at myself in the mirror and was ashamed at who I was, what I had done, and the situation that I had created. I spent several years in counseling "working on it" and finally decided that the feelings that I had were innate and accepted who I was. I ended my marriage, I was excommunicated, and I am now happy.
    I have found a wonderful companion whom I married last October. While I do struggle with the situation that I caused for my ex- wife I look back and wish that I would have done something sooner. You have a right to be happy. One time while in my early stages of counseling, I remember the counselor who told me that I would never be happy being gay. He said that I knew too much and that gays die old and lonely.
    I can say that now I am content with who I am and also have a family that accepts me. You would and will be surprised when people find out that you are gay, that its not that big of a deal. I have close friends that I even served missions with that are still close to me even knowing that I am gay. Be true to yourself and only you will determine what makes you happy. rockygonzalez@yahoo.com

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  2. You know you are a child of God. You know what he REALLY wants you to do! Pray about it! PRAY! You know in your heart what is right! I can tell that you have a testimony! Families are the center of the Gospel, and of the world! Two men cannot have children on their own! Man is not complete without the woman. Many people struggle with the temptation of same sex attraction. But many people struggle with the temptation of drug and alcohol abuse as well. They are things that can be worked out with the Lord! Good luck to you and your future.

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  3. So, I am a mormon and I to have a testimony of the church... however, I am a lesbian. And I have prayed about what to do, what God would want me to do. I have to admit I did struggle with my sexuality all through high school and most of college, it wasn't until about last year did I come to peace with it. For me it was about the freedom to love and I truly don't believe that God will punish anyone who brings more love into the world, we have so much hate already in the world. But, just be true to who you really are. Don't let anyone tell you what will make you happy only you can decide that. catherinejosmith@gmail.com

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  4. You are not alone. Whatever you decide, there are many others out there who support, many of whom are or were members of the church at one time. If you haven't found them yet, I recommend checking out the following to blogs. They link to a lot of other MoHo (gay mormon) blogs and can be a great resource:

    http://mormon-enigma.blogspot.com/
    http://mormoninthecloset.blogspot.com/

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  5. So, my comment is kind of late, but I felt the need to share my feelings on this. I'm a straight teenage girl, who just became Mormon a few months ago. Before I converted, I always supported gays and lesbians, because that's just how I felt. But after I joined, I was wondering if I should change that. But, I decided I'm not going to. Because, now I see that there are Mormons who are gay, and definitely deserve their happiness. And I think our leaders want us to be married to the opposite sex to reproduce. But I think Heavenly Father made gays/lesbians for the children whose parents run out on them and need someone to adopt them. And like you said, you want a family one day. So adopt as many kids as you want, cause I can only imagine how good of a parent you'll be! :)

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    1. I couldn't agree more, thanks for your comment. I only just recently saw your comment because when you posted it I was on my mission. recently when I got back from my mission I forgot the email I used for this blog so I started a new one, this is it memoirsofagaymormon.blogspot.com comments are appreciated. they help me know how my blog is being received and if it is helping people. :-)

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