Men mormon missionary gay journal experiences

He is seated in the exam room next to his husband, Tom. Sam and Tom recently moved to my state, and for the first time both members of a same-sex couple are seeing me as their physician. I pause. I scramble to compress years of personal struggle, confusion, and frustration into a response. How do I handle this potential landmine in our first visit? The conflict within my faith community over homosexuality is complex.

The law of chastity of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints LDS Church states that "sexual relations are proper only between a man and a woman who are legally and lawfully wedded as husband and wife. Homosexuality-related violations of the law of chastity may result in church discipline. Members of the church who experience homosexual attractions, including those who self-identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual , may remain in good standing in the church if they abstain from sexual relations outside opposite-sex marriage. The LDS Church previously taught that homosexuality is a curable condition, [7] [8] but now states that "individuals do not choose to have such attractions. A recent article on a church website states that: "While shifts in sexuality can and do occur for some people, it is unethical to focus professional treatment on an assumption that a change in sexual orientation will or must occur.

With some 60 published stories and essays, Johnny Townsend is a prolific writer. And with a dozen of his short stories touching on the gay Mormon exprience, he has published more gay Mormon-themed fiction than anyone. Townsend, who lives in Seattle, often draws from his own experiences for his writing: he served an LDS mission in Italy in the early s.

But this influence is not entirely new. Local author Jed A. Bryan, a former teacher, was born in and grew up in the Tooele Valley southwest of Salt Lake City.