Anger over TLC’s ‘ex-gay’ Mormon reality show

Almost 90,000 people have signed a petition calling for the TLC network to cancel the show My Husband’s Not Gay.

The one hour reality special, set to screen in the US on Sunday, follows four Mormon men, married to women, who, according to the network, “don’t identify themselves as homosexual despite having an attraction to men.”

The man behind the petition, Josh Sanders, argues that My Husband’s Not Gay “promotes the false and dangerous idea that gay people can and should choose to be straight in order to be part of their faith communities.”

He explains that, “As a gay Christian man who’s seen first hand how this message can harm people, I am calling on TLC to cancel My Husband’s Not Gay and to stop telling America that LGBT people should lie to themselves and to their faith communities about who they are and who they love.”

The organisation Truth Wins Out has revealed that seven members of the cast of My Husband’s Not Gay “are deeply affiliated with North Star, a radical Mormon ‘ex-gay’ group.”

It also claims that Jeff Bennion, one of the stars of the show, has expressed support for the church’s’ pre-1978 policy of blocking black people from being ordained as Mormon priests and “has also written extensively in support of the deeply harmful practice of ‘ex-gay’ therapy.”

“TLC’s special is an advertisement for the fraudulent ‘ex-gay’ industry,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “While millions of Americans will react to this special with tongue-in-cheek scepticism, it’s highly irresponsible to propagate the false notion that people can and should choose between their sexuality and their faith, especially when impressionable, scared teenagers in conservative religious homes might be watching.

“Rejection by religious parents leads to depression and oftentimes suicide for LGBT youths, as we saw yet again in the tragic recent death of Leelah Alcorn. For the network to air this infomercial for junk science is unconscionable,” he added.

LGBT media advocacy group GLAAD has also condemned the show as “downright irresponsible.” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said: “No one can change who they love, and, more importantly, no one should have to. By investing in this dangerous programming, TLC is putting countless young LGBT people in harm’s way.”

Do you think a show like this should be aired? Watch a promo for the My Husband’s Not Gay below.