Why TLC’s ‘My Hband’s Not Gay’ Is Worth Watchg – ThkProgrs

Contents:

• MY HBAND'S NOT GAY
• EP 19. MY HBAND'S NOT GAY
• WHY TLC’S ‘MY HBAND’S NOT GAY’ IS WORTH WATCHG
• WTF? TLC'S NEW SPECIAL MY HBAND'S NOT GAY IS EVEN WEIRR THAN IT SOUNDS: WATCH NOW
• MY HBAND'S NOT GAY: PILOT

MY HBAND'S NOT GAY

'My Hband's Not Gay' is an episo that featur four Mormon men who have the unique or unual sire to live a heterosexual liftyle; however, they claim that they are attracted to men. The men refer to themselv as "SSA" or "same-sex attracted, " not gay, and believe that they are not vlatg their fah by ntug to live wh their wiv.

The men exprs their beliefs and share their feelgs on how they have always known they were attracted to men, but they do not see themselv as homosexual. The men explore why they want to have straight, tradnal marriag stead of livg openly as gay men.

Addnally, a group of gay men who promote the ia of livg an openly gay liftyle is shown havg a discsn on why society tends to stigmatize people who have non-tradnal liftyl. When TLC announced would air a one-hour special lled My Hband’s Not Gay about Mormon men wh same-sex attractns who pursue relatnships wh women, the LGBT muny was unrstandably upset.

EP 19. MY HBAND'S NOT GAY

Over 75, 000 signed a petn llg on the work to ncel the show bee “promot the false and dangero ia that gay people n and should choose to be straight orr to be part of their fah muni. But My Hband’s Not Gay is not a puff piece profile or some one-sid documentary wh propaganda tents; ’s a realy TV show, and so rarely are the subjects of realy shown a flatterg light. In the special, Jeff’s wife Tanya has fully embraced this wordplay, explag, “It’s not gay, ’s SSA.

WHY TLC’S ‘MY HBAND’S NOT GAY’ IS WORTH WATCHG

” Pret siarly ttifi, “I thought I was gay… I thought the feelgs fed me. There’s no difference between “same-sex attracted” and “gay, ” and the men are gay. ” The upl scribe the word “gay” as a “liftyle choice” and “not real accurate” to scribe the men, bee they believe means havg relatnships wh other men.

If anythg, My Hband’s Not Gay prov the exact oppose. They check out the guys they play basketball wh (who they sist be “sks” stead of “shirts”); they check out the waer at the rtrant; they check out other gay guys they know at the fashn boutique. The men are gay.

WTF? TLC'S NEW SPECIAL MY HBAND'S NOT GAY IS EVEN WEIRR THAN IT SOUNDS: WATCH NOW

From the moment they wake up the morng until the moment they kiss their wiv goodnight, they see the world through a homosexual lens that impacts how they teract wh every person they enunter. Ex-Gay Therapy Don’t Work. The special do not ever mentn ex-gay therapy; after all, the men openly acknowledge that they “have SSA.

” But several of the men talk about their past work wh the SSA muny, and sure enough, that work actually clus open advocy for ex-gay therapy. In fact, as Media Matters disvered, both Pret Dahlgren and Jeff Bennn have openly spoken on behalf of North Star Internatnal, a mistry for SSA Mormons that promot ex-gay therapy. Dahlgren is actually the former chairman of Evergreen Internatnal, a Mormon ex-gay anizatn that shut down and was fold to North Star last year.

His wife Megan has siarly promoted ex-gay therapy for var anizatns. Bennn intifi himself as a -founr of North Star, and he has wrten que publicly fense of ex-gay therapy.

MY HBAND'S NOT GAY: PILOT

In 2013, he wrote an op-ed the New York Post fendg JONAH, a Jewish ex-gay mistry that had been sued by several patients unr nsumer-d laws. ) Bennn ld sexual orientatn change efforts (SOCE) as part of his own therapy, “all aimed at helpg me better manage my homosexual attractns wh the ntext of my value system. ” When the state of Utah was fightg marriage equaly the urts, specifilly highlighted Voic of Hope as evince that “some gays and lbians have chosen to exercise their fundamental right to marry a person of the oppose sex, ” th jtifyg limg the tegory of marriage to man-woman relatnships.

That TLC ma no mentn of the fact that all three of the married upl have nnectns to pro-ex-gay therapy anizatn certaly adds to any crique of the work’s handlg of this subject, but at the same time, this knowledge adds to the show’s backfire. Even when they promote ex-gay therapy, they acknowledge that they still have SSA, i. E., that they’re still gay.

Bennn’s scriptn of how SOCE helped him marry a woman uld easily be paraphrased as such: SOCE helped him bury all the anguish he was tght to feel about beg gay so that he uld endure a forced relatnship wh a woman — while still havg sleepovers and takg mpg trips wh men.