It’s funny that with Florida making the United States roughly 70% legally accepting of same-sex marriages, something like TLC’s My Husband’s Not Gay would make the news.
So what is My Husband’s Not Gay? It’s a special airing on TLC that feature four Mormon men who are attracted to men but don’t identify as gay and their wives. The show focuses on the fact that the men don’t identify as gay because Mormonism doesn’t accept homosexuality as legitimate. In short, the men are choosing to live as “straight.”
GLAAD is not happy about the show at all. In fact, more than 70,000 have petitioned for its removal from the network on Change.org.
The petition was created by Josh Sanders, a gay Christian man who had been exposed to “reparative therapy” or “conversion therapy” to supposedly remove his homosexuality and make him straight, a practice that modern psychology is strongly against . Sanders states in the petition that the show “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 went on to discuss his experience with reparative therapy, writing, “I was promised I could change, and told that I should ‘pray the gay away.’ In the end, the only thing that this so-called ‘therapy’ did was stoke a growing despair that maybe my life wasn’t worth living.”
GLAD CEO and president Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, “This show is downright irresponsible. 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.” Sanders seems to agree with Ellis, writing, “TLC is presenting [the participants’] lives as entertainment, and sending the dangerous message that being gay is something that can be and ought to be changed.”
Just from a viewership standpoint, TLC, aka The Learning Channel, has become less about “learning” and more about absolute exploitation, particularly with shows like Toddlers and Tiaras and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. Personally, I know I won’t be watching it.
What do you think about My Husband’s Not Gay? Give your opinions in the comments section below.