Joshua Johanson, married, one son. Lives in San Diego. Wrote “Gay Mormons? Latter-day Saint Experiences of Same-Gender Attraction.”

He discussed the difference between having homosexual desire and having SSA.

He was never attracted to girls until Alyssa, his wife.

He was married in the Oakland temple, currently has a sexually fulfilling relationship.
Compared the feminist movement to the gay rights movement – “the gay rights no more represents me than the feminist movement represents my wife.”

We make our own sexual choices – they are not predetermined by birth.

Just because somebody is gay does not mean they need a same-sex relationship. Study – most men with SSA – 60 percent – have never acted upon it. People who identify as gay have had gay sex. The silent majority do not identify as gay and have not had gay sex. This may be one reason why our church leaders warn us about identifying as gay. We may not choose our attractions, but we do choose our behaviors.
Pres. Kimball says homosexual behavior can be changed. Pres. Kimball says we can overcome this tendency, just as we can overcome the urge for fornication. Straight men overcome through the atonement of Jesus Christ, the same applies to people with SSA. There is a difference between having SSA and desiring gay sex. Our desires are up to us.
Continue reading →

M* will be liveblogging the FAIR Conference, which will be held Aug. 2 and 3 in Sandy, Utah. FAIR is expecting more than 300 attendees, a new record. The conference will start Thursday at 9 a.m. Mountain Time. The first reports from the FAIR conference should start appearing around 10 a.m. on Thursday.

Thanks to Mike Parker and Michael Ash for these thoughts, which should be attributed to them. I thought they were worth sharing.

In Alma 39, Alma talks to his son Corianton and admoninishes him that he has committed “abominable” sins.

We normally think that his primary sin is sexual sin, but in fact if we read Alma 39 carefully, it is mostly about something else: destroying the testimony of other people.

Continue reading →

Some of your humble M* servants will be in Orem, Utah on July 31. We would love some regular M* readers to come to a meet and greet pot luck. This will be held in a private home, so please e-mail me at geoff@millennialstar.org and I will send you the address and time.

I know this is juvenile, but I simply was astounded at the Mormon history of these celebs. Did you know that Ryan Gosling grew up in a Mormon family? Did you know Aaron Eckhart went on a mission?

Well, I didn’t, and I follow the lives of celebrities quite closely. (That is sarcasm — just the other day I had to ask my teenage daughter who Kim Kardashian is). Anyway, here’s a fun look at celebrities with a Mormon background.