Thursday, February 8, 2018

I Have Not Chosen to Be Celibate

The following exchange happened in a professional meeting with more than a dozen people in attendance.

Steve: (referring to something from the 1980s) “Sorry, I’m really dating myself here.”
Me: “Steve?! You’re a gay Mormon, too?! Because the only person I’m allowed to date is myself.”
Everyone else in the room (including Steve): (impressed with my zinger) “Wow!”

When other Mormons learn that I’m gay, active in the church, and not pursuing a relationship with a woman I often get asked, “So you’ve chosen to be celibate?” I’ve been asked this and similar questions many dozens of times. I assume it stems from the three possible paths we typically think are available to gay Mormons: find an opposite-sex partner and stay in the church, leave the church and find a same-sex partner, or stay in the church and be celibate. The question doesn’t really annoy me because people are just trying to figure me out. However, asking me if I’ve chosen to be celibate is reductive and inaccurate.  

Asking if I’m going to be celibate makes it seem as if my life choices revolve around whether or not I’m going to have sex. Imagine someone excitedly announcing their engagement to you and you respond, “Congratulations! So you’ve decided to have sex?” Kind of silly, huh? In this situation, the typical response is to be thrilled that this person has found their life companion with no mention of their sex life. We might even buy them a pillow with embroidered letters that read, “I MARRIED MY BEST FRIEND.” For some reason, though, my life choices are often boiled down to whether or not I’m planning on having sex.

Somehow this is the level of discourse we’ve arrived at when discussing what the life of an active, gay Mormon looks like. So I’d like to offer some alternatives. Here are some questions you could ask instead of asking your single, gay Mormon friends if they are going to be celibate:

“What are your plans for the future?”
“What do you want your life to look like?”
“How can I help you thrive on the path you’ve chosen?”
“Man, you must be so sad and lonely all the time, right?”

Okay, that last one is just a joke. I’m perfectly happy and willing to talk about my future and what I think it will look like within Mormonism. But celibacy has never been part of my life decisions. I fully admit and understand that no sex is what my future will look like if I plan to move forward in the church, but at no point was sex any part of the equation for me.

Gay Mormons have to make sacrifices, no matter what we choose. Unfortunately, we are regularly shamed for whichever choice we make. “Oh, you chose to leave the church and break your covenants, did you?” “I see, you’re a victim of patriarchy and you’re allowing your church to force you into an inauthentic relationship.” “No sex, huh? I couldn’t live like that. It’s only a matter of time before you change your mind.” So yes, celibacy is part of the package of the life I have chosen, but it is not the main part of the package, nor is sex the thing I feel like I’m giving up.

Here’s the sacrifice I feel like I’m making. My mom has Alzheimer’s and her memory is getting
My parents and I over Christmas
pretty bad. It’s been extremely stressful on my dad, and the amount of time we spend searching for things she has misplaced is astronomical. I wrote this in my journal when I was visiting my parents over Christmas. “This evening has been tough. Dad asked me to help him learn how to use mom’s phone, but it’s been put on some weird settings that I don’t know how to fix. Then we tried to use her computer, but the mouse was missing. Mom started searching the house not sure what she was looking for. Dad finally just hugged her, told her he loved her, and that she didn’t have to search anymore… Tonight I wished I had a partner. Not because I was lonely or sad, but because I wished I had someone to talk to about all this.”

I remember sitting in my parents’ rec room alone that night just yearning for a partner. Watching my parents’ decline is tough, and it’s tougher to do it alone. My mom was getting stressed as she searched the house not even knowing what she was looking for. It was so tender to see my dad’s response to her stress. He just hugged her and told her he loved her. I needed someone to do that for me in that moment. I know that I have plenty of friends who I could have called to talk to, but in that moment I didn’t need a friend—I needed a partner. I sat there feeling sorry for myself for a few minutes, and then I called my sister because she’s the closest thing I have to a partner.

My sister and I decided to make a Christmas card this year
That is what I’m sacrificing. I’m not choosing to be celibate, and I’m not choosing to give up sex. I’m choosing to live life without a partner. I’m not saying that so that you’ll pity me, and I’m not complaining either. I’m just explaining my reality and the choices I’m making. And I have made these choices based on what feels right to me in my mind and in my heart.

Steve, a straight Mormon and my friend, told me after the meeting that my “perfectly timed and delivered” riposte (his words) had brought him a step closer to beginning to understand what my life’s choices meant. So if Steve ever asks about my dating life he'll just get to hear me talk about myself.

Yes, I’m giving up a lot by deciding to move forward in the church, but there is also a lot I’m gaining. I’ve already addressed this topic in this post and this post. I fully expect to be asked about my celibacy many times in the coming years and that’s fine, but there are so many better things you could ask me about. Ask about my participation in church. Ask about my work in the temple. Ask about my home teaching (okay, don’t ask about that one). Ask about what I’m studying in the scriptures and the insights I’ve gained (which is actually one of my favorite topics of conversation). Ask how I’m reaching out to the people around me. Ask about my job and my studies and my family. And if you really, really, really want to know how much sex I’m currently having and plan to have in the future, fine, ask about that, too.