Josh Weed, famous married gay Mormon announces divorce, apology to LGBTQ community
CBS News 2, Utah/January 26, 2018
By Larry D. Curtis
Josh and Lolly Weed, viewed as proof, and used as an example, that a gay man and a straight woman can make a successful Mormon marriage, have announced their divorce. And in the same blog post where they announce their divorce, they offered an apology to the LGBTQ community.
"Today, we need to let you know that Lolly and I are divorcing," the blog said this week, after recounting the couple's accidental rise to the media spotlight when Josh Weed came out as a gay LDS man who was faithful to his church and married to a woman. They were in high demand to explain how they made the seemingly contradictory lifestyles work together.
The couple wrote, together and then individually in the same blog post on Thursday, that they came to understand over time that their deep platonic love was not a substitute for romantic love and that such a relationship is vital to everyone's happiness.
Lolly Weed wrote:
"And that is what human beings need to be healthy. All of us. Romantic attachment. It’s one of the main purposes of life!"
They explain at length how they came to the realization. Josh Weed said three factors led him to believe this was the case.
- Love for the LGBTQ populatio
- Love for himself as a gay perso
- The death of his mother
The couple rise to notoriety came about because of a blog post -- that can no longer be found on JoshWeed.com -- that, according to Josh, led them to be "featured on shows and newspapers around the globe." That included a story on Nightline.
Josh works in his private practice as a licensed marriage and family therapist. Included with the announcement and explanation about the couple's divorce was an apology to the LGBTQ community. Among the specific things the Weeds apologies for are:
- We’re sorry, so incredibly sorry, for the ways our post has been used to bully others.
- And we’re sorry if our story made it easier for people in your life to reject you and your difficult path as being wrong.
- We’re sorry to any gay Mormon who received criticism, backlash, or hatred as a result of our story.
- We’re sorry to anybody who felt a measure of false peace because of our story.
- We’re sorry to any LGBTQIA person who was given false hope by our story
Josh Weed also wrote that his stance on homosexuality, that once alighned with that of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had changed.
"I have spent my entire life conforming to every standard of the LDS faith because I believed it was what God wanted me to do.
"I believed this because every mentor, every exemplar, every religious teacher, every therapist, every leader I ever grew up listening to and trusting told me that that was the only way I could return to live with God. There was an emphasis on “perfect obedience” and yet, over the course of my lifetime, the list of things said by these trusted leaders about my sexual orientation was profoundly inconsistent and confusing."
Josh Weed listed a number of those things, which included:
- My sexual orientation wasn’t real
- My sexual orientation was evil
- My sexual orientation was an abomination
- My sexual orientation was tantamount to bestiality and just shy of murder
- My sexual orientation could change in this life if I had enough faith
- My sexual orientation was a “trial” to bear
- My sexual orientation maybe couldn’t change in this life after all
- My sexual orientation could be managed with faith
- My sexual orientation could be endured
Lolly Weed also wrote that many of her friends and community expressed to her, upon learning of the divorce, empathized with her and say she deserved the romantic connection, but few felt that empathy for her husband.
The blog post says the couple and their children will continue to be close and will continue to love each other.
"We can continue to be the family we have always been, and we can add to that family," they wrote.
Weed emailed KUTV this statement: "In posting, we hoped to let those who followed our story five years ago know the reality of our situation. We also wanted to apologize to the LGBTQIA community and to anybody who was hurt by our story over the last five years.
Thanks so much!
Josh"
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