Mormon Couples Much More Likely To Divorce If Man Is Gay, Study Finds

A new, extensive study reveals that when gay Mormon men marry women, the marriage will likely end in divorce.

A new study of over 1600 gay Mormon men finds that “mixed-orientation” marriages – a gay man married to a straight woman – are between two and three times more likely to end in divorce. 

The study also found that a staggering 80 percent of the men had tried “ex-gay” or “reparative” therapy, but only six percent ultimately “rejected their LGBT identity,” the Salt Lake Tribune reports. More than half rejected their religious identity, and just four percent felt they were able to integrate being gay and Mormon.

The survey also concluded that many more LDS gays try “personal righteousness” efforts — prayer, fasting, church activity, temple worship and strict observance of the LDS health code — as a way to change their orientation than those who seek psychological interventions such as the discredited “reparative therapy.”

None of it worked, Dehlin says. “Zero percent of participants were able to eliminate same-sex attraction.” And they were psychologically damaged by trying.

The study, conducted by three researchers including a retired Brigham Young University professor, found that “the more Mormon and the more same-sex attracted a person is (on the Kinsey scale), the more prone that person is to depression and suicide.”

 

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