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Show 130 marrying, Spencer W. Kimball had confidence in the success and redemptive value of such marriages, a faith shared by many local authorities and LDS psychologists. For Bill Cloward, however, "Going home from my mission was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do because I knew I was going home to this girl who had waited two years for me, though I asked her not to." When Bill confided in his bishop about his homosexuality and misgivings over the impending nuptials, the bishop assured him that the feelings would pass and urged him to proceed with the marriage." Similarly, Wayne Hewitt's BYU therapist persuaded him that "everything would switch" ifhe married and had sex with his wife. In the meantime, the therapist prescribed a crash course in heterosexuality, advising Wayne to date a woman from his mission and engage in petting, which would transfer his feelings from male to female: Now in my mind, coming up from my mission, I thought, "I can't believe what I'm hearing!" I had never had sex with a woman, but I thought, "Well sure, let's give it a try" and I would take her out and get her all hot and bothered, but I couldn't go any further. It was my fault, she would have gone all the way, but I was gay." Wayne's situation presented a conflict between the LDS Church's positions on premarital purity and homosexuality. The same year Wayne's therapist recommended petting, Spencer W. Kimball unequivocally condemned it. In his February 1964 address "A Counseling Problem in the Church" Kimball explained that "young people need to know positively that petting is a sin. We need not tell you for you know well that fornication has its inception in the intimacies of the steady date and especially in the frequent and 89Cloward interview. 90Hewitt interview. |
