Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Cross-Posting
(which is a lot like cross-pollination, or so I hear)

Yesterday I guest-posted on Northern Lights a Call for Questions and Interviewees for a series of interviews with straight spouses of gay people I'm hoping to guest-post over there. It occurred to me that I'm likely to reach a different group of people by soliciting help here as well, so here I am. Here is what I need:
  1. Interesting, insightful, and respectful questions to include in the interviews. What do you want to know about straight people who marry gay people?
  2. Interviewees. The implied focus of the interviews at NL is straight and faithfully Mormon people who are currently married to gay people, simply because that's the nature and scope of the blog, but if there are any straight people who are not (currently or ever) Mormon and/or who are no longer married to gay people, I'd love to interview you as well and post it in another venue (perhaps here?). So if you fit any of these categories and are willing to be interviewed (either anonymously or nomynously), comment here or email me at bgchristensen (at) gmail (dot) com.

The idea of these interviews, both in the public and personal spheres, is to shed light on an oft-discussed issue from the perspective of people who don't seem to be quite so oft-discussed.

Thanks much for your input.

1 comment:

Rebecca said...

These questions aren't really interesting (except to me), and certainly not insightful, but they are, you know, questions...

I'd really like to know what expectations the straight spouses had going into the marriage - about sex, emotional intimacy, just the relationship in general - and how/if what they expected is different from the reality.

Also, what were their thoughts about homosexuality (whether or not it's a choice, a sin, etc) before the marriage? Have their views changed?

Did any of the straight spouses marry simply for companionship rather than a romantic kind of relationship? If so, how do they feel about that choice - did they discover, after the fact, that they wanted "more" from a relationship than companionship/friendship?

Do they ever wonder if they've made a huge mistake?

Really, honestly, were any of the straight spouses secretly relieved because they thought no one would ever be interested in marrying them? (this isn't meant to be disrespectful - I had a gay friend once comment that a woman would have to have REALLY low self-esteem to marry a gay man, and I've wondered about that ever since).

I wonder if there are differences in the relationships between gay men/straight women and gay women/straight men, and I'd like to know more about that - like, are there different motivations for marrying depending on if they straight spouses are male or female (excluding the obvious motivation: love)?

Do they think they're more worried about their spouses straying than people in straight/straight relationships?

Those are all the questions I can think of. Right now.